What is Sensory Processing?

Sensory Processing – or Integration as it is also known – is the correct registration, and accurate interpretation of sensory input from the environment and our own internal sensations.  It is the way the brain receives, organizes and responds to sensory input in order to behave in a meaningful, appropriate & consistent manner. We have all experienced at times feelings of being overwhelmed, over stressed, or over stimulated.   While these experiences may be understandable given a certain situation, there are people who experience these uncomfortable emotions on a regular basis.  Children who have difficulty processing sensory information have what is known as Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and may struggle on a daily basis.

Why is sensory processing/integration important?

The sensory system is made up of millions of sensory receptors, nerve tracks, chemical reactions, brain relays, and electrical signals.   Sensory processing is the process in which sensations (both internal and external) are registered by the nervous system, transmitted to the brain, interpreted by the brain, and then the brain giving the instructions how the body should react.   These stimuli can affect our emotions, our reactions, our ability to self-regulate, and give us input regarding our body needs, such as hunger and fatigue.  Our bodies must make sense of all these simultaneous stimuli in order to function effectively in our world.

What are your senses?

We typically think of the 5 senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, but there are also 2 internal senses: proprioceptive and vestibular.

When does our sensory system start processing information?

Our sensory system starts to develop as soon as we begin to form in the uterus. As our nervous system forms, so do our sensory systems.  In the uterus, a fetus is already being exposed to touch, taste, and sounds.  As a mother moves, or strokes her belly, the pressure inside the uterus is translated as touch.  The fetus experiences sound, as they can hear the mother’s heartbeat and sounds outside the uterus, such as familiar voices in their environment. Additionally, what the mother eats and drinks can change the chemical makeup of the fluid a fetus is bathed in, which helps to develop the sense of taste.    

A newborn is able to see, hear and sense their body but is unable to organize these senses well; therefore, this information means very little. They are unable to judge distances or feel the shape of one object versus another. As the child is exposed to various sensory inputs, they gradually learn to organize them within their brain and are able to give meaning to them. They become better able to focus on one sensation and, as a result, performance improves. Their movement changes from being jerky and clumsy to more refined, and they are able to manage multiple amounts of sensory input at one time. By organizing sensations, the child is able to modulate their response and as a result they seem to be more connected with the world and in control of their emotions.

As we’ve already discussed in “Why is early development important” and “Why is tummy time important”, the human body grows and develops through various sensory and environmental experiences even before we are born.  And just as each Developmental Milestone is interdependent on the next, so is the sensory system. The 7 sensory systems need to work together for effective sensory processing and are the building blocks to many other skills.

 

When children have effective sensory processing, appropriate responses to the environment around them occurs and is demonstrated by appropriate skill mastery, behavior, attention and self-regulation.  Children are able to sit and attend to the important pieces of information in a classroom and therefore have a good chance at achieving their academic potential. Furthermore, the child is able to understand their body’s movement in relation to their surroundings and themselves.  This allows for success in whole activities. This in turns aids the social development of the child.

IF YOU ARE CONCERNED, TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS AND DON’T WAIT – CALL TODAY

What is self-regulation?

Self-regulation is a person’s ability to adjust and control their energy level, emotions, volume, behaviors, and attention.  Appropriate self-regulation suggests that this control of themselves is conducted in ways that are socially acceptable.  The processes involved in self-regulation can be divided into three broad areas: sensory regulation, emotional regulation and cognitive regulation.

• Sensory Regulation: Allows children to maintain an appropriate level of alertness in order to respond appropriately across environments to the sensory stimuli present.
• Emotional Regulation: Allows children to respond to social rules with a range of emotions through initiating, inhibiting, or modulating their behavior in a given situation to ensure social acceptance.
• Cognitive Regulation: Allows children to use cognitive (mental) processes necessary for problem solving and related abilities in order to demonstrate attention and persistence to tasks.

 

Why is self-regulation important?

Self-regulation skills are linked to how well children manage daily tasks.  With good self-regulation skills, children are more able to manage difficult and stressful events that occur as part of life.  This helps to decrease the ongoing impact of stress that can contribute to mental health difficulties.  Furthermore, effective self-regulation is needed to socially function and be culturally accepted.

As a child learns to self-regulate, skills such as concentrating, sharing and taking turns also develop. This enables a child to move from depending on others to beginning to manage themselves. Most children at some stage will struggle to manage their feelings and behaviors, particularly when they are tired, hungry or facing new experiences. When this happens, they might become upset, sulky or angry. This is all part of being a young child and is not necessarily cause for concern. If, however this is problematic on a regular basis and there are seemingly little reasons for a child to be displaying such disturbing behaviors, this may become problematic in the development of academic and social skills.  

Self-regulation can be broken down to:

• Behavior: The actions of a person, usually in relation to their environment.
• Sensory processing: Accurate processing of sensory stimulation in the environment as well as in one’s own body.
• Emotional Development/regulation: Involving the ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to facilitate thought, understand emotions and to regulate emotions.
• Attention and Concentration: Sustained effort, doing activities

without distraction and being able to hold that effort long enough to get the task done.
• Executive Function: Higher order reasoning and thinking skills (e.g. what would mum want me to do in this situation?).
• Planning and sequencing: The sequential multi-step task or activity performance to achieve a well-defined result.
• Receptive Language: Comprehension of spoken language.
• Social skills: Are determined by the ability to engage in reciprocal interaction with others (either verbally or nonverbally), to compromise with others, and be able to recognize and follow social norms.
• Working memory: The ability to temporarily retain and manipulate information involved in language comprehension, reasoning, and learning new information.

YOUR CHILD MAY NEED SENSORY THERAPY IF YOU SEE DIFFICULTIES IN:

 

• Attention and concentration: Sustained effort, doing activities without distraction and being able to hold that effort long enough to get the task done.
• Behavior: The actions of a person, usually in relation to their environment.
• Body awareness: Knowing body parts and understanding the body’s movement in space in relation to other limbs and objects.
• Coordination: The ability to integrate multiple movements into efficient movement.
• Expressive language (using language): The use of language through speech, sign or alternative forms of communication to communicate wants, needs, thoughts and ideas.
• Play skills: Voluntary engagement in self-motivated activities that are normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment where the activities may be, but are not necessarily, goal oriented.
• Receptive language (understanding): Comprehension of language.
• Self-regulation: The ability to obtain, maintain and change one’s emotion, behavior, attention and activity level appropriate for a task or situation in a socially acceptable manner.
• Articulation: Clarity of speech sounds and spoken language.

 

Testing:  There are simple screening tools a therapist can use, combined with parental interview and therapist observations that in most cases will provide the information to determine if a child is experiencing sensory processing disorder.   However, if you are seeking a more comprehensive assessment, the Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT) is the only recognized validated test of sensory processing of children 4 – 9 years old and must be administered by a SIPT Certified Therapist. Therapy for sensory processing is a
complex approach that often involves the stimulation or desensitization of a child’s
senses in order to help organize the nervous system.

  Activities you can start with your child at home now:  Determine which area they are struggling with. 

Sensory diet to provide sensory feedback to the body to enable efficient sensory regulation

NOTE FROM THE OWNER:  I personally recommend the “Out of Sync Child” and the “Out of Sync Child has fun” by Carol Kranowitz.

Sensory Skills Checklist
If your child is not meeting the skills in the sensory checklist – GIVE US A CALL