What is Sensory Integration?
The nervous system processes information that it receives from the environment through all of the sensory systems. It depends upon touch, hearing, vision, taste, and smell as well as sensations elicited by gravity and movement. The nervous system takes in all these sensations and fits them together to help a person understand and process their environment. The organization of this information is sensory integration. It lays the foundation for efficient operation of the nervous system so that the body can interact correctly with our environment.
All learning requires sensory integration. A breakdown in one area will affect other functions. Simply stated, if the child has sensory integrative problems he may show slow or atypical development. He might appear clumsy or slow in achieving coordinated skills. The child might seem withdrawn, stubborn, lazy or agressive. He may appear to be afraid of having his feet off the ground, or may seem distractible. He may dislike certain kinds of touch, or have specific academic problems even though the cognitive ability is there.
Apraxia, Dyspraxia, or Motor Planning: These terms are used to describe a specific problem in the ability to plan and organize new movement. Many children with these difficulties have poor body awareness, difficulty with fine motor skills, and handwriting problems. The child may have to use a great deal of concentrated effort for motor tasks that come automatically for his classmates. He can become easily frustrated and fatigued. Other observed behavioral characteristics can include the use of manipulative, rigid or controlling behavior; this is his way of imposing some structure on his life. Anxiety can increase the dyspraxia at any given movement because motor planning ability breaks down under stress.
Tactile Defensiveness: This term describes a person who reacts adversely to certain kinds of touch. He can become easily frightened, distracted, or annoyed by touch - especially if it is unexpected. This is due to inadequate development of the touch system. This student may have trouble standing in line, may move his body constantly, or show dislike for textures such as fingerpaint, sand, water, some foods, or articles of clothing.
Sensory Defensiveness: This describes an over-arousal or difficulty modulating sensory processing. This will make it difficult for the child to adapt and may result in behavioral disorganization, anxiety or negative responses and difficulty calming down after arousal. Children with mild sensory defensiveness succeed in school, sometimes without support, but may have to use enormous control and effort to maintain academic and social success. They may fall apart easily under what we would perceive as little or no stress. Children with moderate sensory defensiveness have difficulty in social relations, self-care skills, attention, behavior and academic success in school. They can be resistant to change. Children with severe sensory defensiveness may be unable to succeed in school without significant accomodations and support to help them organize what, to them, is an overwhelming amount of stimuli.
Some important aspects in remediation and compensation for sensory integration difficulties include:
-awareness of the difficulties (includes the child, parents, teachers, and others)
-sensory-motor activities built into his day - possibly motor breaks, position changes, gross motor activities, joint compression or other intervention designed by the therapist and the team who works with the child
-enough structure for the student to be successful, while allowing freedom and exploration as much as possible
-teaching strategies for self-awareness, self-direction, and self-modulation
-you can't force the brain to organize itself, but you can facilitate it
-use multi-sensory input to teach academics, self-control, and to help integrate the information that is being taken in by the senses
-consider alternatives to keeping a child in for recess; this may be the very student who needs the heavy input of running, jumping and playing. He will do it faster and better after the motor break.
-allow extra processing time, use models, make learning meaningful to the child, and allow flexibility when possible
-use humor to tap into the child's inner drive to master the environment
-use firm touch rather than light touch or verbal exchange
-reduce written demands if needed; allow other forms of expression; teach keyboarding
Compiled by S. Richardson, O.T.R./L.
Adapted from reports by:
L. Winters, E. Van Vranken, and B. Smith (10/84)
J. Kimball (1983)
E.B. Wilson, J. Teachman Sprague, J.A. Koomar, and J.D. Burpee (1987)