Sensory Processing Skills

Sensory processing is the ability to organize and attend to a variety of tasks that involve the use of one or more of our senses.

Tactile

• Refers to our ability to interpret stimuli received by the skin
• Overall learning experience can be greatly impacted
• Difficulties in this area may include:
  • dislike being touched by others
  • severe negative reaction when presented with certain tactile input
  • demonstrates clumsiness due to decreased tactile awareness

Proprioceptive

• Gives information to the brain about movement and where our body is in relation to the environment
• The child can appear clumsy
• Unable to remain seated and focused on the task at hand
• Unable to appropriately gauge the proper amount of pencil pressure needed to complete a writing task
• Might seek out extraordinary proprioceptive input, by crashing into objects or others, or by other reckless movements

Vestibular

• Our sense of movement and gravity
• Vestibular input tells us how and where we are moving in our environment
  • May have a behavioral over-reaction after quick spinning motion or play performed on suspended equipment (like swings and slides)
  • May demonstrate gravitational insecurity or postural insecurity

Visual

• Processing of visual information (light, color)
• Visual perception - how the brain interprets what the eyes see
• Not visual acuity
• Functional visual processing requires
  • Interpretation of visual environmental information
  • The ability to attend to what is necessary and ignore what is not relevant.

Auditory

• Ability to process various sounds and filter out irrelevant noise in the environment
• Difficulty tolerating loud or unexpected noises
• Difficulty following directions or remaining on task