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Sensory Integration

Understanding
Sensory Integration

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Sensory Integration, sometimes called Sensory Processing, is a term that refers to the way the brain receives messages from the senses and converts them into appropriate motor and behavioral responses.

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Specifically:

  • Auditory (hearing)

  • Visual (vision)

  • Tactile (touch) 

  • Taste (gustatory system)

  • Smell (olfactory system)

  • Vestibular (balance and movement)

  • Proprioception (body position and awareness)

  • Interoception (our internal sensory system telling us what is happening inside our body, for example, hunger, needing the toilet, fatigue, and emotions)

 

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All this information is organized in our central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) in order for us to absorb, process, integrate and respond to the sensory inputs.

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Sensory Integration helps us to achieve the right level of alertness, excitement, and focus for different tasks.  Children with sensory processing difficulties often have difficulties staying in a calm, alert state. They tend to appear to have difficulties with focusing and attention - often they appear withdrawn, or look “wild”, or be constantly “on the go”. 

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For most children, Sensory Integration develops during the course of ordinary daily childhood activities. Motor planning ability is a natural outcome of this process, as is the ability to adapt to incoming sensations. For some children however, sensory integration does not develop as efficiently as it should. When this process is confused, a number of problems in learning, development and behavior may become evident.

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Sensory Integration was initially developed in the late 60s and 70s by Dr. A Jean Ayres, an occupational therapist and psychologist with an understanding of neuroscience, working in the USA.

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