What is Sensory Processing?

Auditory Sense: is the ability to interpret information that is heard. Ears receive information about volume, pitch and rhythm. It is important for the refinement of sounds into meaningful syllables and words.
Visual sense: is the ability to understand and interpret what is seen. Eyes receive inputs from the environment about contrast of light and dark, colour and movement.
Tactile sense: is the ability to interpret information coming into the body by the skin. It uses receptors in the skin to receive touch sensations like pressure, vibration, movement, temperature and pain. It is the first sense to develop (in the womb), and as such is very important for overall neural organization.
Olfactory Sense: is the ability to interpret smells. Nose receives information about the chemical makeup of particles in the air to determine if the smell is safe or harmful.
Gustatory Sense: is the ability to interpret information regarding taste in the mouth. Tongue receives taste sensations, and detects the chemical makeup through the tongue to determine if the sensation is safe or harmful
Movement (Vestibular) sense: is the ability to interpret information relating to movement and balance. The vestibular system receives information about movement, change of direction, change of head position and gravitational pull. It receives information about how fast or slow we are moving, balance, movement from the neck, eyes and body and orientation in space.
Body Position (Proprioceptive) Sense: is the ability to interpret where your body parts are in relation to each other. It uses information about the position and movement of the body through muscles contracting, stretching, bending, straightening, pulling and compressing.

Atypical Sensory Processing

A child with atypical sensory processing finds difficulty in integrating information from the senses, which may overwhelm him/her resulting in confusing behavior responses to sensory stimuli, thus making it difficult for the child to function effectively within a particular environment. Atypical sensory processing is commonly termed as Sensory Processing Disorder and further divided into three types termed as Sensory Modulation Disorder, Sensory based motor disorder and Sensory Discrimination. Sensory Modulation disorder is the commonest one to be found.

There are three types of sensory modulation disorders

Sensory over-responsivity describes when a child has an exaggerated negative response to sensory input, often leading to avoidance of the stimulus. For example, a child may be especially sensitive to tactile sensations associated with clothing or part/type of cloth in such a way that he/does not like to wear appropriate/particular clothes in winter. This may lead the child to be extremely upset or anxious when wearing such an item, or to refuse to sit on certain furniture.

1.Sensory over-responsivity

Describes when a child has an exaggerated negative response to sensory input, often leading to avoidance of the stimulus. For example, a child may be especially sensitive to tactile sensations associated with clothing or part/type of cloth in such a way that he/does not like to wear appropriate/particular clothes in winter. This may lead the child to be extremely upset or anxious when wearing such an item, or to refuse to sit on certain furniture.

2.Sensory under-responsivity

Describes when a child may seem to be unaware of, or slow to respond to, a stimulus that would typically be expected to elicit a response. For example, some children have been found to be under-responsive to pain, which can lead to injury when the child continues to engage in a behavior that would normally elicit a strong pain response, such as touching a hot stove. Some Children may not notice pain in response to bumps, falls, cuts, or scrapes

3.Sensory-seeking

Behaviour describes when a child has an unusual craving for, or preoccupation with, certain sensory experiences. For example, a child may repeatedly sniff their fingers or put non-food items in their mouth.

Dr. Soumyakanta Sahu

Dr. Soumyakanta Sahu has 7 years of experience working in different tertiary care pediatric and adult neurorehabilitation centers and hospitals.