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From birth, a baby can see, hear, and sense their body but initially struggles to organize these senses effectively, making the information less meaningful. As they experience different sensory inputs, their brain learns to sort and attach meaning to these stimuli. Sensory processing allows them to concentrate on specific sensations, improving overall performance. As a result, their movements evolve from disjointed and awkward to more precise, enabling them to handle multiple sensory inputs. By organizing these sensations, children can better modulate their responses, becoming more engaged with their surroundings and in control of their emotions.
Efficient sensory processing allows children to develop suitable responses to their environments, exhibiting proper skill mastery, behavior, attention, and self-regulation (control over physical activities and emotional and cognitive reactions). These skills enable them to actively engage in a classroom setting and increase their chances of achieving academic success by understanding their body's movements in relation to their surroundings, which fosters success in whole-body (gross motor) activities.
Developing a connection with their body's movements in relation to their surroundings fosters success in whole-body (gross motor) activities. To develop this internal connection or interoception, they need to be able to feel safe, which starts with coregulation (LINK TO ANOTHER BLOG OR POLYVAGAL INSTITUTE)
This increased body awareness allows children to easily navigate their environment, participate in physical play and sports, and engage in social interactions with their peers. Additionally, as children gain mastery over their sensory processing skills, their visual sense becomes crucial in interpreting their surroundings. The visual system, which relies on the eyes to receive information about the contrast of light and dark, color, and movement, plays a vital role in understanding and interpreting what is seen. Many parents go to an eye doctor and are told their child’s “eye” works fine; this does not take into account how the brain interprets this signal. This field is called Developmental Optometry and can help you understand how the brain is or isn’t processing the signals from the eye. College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD)
When children can process information efficiently, they respond well to the environment around them. This is displayed through skill mastery, good behavior, concentration, and self-regulation (controlling their physical activity, emotions, and thoughts). In a classroom setting, this allows children to absorb important information and reach their full academic potential. They also gain a better understanding of how their body moves in relation to their surroundings and themselves. This success in gross motor activities helps support the child's social, emotional, and educational development.
It is critical to approach Sensory Integration from the body up rather than the top down. This will ensure long-term successful integration in a way that supports the child’s overall development and sense of themselves in the world rather than being asked to deal with the over-whelm through therapeutic suggestions that only mask the underlying issues.
What building blocks are necessary to develop efficient sensory processing/motor integration?
All the sensory systems need to work together for effective sensory processing. It is important to recognize that there are, in fact, 7 senses that make up the sensory system, and it is these sensory systems that process information as the building blocks to many other skills.
Visual sense is the ability to understand and interpret what is seen. The visual system uses the eyes to receive information about light and dark contrast, color, and movement. It detects visual input from the environment through light waves stimulating the retina.
Auditory Sense: is the ability to interpret information that is heard. The auditory system receives noise and sound information from the outer and middle ear. They receive information about volume, pitch, and rhythm. It is important for the refinement of sounds into meaningful syllables and words.
Taste Sense: is the ability to interpret information regarding taste in the mouth. It uses the tongue to receive taste sensations and detects the chemical makeup through the tongue to determine if the sensation is safe or harmful.
Olfactory Sense: is the ability to interpret smells. It uses the nose to receive information about the chemical makeup of particles in the air to determine if the smell is safe or harmful.
Tactile sense: the ability to interpret information coming into the body by the skin. It uses receptors in the skin to receive touch sensations like pressure, vibration, movement, temperature, and pain. It is the first sense to develop (in the womb), which is crucial for the overall neural organization. This is why some integration methods, RMTi Rhythmic Movement Training, also use touch intentionally.
Proprioceptive Sense: is the ability to interpret where your body parts are in relation to each other. It uses information from nerves and sheaths on the muscles and bones to inform about the position and movement of the body through muscles contracting, stretching, bending, straightening, pulling, and compressing.
Vestibular sense: the ability to interpret information relating to movement and balance. The vestibular system uses the semi-circular canals in the inner ear to receive information about movement, change of direction, change of head position, and gravitational pull. It receives information about how fast or slow we move, balance, movement from the neck, eyes and body, body position, and orientation in space.
Neuroception: these are the neural circuits that allow our bodies to register whether an environment is safe or dangerous. Unlike perception, which delivers cognitive insights through thoughts and sensory data, neuroception occurs outside conscious thought.
How can you tell if a child has problems with Sensory processing/integration difficulties?
If a child has difficulties with Sensory Processing, they might:
Have poor attention
Demonstrate inappropriate behavior
Being overly active or
Being very lethargic and lacking in speed of activity
Have difficulties in learning and retaining learning skills
Be unable to comfortably manage crowds or group settings
Show immature social skills
Suffer from heightened anxiety
How can you tell if my child has problems with sensory processing/integration?
If a child has difficulties with sensory processing, they might:
Show heightened reactivity to sound, touch, or movement.
Be under-reactive to certain sensations (e.g., not noticing their name being called, being touched, high pain threshold).
They appear lethargic/disinterested, mostly in their ‘own world’.
Have difficulty regulating their own behavioral and emotional responses, have increased tantrums, are emotionally reactive, need for control, have impulsive behaviors, and are easily frustrated or overly compliant.
Be easily distracted and show poor attention and concentration.
Have poor motor skills, appears clumsy, has immature coordination, balance and motor planning skills, and/or poor handwriting skills.
Have poor sleep patterns.
Display restricted eating habits or is a picky eater.
Become distressed during self-care tasks (e.g., hair-brushing, hair-washing, nail cutting, dressing, tying shoe laces, self-feeding).
Love movement; seeks out intense pressure (e.g., constant spinning, running around, jumping, crashing in objects/people).
Avoid movement-based equipment (e.g., swings, slides, etc).
Appear floppy or have ‘low muscle tone,’ tire easily, and is often slumped in postures.
Performs tasks with too much force, has big movements, moves too fast, writes too light or hard.
Have delayed communication and social skills, and it is hard to engage in two-way interactions.
Prefer to play on their own or have difficulty in knowing how to play with other children.
Have difficulty accepting changes in routine or transitioning between tasks.
Have difficulty engaging with peers and sustaining friendships.
When you see difficulties with sensory processing/motor integration, you might also see difficulties with:
Attention and concentration: Sustained effort, doing activities without distraction and holding that effort long enough to complete the task.
Behavior: A person's actions, 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.
What can be done to improve sensory processing/motor integration skills?
Education around the range of management strategies.
Mobility: Children need to create inter-hemispheric communication with movement and stacking skills to help reduce the significant sensory reactions causing additional stress.
Frequency, Intensity, and Duration: Continue giving them a Sensory rich environment if that’s what they require, or a calm, quiet place to reset if that is more appropriate for your child.
ILS Focus Program: This auditory program is designed to calm the nervous system and help integrate sensory challenges through sound, movement, and sound conduction.
Safe & Sound Program (SSP): Created by Dr. Stephen Porges to assist in sending safety cues to the nervous system through a 5-hour music program listened to over several weeks. Benefits can be found HERE.
The Wilbarger Protocol (Deep Pressure Proprioceptive Technique, sometimes known as the Brushing program) is a therapy program designed to reduce sensory or tactile defensiveness and assist with sensory regulation. The Wilbarger Protocol (Brushing) for Sensory Integration (nationalautismresources.com)
Rhythmic Movement Therapy (RMTi): Rhythmic Movement Training is a movement-based, primitive (infant or neo-natal) reflex integration program that uses developmental movements, gentle isometric pressure, and self-awareness to rebuild the foundations necessary to help overcome learning, sensory, emotional, and behavioral challenges for children and adults. Home - Rhythmic Movement
What activities can help improve sensory processing/motor integration skills?
A sensory diet (an individually tailored range of sensory-based activities performed regularly) provides sensory feedback to the body and enables efficient sensory regulation. These activities might include things such as:
Physical obstacle courses
Wheelbarrow walking
Animal walks
Trampolining
Cycling
Swings (forward and back, side to side, rotary)
Rough and tumble play/squishing or sandwiching with pillows or balls
Wearing a heavy backpack for play/walking
Weighted items (wheat bag on the lap while sitting or heavy blanket for sleep)
Chewy toys
Visual schedules enable a child to see and understand what is going to happen next. Schedules also help people to organize themselves and to plan ahead.
Visual Timers help with transitions by telling the child how long they need to perform an activity. Timers can allow us to pre-warn the child when a fun task is ending.
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