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A quick note before you read on

I'm going to be upfront with you: my name isn't actually Sarah, and I've changed the children's names too. I decided to protect our identities after getting some advice — the kids are small, and it's really not their choice to be written about on the internet. Everything else you'll read here is completely true. I just didn't want anyone to feel deceived.

The photo above was also created with AI — though honestly, it does look surprisingly like me, which I find slightly uncanny!

Where this all started

When my daughter Ella was first flagged for assessment, I did what most parents do: I went online. I searched for the best sensory tools, the most-recommended products, the things that would actually help her. And I found plenty of websites with lists and glowing write-ups.

The problem was, once I started actually buying things, almost none of it worked the way I'd hoped. The ear defenders that were supposedly the best didn't stay on her head. The weighted blanket that had five stars everywhere was too scratchy for her. The fidget toys collected in a drawer after two days. I returned things, tried things, spent money I didn't have to spare on products that sat unused.

It took me a while to work out why. The reviews I'd read weren't written by parents of sensory kids. They were written by people who'd read the product descriptions. The sites looked trustworthy, but the actual lived experience — what it's like to try to get a sensory-seeking 5-year-old to accept something on their head in a supermarket car park — was nowhere to be found.

That's why I built Sensory Sorted.

"I wanted something that felt like a recommendation from another parent who'd actually been through it. Not a top ten list written by someone who'd never had a meltdown in a Tesco car park."

— Sarah M., founder of Sensory Sorted

My children

I have two kids, and between them they've taught me more about sensory needs than I ever could have learned any other way.

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Ella, age 7

Ella has autism and sensory processing disorder. She's hypersensitive to noise and touch, which means the world is often just too much — too loud, too bright, too scratchy, too unpredictable. She's also the most perceptive, tender-hearted child I've ever met. Getting the right tools for her has been a journey of patience and a lot of trial and error.

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Jude, age 9

Jude has ADHD and is a sensory seeker in almost every direction at once. Where Ella is overwhelmed by input, Jude craves it — he needs movement, pressure, stimulation. His needs are completely different from his sister's, which means I've had to learn to think about sensory differences from both ends of the spectrum at the same time.

Both children have changed how I see the world. I've spent years working out what helps each of them — and part of what I try to bring to Sensory Sorted is the understanding that sensory kids aren't all the same. The same product can be a lifeline for one child and completely wrong for another.

A note on what I am — and what I'm not

I want to be really clear about this. I am not an occupational therapist, a psychologist, or any kind of healthcare professional. I have no clinical training at all. I'm just a mum who's been doing this for years.

Everything on this site is my personal experience and opinion, not professional advice. If you have serious concerns about your child's sensory needs, please speak to your GP about a referral to an occupational therapist. An OT can properly assess your child and give you tailored, professional guidance that I simply can't.

What I can offer is honest, experience-based reviews from a parent who has genuinely tried these things. I know what it's like to wonder if a product will be worth the money. I know what it's like to order something with high hopes and have it rejected immediately. I know what it's like when something finally works.

That's what this site is built on.

Something else you should know: I have ADHD too

My children didn't come from nowhere. I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult — once the kids started going through their assessments, actually, and I kept recognising myself in everything I was reading. It explained quite a lot about my own life, including quite a lot I'd put down to just being a bit chaotic.

It means I have a personal understanding of what it's like to feel dysregulated, to struggle with noise and distraction, to need to move or fidget just to think clearly. It also means I hold myself to an honest standard on this site — I know what a genuinely useful fidget tool feels like, because I reach for one myself. I know that some things help and some things don't, and that "quiet" looks different for everyone.

How Sensory Sorted works

Every review on this site is researched and written by me. I check what I write against guidance from organisations like the National Autistic Society, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, and NHS resources, and I try to think about the full range of sensory needs — not just the avoiding end, but seeking too, because those families are just as underserved.

I use affiliate links to Amazon. This means that if you click through and buy something, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. That's how I fund the time it takes to research and write everything here. But it never influences what I recommend — I list products I genuinely believe in, and I include honest cons for every single one. If something isn't good enough, it doesn't make the list, regardless of the commission.

A word on this community

One of the things that has surprised me most about running this site is the messages I get from parents who are in exactly the position I was when I started — overwhelmed, underprepared, and just trying to make their child's world a little bit more manageable. That solidarity means a lot to me.

If you want to get in touch — whether it's to share a product recommendation, ask a question, or just say hello — you can reach me at hello@sensorysorted.co.uk. I read every message, though I can't always reply as quickly as I'd like.

Thank you for being here. I hope this site saves you some of the time, money, and heartache I spent figuring all of this out.