Sensory Integration is our brain’s ability to detect, process and integrate all the sensory information in our environment. Most of us will have learnt about the 5 senses at school and know vision, smell, touch, hearing and taste.
However, there are two additional senses that you don’t typically learn about and these are proprioception, which helps us know the position of our body and how much force to use, and vestibular which helps us with balance, lets us know the direction of movement and helps us keep our eyes steady when we are looking at something.
All the time, 24/7 we are experiencing all of these 7 senses. If you stopped right now you would find that once you stop and really pay attention, you notice some senses that you did not notice when you first started reading this post!
When this successfully happens, it means we are able to use our bodies how we want, we are able to interact with the people and objects in our environment and we are able to focus on the really important things without being distracted by sensory information that is not important.
For instance, take a moment to notice your top touching your skin. Now that you’re concentrating you can feel it, but it wouldn’t be helpful if all day your brain kept bringing your attention to the fact your top was touching your skin.
So whilst your brain knows it’s happening, it doesn’t bring it to your attention. But if you had a spider crawling up your bare arm, you would definitely want your brain to let you know and it would bring it to your attention very quickly!
However, sometimes people can have difficulty integrating sensory input and this can mean they have difficulties with motor skills, attention, visual perception, emotional regulation, and they may be bothered by sensory input more than other people.
People who have difficulty processing sensory input may also find it hard to notice and interpret internal sensations. If you have read about sensory processing difficulties before, you might have seen something about interoception.
Interoception is an umbrella term which refers to the sensory receptors in the internal organs, tissues and cells of the body that send messages to the brain about the body’s internal state, giving constant feedback about any changes that need to be made to keep the body working.
Examples of interoceptive sensations are:
So when your tummy starts to rumble, that’s your interoceptive processes telling your brain that you need more food and energy for your body to keep on working.
Some of the children we see at Family Futures can find it really tricky to make sense of the feelings they have in their body which are the signs of different emotions, or they may find it hard to know when to stop eating or when to use the toilet.
Difficulties processing sensory input can be the result of many different things, such as genetic factors, experience of childhood neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, diagnoses such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, exposure to drugs or alcohol in the womb, or even just changes in our emotional state within the moment can change how we process sensory input.
Therefore, at Family Futures we think understanding sensory integration and working out if the children that we are working with have difficulties integrating sensory input is really important and can be a great first step in supporting children to feel more confident, happier and safer within their world.
Sensory Integration Webinars for parents/carers, 22 March and 15 November 2022 – how can simple sensory interventions help you and your child?
