To understand the sensory issues of the child it is important as parents to become more educated about the different senses:
The five basic senses are Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste and Hearing. In addition, we have 3 more senses:
Tactile system - It includes nerves under the skin’s surface that send information to the brain. This information includes light touch, pain, temperature, and pressure.
Vestibular system - It refers to structures within the inner ear that detect movement and changes in the position of the head, even with your eyes closed.
Proprioceptive system - It refers to components of muscles, joints, and tendons that provide a person with a subconscious awareness of body position.
SENSORY INTEGRATION DYSFUNCTION is a disorder in which sensory input is not integrated or organized appropriately in the brain and may produce varying degrees of problems in development, information processing, and behavior. A child may be over or under-responsive to sensory input; activity level may be either unusually high or unusually low. Gross and/or fine motor coordination problems are also common. Behaviorally, the child may become impulsive, easily distractible, and show a general lack of planning. Some children may also have difficulty adjusting to new situations and may react with frustration, aggression, or withdrawal.
Are Autism and Sensory Integration Dysfunction (now called Sensory Processing Disorder) the same?
Simply put, NO - Autism and Sensory Processing Disorder (#SPD) are not the same thing. While Autism and SPD are two different and distinct conditions, children on the autism spectrum do have a significantly higher rate of sensory processing delays that shows Sensory Processing Disorder is closely aligned with autism as most autistic children have significant struggles with SPD. Sensory Processing Disorder and Autism may exist mutually exclusive to each other.
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