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Everything You Need to Know About Sensory Processing- As Explained by an Atlanta Occupational Therapist
Everything You Need to Know About Sensory Processing- As Explained by an Atlanta Occupational Therapist
Michaelene Kearney is a pediatric occupational therapist who’s focus is to empower children to thrive at home, in school, and in their communities. Her gym is located in Peachtree Corners, but she also serves multiple schools and families in the Atlanta area. Michaelene has thirty plus year of experience and specializes in sensory processing. When she’s not working, you can find her hanging outside in the yard, walking the dogs, or checking out a craft show with her family.
Sensory processing. I’m sure you have heard of the term before, right? Either from your pediatrician, your child’s teacher, or from an article in the latest Lifetime magazine. So, what is sensory processing exactly? Why do you as a parent or teacher need to understand it? Those are some great questions, let’s start at the beginning.
In order to understand SP we need to know what kind of impact it has on our children first. Sensory processing plays a huge role in your child’s life. It affects their
-education
-social life
-self esteem
-independence
-development
That’s a lot of impact! Sensory processing can contribute to your child’s ability to make friends at school, to pay attention during class, to do their homework or play independently, to develop the muscle coordination to play sports...without the ability to process sensory information our children will struggle to be successful in their daily lives. This is why you as a parent or teacher need to understand sensory processing. Once you have a grasp on SP you will be able to understand your
-child’s behavior
-advocate for them
-know when & how to help
-maximize their learning
-protect them from certain situations
-set them up for success, and
-understand what behavior means what
So when your child starts having trouble focusing in class, you can talk with the teacher and strategize new ways to keep them engaged. From a teachers perspective you can carve out certain times for movement breaks or muscle work to maximize your students learning. Or when your child keeps having meltdowns you will be able to understand what is potentially triggering the meltdowns. When you understand SP you will be able to unlock success for your child or student in ways you can’t even imagine. Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.
The way I explain SP to my parents at Children In Motion is by equating the process to managing an email account. Envision your email account. You have an inbox where you receive new messages and you have folders where you organize your emails. When you get a new email you decide whether or not to delete it, respond to it, or save it for later based on who the email came from or what the email is about. Right? This is very similar to sensory processing. Your child processes on a much faster neurological level, but it follows that same three step process.
1. Receive sensory information in their “inbox”.
2. Interpret, file, and organize that information.
3. Create an action plan depending on how the information was filed in step two.
Let’s explore each step a little further...
During this step, your child’s brain will take in all of the senses- sight, touch, taste, sound, smell, movement and muscle awareness. These could look like the busy bulletin boards in their classroom, the feeling of the tag on their shirt, or the hint of spice on their chip at lunch. They are taking all of these senses in all of the time.
During this step, your child’s brain will interpret all of the information it took in during step one. Their brain will ask, is it dangerous? important? painful? Should I ignore it? Should I pay attention to it? They also will interpret body language and facial expressions during this step. Are they mad? Are they happy? Am I in trouble?
Now it’s time for them to act on their interpretations. Results from step two can impact behavior, emotions, learning, independence, social engagement, and self regulation. It’s easy to think that this step is a choice, that your child or student has the option to choose what to do. Let me remind you that sensory processing is a neurological process. It’s happening on a chemical level at an incredibly fast rate. Your child or student cannot change the chemical connections their brain makes, whether they are right or wrong.
Ok, now that we understand the three steps of sensory processing, let me give you some scenarios where sensory processing is working well.
Your child is hanging out with you in the kitchen while you cook dinner. You turn the stove on to boil some water. Out of curiosity, your child goes over to check it out. They feel the heat from the stove and decide to back away.
In the classroom, there’s a lot of activity around your child while they are sitting at their desk- the person sitting next to them is tapping their feet which shakes the table, there is the sound of pages being turned, there is a lot of visual stimuli on the boards and around the room. All the while their teacher is giving them instructions on what to work on independently at their desk. They are able to focus, follow directions, and get their work done.
You and your child are in an area where there is not a lot of personal space- a farmer’s market, a concert, a school event. Someone accidentally bumps into your child, and your child doesn’t acknowledge it or doesn’t pay attention to it.
Are you starting to get the picture? Great! Now, here are some examples of when sensory processing is not working properly.
Your child doesn’t want their hair brushed. They’ll say you are pulling their hair on purpose, that your are trying to hurt them, not saying any of that is true, but that is what it feels like to them. They could also not be comfortable with brushing their teeth or washing their hair. Or they don’t want to bathe at all because they are over sensitive to the feeling of soap on their skin.
They have trouble understanding where they are in space. When you go to the swimming pool they cling to side of pool, only sit on the steps, or won’t go in at all because they don’t like the feeling of their body in the water.
They have trouble at center time/free play. They knock down toys or throw things too hard, they have a hard time using the right force or misjudging where they are in space.
They are over sensitive to touch. They will say other kids are hurting them, saying ‘so and so is not being a good friend’, when actually their oversensitivity to touch is sending them mixed signals.
They can also be under responsive- they aren’t picking up enough sensory information. They might look bored, or sleepy, or un engaged.
Is any of this sounding familiar? Are you thinking, “Yes! My child does that!”“OMG, that’s totally one of my students.” Great- what do you do now?
It can be tricky knowing when something is just a unique quirk and when something is more than a quirk and needs to be addressed. What I tell my parents & teachers is to remember that we aren’t robots. We will all have days when we are off. What you need to look for is patterns in your child’s behavior. When that behavior starts interfering with your child’s success, that’s when we want to intervene. When your child is not being successful at school, when they are emotionally fragile- when they need a lot of protection, when they are having trouble participating in sports, when they aren’t able to keep up developmentally, when they have trouble being flexible- those are the red flags you will want to keep an eye out for.
So, say you are seeing those red flags, what can you do? How do you handle sensory processing challenges? Here are three ways you can start working towards success today.
#1. Educate yourself! Try to learn everything you can about sensory processing. Here are a few resources for you to check out:
-“The Out of Sync Child” by Carol Stock Kranowitz
-“Raising a Sensory Smart Child” by Lindsey Biel & Nancy Peske
-“Sensational Kids” by Doris A Fuller & Lucy Jane Miller
-The STAR Institute www.spdstar.org
-Sensory Integration Global Network www.siglobalnetwork.org
-The Children In Motion blog www.childreninmotion.com/blog
#2. Make adjustments to your child’s environment
-Use headphones to block out background noise
-Or, use background music to help them focus
-Try alternative seating- ball chairs, rockers
-Seamless socks/clothes
-Be specific with your directions..1st this, 2nd this, 3rd etc
-Provide movement breaks
-Make sure they get plenty of sleep
-Keep them well fed
#3. Seek individual therapy with a therapist who specializes in sensory processing with advanced training. The trick to evaluating and treating SPD is to be able to analyze and tease out why your child is doing what they are doing. It takes a special person to be able to analyze the results and then find the most powerful/useful strategies for your child. So do your research, and don’t be afraid to try out a few different therapists until you find the right fit for your child.
Sensory processing can be complex and hard to understand at first, but trust me, you will get it eventually! You will have that “aha” moment, just keep learning and reading everything you can. Hopefully this information will send you well on your way to helping your child or student with sensory processing difficulties. If you have any questions- feel free to reach out to me and we can figure something out. Thanks for reading!
-Michaelene Kearney OTR/L
to call Children in Motion click HERE: www.childreninmotion.com
Sage Speech & Learning Associates offer professional speech therapy, language therapy and feeding therapy in Atlanta, Brookhaven, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Buckhead and surrounding areas.
