What is Sensory Processing?
Our senses give us a large amount of information about what is happening, both outside and inside our bodies. Sensory processing is an automatic process, which makes sense of all this information, by organising, interpreting, perceiving, and storing the information. This information is then used to interact with our environment and other people.
Why is Sensory Processing so important?
Sensory Processing can greatly affect a child's behaviour and learning ability. If a child's sensory processing system is not able to automatically and efficiently interpret this large amount of information, problems can occur.
Over sensitivity
The child feels overwhelmed and over stimulated as sensations are registered too intensely.
Sensory Sensitivity:
• The child may exhibit distractibility and hyperactivity as they experience difficulty in blocking out all the extra information.
• The child may react in an irritated, threatened, fearful, negative or annoyed manner to some sensations or unfamiliar situations and people.
Sensory Avoiding:
• The child may not be able to tolerate the extra sensory information, and may try to reduce the frequency and intensity of these in an attempt to ‘protect himself.'
• The child may be resistant to change and prefers a predictable environment.
• The child may appear to have low energy.
Under sensitive
The child does not receive enough sensory information, as sensations are registered less intensely.
Sensory Seeking :
• The child seeks high levels of sensory stimulation.
• The child may be very active, fidgety, excitable and continuously engaged in their environment.
Poor registration:
• The child has accepted the dampened sensory information, and does not seek to engage in the environment.
• The child may be passive, fatigue easily, and appear lethargic, to lack initiation, to be withdrawn and preoccupied with their own inner world.
• The child may also often bump into things, and often hurt themselves due to decreased awareness and control of their bodies, and decreased registration of pain.
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