Valerie Dejean New York,NY phone 1-877-4AUTKID Discussion: Sensory Integration Dysfunction, Auditory Processing Disorder, Motor Planning, Dyspraxia home

Children may also be over or under sensitive to tactile stimulation.Some children are so sensitive to light touch that routine self-care becomesan overwhelming proposition. They fight having their hair cut or washedas though it caused them significant pain, yet the same child may falldown, scrape a knee and get up without skipping a beat. For this childthe band- aid is worse than the cut.

Children may also be under reactive (sometimes the same child), andcrave certain types of touch that provide deep firm pressure. Often thechildren hate "yucky" textures and want their hands cleaned immediatelyafter touching textures such as finger paints. Children may also be overand under reactive to vestibular input. Some children may crave lots ofintense spinning, jumping, or running back and forth.

Other children may fear movement, clinging to their parents whenevertheir balance is challenged. Both extremes indicate some inadequacy investibular processing. Over and under reactivity can also been seen inthe visual system. Too much visual stimulation may be overwhelming to thechild. On the other hand, some children may be fascinated with certainvisual stimuli such as watching spinning objects or vertical/horizontallines. Some children have very advanced visual memories such as learninga complex puzzle after only seeing it once.

They may rely on a strong visual system to compensate for a weaker auditorysystem. The auditory system may present with the same mixed reactivity.Commonly, one of the first things parents reports to us is that their child,"tunes them out when his name is called from right behind him, yet comesrunning when his favorite video is playing three floors below." Thoughit is hard to believe, this selectivity of response is not really underthe child's control. Another common symptom is sound sensitivity. Certainmachine sounds such as the vacuum cleaner or the blender may be very distressingto one child, while another child may crave these sounds, placing his earto the vacuum cleaner.

The auditory stimulation and sensory integration techniques can helpindividuals with Sensory Integration Disorders by making it easier forthem to process and integrate sensory information. By helping these childrenreach a more regulated state of calm alertness they become more availablefor learning. Children whose systems have been striving to shut out sensorystimulation become more relaxed and better able to connect to those aroundthem. Most children with Sensory Integration Disorder are working muchharder than their peers to accomplish the same things. There is a tremendousexperience of relief as things become easier, leading to an improved senseof self-esteem. Their bodies are now able to keep up with the things theirbrains are able to conceptualize.

Next Level of Organization and Integration of Sensory Input: The formationof Perceptual Schema
It is the next level of integration that allows us to perform increasinglymore complex skills. Firstly we have the skills of Eye-Hand coordinationand fine and gross motor, oral motor, and ocular motor control. We havemoved beyond the level of centrally programmed control into the level oflearned motor behavior. Automatic: crawling, walking, even running arecentrally programed. These are universal, they happen in all cultures.however catching and throwing a ball is learned. Babies have a suckingresponse of orienting to the source of food, yet bringing a cup to theirmouth is a learned skill. Babies eyes get fixated on certain visual stimuliand they are forced to track, yet it is a different level than moving eyesconsecutively look at pictures in a book or late to follow a line of print.Babies everywhere are born with the 52 phonemes that are the building blocksof all language.

This is inherent yet it is learned for a baby to say "dada" in Englishor" papa" in French. Perceptual Schema is what is being accomplished throughan incredible period of sensory motor development and what Piaget callspre- operational development. It is through experience that a baby learnsrelationships. She learns the concept of over and under by crawling overand under. This lays the foundation for visual perceptual of form and spaceperception. She can then project this onto the environment, the plate ison the table, the ball is under it. This can be refined to in front of,next to, behind etc.... Math concepts develop from this sensory motor foundation.Concept of greater than, less than, part of, divided by, added too etc.are learned from the feedback of physical phenomena.

With the development of spatial perception we learn to recognize thedifference between a b and d. We learn to discriminate between a ba andda. We learn to recognize the relationship between a foreground figureand the background. We learn to perceive the difference between a persontalking to us and the background noise. All of this is done on an automaticlevel and needs to be in place in order for the brain to be ready to learnon a more abstract level. The brain's capacity to learn is basedon adequate sensory integration. This capacity to learn should be an automaticfunction and it is not a reflection of intelligence or intellectual abilities.When a child is having difficulties learning because of sensory integrationdifficulties it has nothing to do with how smart she is or isn't.

This child's potential may be way above what she is able to demonstrate.Abstract thinking Abstract thinking or conceptualization of ideas is criticalto much of what we call academic learning. We will take a moment to showhow our ability to sort out and connect sensory information leads to theability to form meaningful concepts, which in turn enhances our capacityto learn. Our senses allow us to perceive red, round, hard, and then developthe concept of apple. This gives the foundation to recognize a pictureof an apple. We can then latter recognize the symbols A.P.P.L.E to meanapple. We can later become even more abstract and the expression "You arethe apple of my eye"

Our sensory motor experiences provide the foundation for catching aball, to catching a telephone call, to catching the ball after the bosshas dropped it. This is an illustration of our proposition that abstractthought and reasoning are very dependent on good sensory integration. Similarly,the ability to concentrate is very dependent on the ability to screen irrelevantsensory stimuli, and the ability to organize our thought and actions isvery dependent on motor planning. Sensory Integration Disorder and SelfEsteem Children with Sensory Integration Disorder often see themselvesas dumb. Because of their hidden handicap they don't recognize thatthey may be working twice as hard as their peers.

The cost of compensation for their sensory integration disorder maybe a sense of frustration and the awareness that their bodies are not keepingup with their minds. Types of children I see. Young children. Tend to bemore severe so they show up early. Most typically there is a failure oflanguage to develop or abnormal language development. They often presentwith a significant sensory motor history. Preschool children: Adjustmentto preschool is difficult. They can't sit still for circle time.The don't follow directions well. They have difficulty getting alongwith the other children. Their fine motor or gross motor skills are delayedSchool age: Usually second and third grade.

Things are getting more abstract. They were compensating before butit's getting increasingly difficult. Trouble learning to read. Handwritingvery difficult. Middle school year: These children find that they forgetassignments. They don't remember which books to bring to which class.Homework becomes more of an issue. It is very difficult to organize theirthoughts for writing a paper. Subjects that they were good at initiallyare getting more and more difficult. High School: These kids becoming increasingmore unhappy.

Many really work hard but it not paying off. They start to give up.They do well in math up to geometry, but can't handle the abstractionof algebra and calculus. The same is true with natural sciences as theymove into physics. All of these children presented with difficulties earlier.Their sensory motor histories were significant from an early age, and itbecame increasingly more difficult to compensate.