Many children have intense reactions to certain sounds or food textures. They can’t stand certain clothes for even a minute, or they get annoyed when someone touches them, making an ordeal out of simple events like bath time, getting dressed, eating dinner, or a birthday party. However, these behaviours do not necessarily mean that a child is simply spoiled, rude or hyperactive – they may, in fact, have issues processing sensory information, meaning their brains struggle to assimilate and understand the information they receive.
On occasions, children’s behaviour is actually a response to the way they process information about their surroundings and their own bodies. If this processing is not working as it should, it can cause them to act out. 8 senses, not 5 Sensory processing refers to how the nervous system handles information from eight senses.
Yes, you read that correctly: eight. While there are five basic senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, sound) there are three others that play a major role in movement and awareness of our surroundings and bodies – vestibular (sense of head movement in space), proprioception (sensing the body’s movement, action and position), and interoception (signals from within the body, such as hunger, thirst or tiredness). Our senses give us a constant flow of sensory stimulation from both outside and inside our bodies.
It is only by correctly processing this mass of information that we can carry out day to day activities and pursue wha.