Anne's Occupational Therapy for kidsSensory Integration
What we know about the world we learn through our senses. Most of us are aware of our sense of smell, sight, hearing, touch and taste. However, we have other senses that we are not necessarily aware of as they often function at the unconscious level. I am referring to the sense of movement and the sense of body position. In occupational therapy terms these are referred to as "vestibular" and "proprioceptive" senses.
These senses begin to function at an early age and interconnect with each other. A sensation is experienced, carried to the brain, and interpreted. Once interpreted, the child reacts accordingly. With an intact sensory system a child is able to plan and execute an activity successfully.
The vestibular sense is the awareness of head position and body movement through space. This unconscious sense automatically coordinates the movements of all body parts. A difficulty in this area would mean the child might lose his/her place when transferring information from the chalkboard to his/her paper. If more severely impacted, balance would be affected and the child would not be comfortable on the playground or playing sports. The child may be labeled as clumsy.
Proprioception is related to the vestibular system. It provides the awareness of body position. It is the ability to know where every part of the body is, without looking. An efficiently functioning proprioceptive system will automatically adjust muscle contractions to stabilize the body. Difficulties in this system may manifest as the child who falls out of a chair. (The adjustments are not being made appropriately.) Handling a brush, spoon or pencil is dependent to a great extent on this system. Many children with poor proprioceptive abilities compensate by using vision. They do not like blindfold games or moving in a darkened room. Simple actions that they do with eyes open become impossible with eyes closed.
This child may be clumsy and/or disorganized or may have poor body awareness.
Auditory integration and visual integration difficulties also make success at home and in the classroom difficult. Tuning out extraneous noise may be difficult and this child may appear not to listen, although his/her hearing is fine. Or the opposite can occur and the child responds very negatively to loud sounds. Visual information can be overwhelming and cause inattention and inappropriate behavior.
The Tactile sense involves touch sensations and can be too sensitive or under-sensitive.
When one or more sensory sytem is not working as it should, the child can be diagnosed as having a Sensory Processing Disorder.