Every person has his or her own unique way of processing and responding to different sensations. Our senses work together to give us information about the environment and our place in it. Vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste are the five senses most of us are familiar with. There are two additional internal sensations that we process: vestibular, information that our middle ear relays about movement and balance, and proprioceptive, information we receive from our muscles and joints about the position of our body in space. Once our brain registers sensory information from our body and surroundings, it interprets this information, organizes it and executes our response. For most of us this sensory integration occurs without conscious effort, although each one of us has our own sensory profile that determines sensory preferences and aversions. When the processing differences are extreme enough to interfere with everyday functioning, it is referred to as Sensory Processing Disorder.
Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), also known as Sensory Integration Dysfunction or Sensory Modulation Disorder, was first recognized by occupational therapist Dr. A. Jean Ayres in the 1950s. It causes an individual’s central nervous system to have difficulty understanding, organizing and integrating sensory information. SPD may occur on its own or in conjunction with another developmental disability; such as attention deficit, autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome and fragile X. SPD looks differently from person to person and its severity can vary with fatigue, stress and physical discomfort. It affects a child’s ability to regulate attention and behavior while experiencing different sensations. This impacts the child’s relationships, communication, learning, behavior and sense of safety.
There are three main sensory processing types: over-responsive, under-responsive and mixed. These refer to modulation or how the individual balances their reaction to match the situation. Children who are over-responsive experience certain sensations intensely, which triggers a fight or flight response. They react as if the situations are dangerous or painful and try to avoid them. They may pull away if someone touches them, demand that tags be removed from their clothing, become agitated if their hands get dirty, scream during hair washing or brushing, be picky eaters, gag on certain textures of food, complain about odors that others don’t notice, cover their ears if they hear a vacuum cleaner, be unable to tune out a ticking clock, feel overwhelmed when there is too much to look at, cover their eyes when it is too bright, be uncomfortable making eye contact, experience motion sickness, avoid movement activities like swings and slides. Children who are under-responsive have a low registration of sensory information, take longer to react, need higher levels of stimulation in order to respond to their environment and often seek stimulation. They may have a high pain tolerance, walk outside barefoot, constantly touch objects or people, bump or crash into things, chew on inedible objects, ignore unpleasant odors like dirty diapers, sniff things, have difficulty following verbal directions, speak loudly, miss visual cues, fixate on objects such as the reflection of the sun in a mirror, crave fast and spinning movement without getting dizzy, enjoy swinging and rocking, take excessive risks like climbing trees or jumping off tall furniture, be unable to sit still, move constantly. People with mixed reactivity may be over-responsive to certain types of sensory information and under-responsive to others.
If your child or a child you work with has signs of Sensory Processing Disorder, an occupational therapist who specializes in sensory integration can do a thorough assessment and prescribe sensory diet activities that the child’s nervous system is craving. Early intervention can help a child’s brain better process sensory information, enable all of the senses to work together, and improve the child’s ability to plan and implement what he or she needs to do.
Interested in learning more? Sensory Processing is one of the topics covered in the Autism Certificatation Program available online through Antioch University. For more information visit: http://antiochsbonline.coursehost.com
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