Description

The process of the brain organizing, processing and interpreting sensory information is referred to as sensory integration (SI). It provides the fundamental foundation for ongoing complex learning and behaviour. Sensory integration therapy is a specialised area of occupational therapy.

Sense of touch

Skin and hair receptors provide the tactile system with sensations of pressure, vibration, movement, pain and temperature.

Tactile input assists your child’s potential to learn by assisting the development of:

Body awareness

Emotional stability

Visual perception – the ability for the eyes to make an accurate interpretation of what they see.

Motor skills (movement)

Protective detector, with regards to temperature.

Proprioception

Sense receptors found in the muscles, joints and ligaments are called proprioceptors. They are sensitive to changes in muscle length, tension in the muscle tendons and pressure in the joints. The information

with which the proprioceptors provide the brain allows it to interpret where the limbs and body are in space, their position. It also provides a sense of movement through space (kinaesthetic sense).

This sense enables co-ordinated movement in the dark or when vision is occluded. It enables us to walk down stairs without having to look where our legs are in space.

Sense of vision

Our eyes contain approximately 70% of our sense receptors. They enable us to discriminate colour, shape and space and feed the brain the input necessary for visual perception. The latter is crucial to reading skills.

At school up to 80% of learning is acquired through this sense. Occupational therapists work in conjunction with optometrists who provide a full evaluation of eye function to determine if the eyes work together, can move and track words and focus without effort.

Sense of hearing

The outer, middle and inner ear are responsible for hearing and enhance auditory perception. This is the skill area speech and language therapists and audiologists. The inner ear plays a role in the sense of balance. This falls within the remit of an occupational therapist. 

 The Vestibular System

The vestibular apparatus are found in the inner ear. They play a crucial role in the regulation or development of:

·      muscle tone

·      posture

·      balance

·      level of activity

·      motor skills

·      eye movements (for      

·      reading)

·      emotional stability

·      spatial awareness

Sense of smell and taste

Both of these senses can aid learning through enhanced memory association and recall.

Do these symptoms sound familiar?Sensory development challenges -

·      Over or under reacts to touch, light, movement or touch. This means the child tends to avoid loud noises, withdraw from touch, cover their eyes when lights are bright and avoid active play. Or the child may crave sensory stimulation and be constantly on the move, love getting dirty, feeling different textures and cramming food into theur mouth.

·      Distractible

·      Finds self calming difficult

·      Finds making transitions from one situation to another difficult.

·      Poor self concept
Difficulty copying from the board

·      Weak reading and comprehension skills

·      Slow work rate

·      Reading fatigue

·      Looses place, skips and re-reads words.

·      Reverses letters or words

·      Delays in speech, language, or motor skills

·      Clumsy

          Poor body scheme – the brains map of the body built through the senses. This map creates an awareness of the position and relationship between body parts. This regulates the position of the body in space, allowing co-ordinated safe movement. For example if your child wants to catch a ball they need an understanding of where their body parts are at that very second so they can reach out the correct distance and height at the right time.

Sensory Integrative Dysfunction includes the following conditions:

Developmental Dyspraxia

Children with this condition find planning and executing a novel sequence of co-ordinated movements difficult. A child with this condition may develop their milestones at the correct rate, for example, they may sit unsupported at 6 months and walk at twelve months, because these are pre-programmed movements. However, they will find it difficult to learn new movements and adapt movements to the demands of the environment. For example learning to hop may be a challenge and take a long time to master. Once they are able to hop if you introduce a slight variation to this task they break down in performance and have to re-learn the hopping variation rather than make a simple adjustment.

Gravitational insecurity

Children with this condition become distressed when their feet suddenly leave the ground. They don’t like to have their head upside down, for example, when doing somersaults or hanging from a bar.

Tactile defensive

Children with this condition have an adverse response to light touch and feel a need to escape a situation where they are in contact with certain types of tactile stimulation. A tactile defensive child may strike a child who accidentally brushes against him/her. For example, these children may try rub or scratch out light touch and may avoid physical contact even with those they like.