When your various senses and your brain work together in synchrony you enjoy continuous flow of real-time information about the position of your body relative to the world around you. You have accurate information from your eyes and ears which tells you how far away things are from your body. The feedback from your muscles and joints, and from your receptors which sense balance and the position of your head and your eyes, help to keep you upright and balanced. With everything working together you can move about safely while avoiding obstacles.
When picking up delicate objects, the receptors in your fingers give you accurate feedback about how much pressure to apply to ensure that you apply just the right amount of pressure not to damage the object. Your sense of touch is also well developed and tells you about what is in your hands. All of these sensory integrative processes continue in the background ensuring your success in a variety of everyday situations.
Your nervous system also has some special design features to safeguard you in life-threatening situations. Your body continually reads the sensory cues in your environment. Should your limbic system alert to something which is dangerous, it will immediately signal to your body to avoid that situation. Sometimes however, you might be alerted to avoid situations which are in fact not dangerous. You might also avoid things in the environment which are in fact not a threat.
When the whole synchronous process of integrating and interpreting information from your senses goes awry, it can result in huge confusion, clumsiness, poor fine motor skills, poor concentration, poor sleep patterns, social awkwardness and a host of other difficulties.
I can assess for sensory integration difficulties and offer therapy and support to make life flow more easily for a child who experiences these sensory integration difficulties. It is also really helpful for parents and teachers to understand why the child behaves as they do, and to be empowered and equipped with helpful approaches to support them!
Whether your child has poorly developed fine motor skills, is struggling to focus their attention, or has been diagnosed with a condition such as autism or a genetic condition, their sensory integration may also be affected. Addressing sensory integrative difficulties ahead of other therapeutic approaches often hastens general progress since sensory integration is a foundation upon which all other development takes place.
Read more about
Sensory Regulation In Infancy in my Blog.
