Sensory Processing

Have you ever wondered why your child
 jumps and stomps a lot ,
 is on the go most of the times,
 might be inattentive to your directions at times,
 gag at the smell or sight of some foods,
 may not sit in one place for long,
 does not play consistently,
 is socially not so active

Some children cannot cope with school routines and are not at all happy with the thought of school, cannot copy down the class work fully, might complain of watering of eyes and headaches?

Well apparently there might be no gross affectation but there is a high probability that your child might have inappropriate sensory processing.

What is sensory processing?

Sensory processing deals with the reception of information and stimuli from the surrounding environment, its registration and processing and most important with this background reacting to the various stimuli.

This information is received through our special senses like tactile (skin), visual (eyes), vestibular (ears), proprioceptive (joints and muscles), olfactory (nose), gustatory (tongue) and processed in the different centers in the brain.

Imagine what happens in a traffic jam and in a cross connection. This is exactly what happens when a child has difficulty in processing sensory information. So the output seems to be a fussy, over reactive, emotionally labile, clumsy child.
It might result in selective attentiveness, visual difficulties and the child may be wrongly labeled as a hyperactive, dyslexic, depressed, autistic and so on.

One has to discriminate between the sensory processing difficulties and a pronounced Sensory Processing Disorder.

Introduction

Hi All
I have been working in the field of rehabilitation for last 13 years.I have been treating cases pertaining to neurological,neuromuscular,musculoskeletal impairment.During the course of my experience I developed interest in pediatric therapy especially children having sensory processing disorders.The quest to understand these disorders prompted me to undertake special course in Sensory processing disorders conducted by Pediatric therapy Network in USA.In the beginning I had lot of scepticism about the principles and efficacy of the techniques advocated by the network however ,when I started applying the principles the results have been amazing especially in the pre-school and primary age group i.e form 3 - 8 years.What is more interesting is the fact that how these principles can be applied innovatively to enhance the capabilities of the child.
It was my endeavour to share the experience and knowledge I have gained over all these years which prompted me to start this blog.I will be covering different topics in the coming days so keep following the Blog..........