The term 'sensory integration' refers to the processing, integration, and organisation of sensory information from the body and the environment. Simply put, this means how we experience, interpret and react to information coming from our senses.

Sensory integration is important in all the things that we need to do on a daily basis, such as getting dressed, eating, moving around, socialising, learning and working.

Sensory information is received from our senses, which include:

• Sight (vision)
• Hearing (auditory system)
• Touch (tactile system)
• Taste (gustatory system)
• Smell (olfactory system)
• Proprioception (senses of body awareness and position)
• Vestibular (awareness of movement, balance, and coordination)
• Interoception (our internal sensory system that tells us what is happening inside our body, for example, hunger, needing the toilet, fatigue, emotions, etc)

Sensory integration difficulties may be evident in the child or young person's behaviour.

Some individuals may experience the sensory inputs as overwhelming and upsetting, leading to ‘sensory overload’. Individuals may be oversensitive to sensory input, undersensitive, or both.

It’s common for all of us to occasionally feel under or oversensitive to sensory inputs. For example:

• Music or bright lights may feel too much if you have a headache.
• You can feel uncoordinated or find it hard to focus if you are tired.

But these feelings are temporary and wouldn't normally affect your day-to-day functioning in the long term.

Sensory integration or sensory processing difficulties are long term and have a big impact on everyday life and learning. However with professional advice and, if appropriate, therapy, much can be done to support a child or young person's daily functioning.

Some individuals may have difficulty processing input from one particular sense, whereas other individuals may experience difficulty integrating inputs from more than one sensory system.

Note that sensory integration difficulties are different from sensory impairments such as hearing loss, although sometimes the two result in similar behaviours. For example, an individual with perfect hearing can find it difficult to follow conversations if they have difficulties processing the incoming auditory signals.

 

Sensory modulation problems

Problems with sensory modulation occur when our brain either over responds to, or under responds to sensory information.

For example:

• If someone over responds to touch they may be very aware of the label in the back of their clothes.
• If someone is under-responsive to touch they may not notice someone tapping them on the shoulder.

It has been found that people can be over-responsive or under-responsive in all the different senses, they can be over-responsive in one sense and under-responsive in another.

For some people, they can be over-responsive and under-responsive in the same sense. Responsiveness can be dependent on a situation. For example, a stressful situation can make us more and sometimes less aware of sensations.

 

Praxis problems

Praxis is the medical term for how our brain plans for and carries out movements we have not done before.

For children this could be learning to jump; for adults, it may be learning to drive or use chopsticks. 

When sensory information is not properly processed it can make new movements very difficult, because the child does not have the ability to make sense of the different incoming sensory information. So, they struggle to work out where their body is and how much force, speed and direction is needed to do a new movement.

We call difficulties with praxis dyspraxia or developmental coordination disorder.

There are lots of ways you can try and support a child or young person struggling with sensory processing difficulties.

Strategies

Strategies to support key areas are provided on the integrated therapies website. The links below will take you to the relevant areas.

Focus and attention

• Alerting ideas
• Calming ideas
• Fidgeting is OK
• Focus, attention and concentration
  
  

Organisation

• How to help your child pack their school bag
  
  

Further support

• The sensory seeker provides information for parents on sensory behaviours and strategies
• The Sensory Integration Network provides courses and online resources 
• ‘The Out of Sync Child‘ by Carol Stock Kranowitz

The team of Occupational Therapists work with children and young people with or without an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC) from 0 to 19 years old.

Our clinic and virtual support are available for all children and young people with a Buckinghamshire GP. School support is available for those attending a Buckinghamshire early years or mainstream school setting.

Home equipment is provided for children with a Buckinghamshire address.

Who the service can support

The team support children, young people and their families.

Support is provided for children who face barriers to participation in activities they need or want to do as a result of a physical disability, developmental delay or neurodevelopmental disorders.

How the service is accessed

• Live sensory webinars can be accessed without a referral needed.
• Virtual advice lines for educational settings and families can be booked without a referral.
• Referrals for face to face assessments and for home equipment can be made by GP, educational setting, other health professionals or parents. You can download the referral form from the Bucks healthcare website.
  
  

How the service can help

Support may include:

• Assessment of child’s occupational performance and impact of sensory processing difficulties on these
• Sensory strategies being provided
• Recommendation of sensory equipment needed to support regulation
• Staff training on sensory strategies
• Delivery of metacognitive programmes to support sensory regulation such as “Zones of regulation” or “Interoception curriculum”.
• Reasonable adjustments needed to the learning environment and learning activities.
• Contribution to Annual Review, review meetings and multi-professional meetings
• Liaison with other professional services and agencies
• Liaison with parents/carers
• Support with home-school liaison
• Written reports as appropriate
• Telephone and email support
  
  

Contact children's occupational therapy

telephone: 01296 831 908
e-mail: bht.cyptherapies@nhs.net