What is Sensory Processing and Why Does it Matter?
What is sensory processing?
It is the way we are taking in the cues or signals from the environment, processing, filtering, adapting and executing an output to whatever we are experiencing on the inside as a result of the world and relationships around us.
The way that we think about kids with vulnerabilities in this area is that they are taking in the world differently or in a different way than others around them, and we all have preferences. This is not saying that it is just specific individuals that have this. It is something that we all have; it is just the level of impact it has on their daily function or the level of impact it has on our daily lives and their ability to participate in what matters and what is important to them.
Why does it matter?
These sensory differences or vulnerabilities can be triggering to children. One reason I started to become interested in this was that before I was an OT, I was part of a volunteer organization here in Chicago at a domestic violence shelter. I would work with kids on playing or reading or being outside while their moms were in counseling. I started to reflect on later, once I was an OT, how similarly despite their backgrounds and what had happened to them, how some of these sensory processing differences were looking similar between the kids because sensory processing differences can essentially be traumatic to the nervous system. Throughout the day, you feel bombarded, or you feel like you are not getting enough input to have what you need to be safe and secure. It presents as threats throughout the day to the nervous system, the body, and the mind.
Different types:
Over-responsive/ hypersensitive: This is the child that tends to take in the world in big ways. This may be the kid that is avoiding group play with peers because it's too much visual or it's too much auditory processing. If we think about kids- they have an impulsive, reactive, unpredictable, quality to them that can be threatening to a child that has a heightened sensitivity to this input.
Under responsive/hyposensitive: This is the child that needs MORE sensory input than majority of same aged peers to sustain baseline emotional regulation (organization and alert level ready to learn and engage).
Sensory cravers: This is the child that may never be fully satiated via sensory input alone despite high intensity, duration, and frequency trialed. This indicates we need to look at other input methods (environmental, emotional, interactional exposure throughout each day) to guide the child toward level of calm needed to be ready to engage and learn.
Extra Sensory Systems: There are eight senses that we think about when we look at sensory processing (not just the five that we typically think of hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling and tasting). The other three are:
Proprioception: Which is the sense of our body position, which we receive through joint compression in our body. It's our sense of knowing where we are in space and is interconnected with all the other sensory systems. If we feel grounded, if we feel like we know where our bodies are in space then we can be emotionally secure in the world. For kids that are under-responsive to this input may need lots and lots of proprioceptive input understand where their body is in space. This may be the child that I see running a hand on a long hallway as they're walking through the halls or is giving hugs that are tight or standing "too close" to their peers in line.
Interoception: This is a sense of our internal body systems, our organs, our emotional sensations that arise. Think about the urge to go to the bathroom, or urge that you are hungry or too full and to stop eating is all impacted by the interception system. This could also look like being tired and understanding when we are feeling tired versus when we are awake and wanting to play and understanding the cue that we do need rest. As adults, so many of us are cut off from our bodies and our interoception system because there wasn't consistent guidance from adults throughout the day that helps us build insight into our body cues. We either shut them down, get overwhelmed, or are entirely unaware when these bodily sensations arise.
Vestibular: This is the sense of our body/head positions. It is the acceleration and deceleration of our bodies that play a lot in our balance system. It plays into the sense that we can feel comfortable and secure in space, so if we go upside down, we feel comfortable with that. If someone is pushing us on a swing, we may enjoy that. For kids that are under-responsive to vestibular input- I think of the kid that could just spin all day long and seek activities that involve spinning. They are trying to regulate or organize their nervous system. Whether or not it is helpful will tell me if they are truly under-responsive or if they are a sensory craver. A sensory craver my not ever be satiated by the amount of input they're getting, and that is telling us that there's something else that we need to think about.
How does this play into our emotions?
Emotions and sensory systems are directly connected, so any sensory experiences we have tend to trigger emotional experiences and vice versa. Helping kids and adults recognize this is a big part of integrating and having an awareness that is helpful instead of turning to maladaptive behaviors that we tend to pick up through life.
A lot of times, this looks like control for kids. Control can show up in lots of different ways in these sensory systems. Attempting to control how much or how little sensory input they are receiving. They are trying to change their environment so that they can feel comfortable since their sensory system is so vulnerable.
This may be a child that is exhausted because all day long they are working harder, they are trying to process this information. They are essentially feeling threat all day long, and it is exhausting and fatiguing on their system. Or they are numb, under-responsive, low alert level, and needing more input to feel connected and engaged with the world around them. We want to think about increasing or decreasing sensory input, whatever that child needs, so that they have resources at the end of the day.
All-day long, we are pulling and filling resources from our cup: emotion, sensations, energy - all resources come from this “cup.” We can do things that fill this cup, so maybe we like proprioceptor input, so you want to wear a lot of clothes, do yoga, go for a walk, and have a lot of input, and that helps you fill up. Then you go to work or sit in traffic and stress and emotions pull from this cup. All through the day, we are going through this balance of filling and pulling from this cup. Once our resources are deplete - i.e. we hit our threshold - we are no longer able to process sensory information or process our emotions. This is cue for meltdowns, tantrums, shutdown, the works, all throughout life. We want to think about how to help kids and ourselves on how to stay in that range of homeostasis and equilibrium that feels good.
Kids with these vulnerabilities can have a hard time understanding emotional sensations and how to react when they come up. This may be a child, for example, when you're getting ready to leave, everyone's a little stressed and getting ready to go, and the child is running around, maybe laughing and looking like they are having a good time. It may appear this way, but its a sign of dysregulation/discomfort in the nervous system because maybe they are afraid of leaving, but they don't know how to say, "Hey, I'm feeling scared about this, and I need some support around this." They don't have the tools or the brain development to express themselves in this way, so they get dysregulated and start to run around like wild. We want to understand that these kids will have a hard experiencing an emotion and having behavior that matches it. We want to help mirror what they are feeling and co-regulate throughout.
Remember:
As always, nobody cleanly fits into these categories, so these are a way to reflect on the behaviors we observe and understand potential roots instead of putting kids in a box and label them and have those limiting views from day-to-day that carry over. We want to be detectives and investigators and help kids work through these things in a way that helps them increase their participation in what they enjoy — helping them feel good and emotionally secure in ways that they hadn't been before.