Sensory Integration: Home Schoolers’ Best Kept Secret!

By Karla Akins, D. Ch. Ed.

    I am not an Occupational Therapist, but I play one at home. I am the mother of one daughter and four sons, two of them identical twins, age five, who have been diagnosed with Autism. We adopted Isaiah and Isaac at the age of four weeks. Besides being preemie babies, one of the boys’ biggest hurdles has been their severe Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Unfortunately for them and other children with Autism, symptoms of SI Dysfunction are often misinterpreted as psychological problems or just plain bad behavior. According to the "experts," if SI Dysfunction is neither recognized or addressed, it is possible that these may well develop into such problems.

Higher cognitive functions—such as learning--depend upon having normal sensory

integration. If a child cannot make sense of the sensory input he receives, then he is always stuck at the level of trying to make sense of his world and cannot learn or behave appropriately.

    The concept of sensory integration is not a new problem, but a new label, and comes from the work and research done by A. Jean Ayres, Ph.D., OTR. Sensory experiences include touch, movement, body awareness, sight, sound, and the pull of gravity.

     The process of the brain organizing and interpreting all this information at the same time is called sensory integration.

For example, I can sit and type this paper while music is playing, while I can hear my husband rattle his car keys, and the children are

giggling and wrestling in the next room and the dog is warming my bare toes. I can do this because my senses are integrated properly and I am able to filter out what is not important and focus on the sights and sounds that are most important: my typing this article.

Some signs of sensory integrative dysfunction are being overly sensitive to touch,

movement, sights or sounds. When my twin sons were infants, they screamed each time I held them, and fought all types of personal care. Every bath, every diaper change, every time I dressed them they howled in pain. When I walked them in the stroller they screamed nonstop. Actually, they screamed nonstop period. For three years until we discovered the use of Sensory Integration Therapy, my boys were miserably overwhelmed by their world. They were easily distracted, manic in their "play," (although they really didn’t play but just moved from one thing to another at lightening speed), were impulsive, lacked self-control, and had no ability to calm themselves. Once they started crying, there was little one could do to stop them. In fact, they began screaming every morning before their eyes were open to the day, and didn’t stop until they fell asleep exhausted at night.

Other signs of sensory integrative dysfunction are being under-reactive to touch,

movement, sights or sounds. Social and emotional problems, physical clumsiness or

apparent carelessness, and difficulty making transitions from one situation to another are

also signs of SI Dysfunction. My sons screamed and had tantrums at every single transition. They screamed going into the van, they screamed coming out of the van. They screamed going into their high chairs, they screamed coming out of their high chairs.

Spanking did not mean anything to them. They simply looked at us as if to say, "what was

that?" They could not "feel" or "empathize" with the idea of anyone’s disapproval but their own.

    Delays in speech, language, and motor skills and delays in academic achievement can also point to Sensory Integrative Dysfunction. In fact, many children diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, BI-polar, dyslexia, and many other disorders may actually have these disorders as a result of poor sensory integration.

To have a child diagnosed with SID, an evaluation is conducted by a qualified

occupational or physical therapist with special training and credentials in sensory integration. The evaluation will tell the therapist what types of therapy should be recommended. The interesting thing about this therapy is that the therapist should send home a list of activities recommended for the child to do AT HOME! And do you know what I found the most amusing about this? They were activities that many of us as home educators just naturally do with our kids! Therefore, sensory integration is something that is easy to implement into our daily routines.

    I am continually amazed how God created all our senses to work together! Our senses give us information inside and outside our bodies. Most of us are familiar with our "Far Senses." The "Far Senses," when speaking of sensory integration, are: smell, taste, seeing, hearing, and touch. These are the ones we are most familiar with. But Dr. Ayres discovered three other body-centered sensory systems that provide the sense of oneself in the world.

    According to Dr. Ayres, "over 80% of our nervous system is involved in processing or organizing sensory input, and thus the brain is primarily a "sensory processing machine."

    When I learned of this for the first time, I said to myself, "Eureka! This is old news! This is what the Moores, and Charlotte Mason and many other home educators have been saying for years! Give our kids good work to do, let them move their muscles and play instead of worksheets day after day and watch them grow and learn!"

    We live in rural Indiana, and to get to an Occupational Therapist we must drive one hour for the children to see her for 30 minutes. Our best plan has been one in which our OT provides us with ideas to work on at home, and she is used more as a consultant to our home program. I will list these home activities in each area of the three senses that Dr. Ayres wrote about.

The Tactile Sense

In a typical child, the tactile sense gives them information that is necessary for learning and interpreting his world. A typical child will understand the "feel" of things. Feeling the warmth of a hug or the roughness of sandpaper means something to him, and he can recognize them for what they are. Through these senses he learns about his world and can organize his thoughts about it.

The tactile sense affects the following everyday skills:

 Children with Tactile Dysfunction may exhibit behaviors in three main ways:

1. Tactile Defensiveness (Hypersensitivity).

2. Under-sensitivity to touch (Hyposensitivity)

and 3. Tactile Discrimination.

Children who exhibit tactile defensiveness basically are terrified of and cannot handle being touched in a light way. They may reject touch from anyone but their mother. (And some, like my twins, may not learn to accept touch from their mother without therapy.) Kissing is too light, so they will prefer a hearty hug. They make big deals out of minor scrapes or splinters, avoid showers because the drops feel like thorns (my twins say "it hurts"), fuss about getting new shoes or socks or clothes, avoid touching or eating certain textures, and won’t like having their teeth brushed. These are just a few examples.

In other words, light touch throws the child into a "flight or fight" response.

Children who are under-responsive to touch will constantly need to touch objects and people. If they get hurt, they don’t seem to notice. In some instances, these children may seem unaware of touch altogether unless the touch is very intense. Can a child be both tactile defensive and under-responsive to touch? Yes! The child may scream when someone brushes by him in a line, but not even notice if he breaks his wrist.

A child with poor tactile discrimination may not even be able to tell what body parts have been touched without looking at them. He seems out of touch with his hands as if they were unfamiliar to him. He can also be fearful of the dark or have difficulty performing certain motor tasks without cues such as zipping and buttoning. He may rub or bite his own skin, prefer extra spicy foods (my boys love picante sauce!), and enjoy vibration and movement that provides strong sensory feedback. When my twins were just a few months old, their favorite thing to do was to put the foot of their big brother’s

bouncing bumbler toy in their mouths. This was one of the few things we discovered would keep them calm for short periods of time! They loved the vibration, and the thing wiggled them from head to toe.

Activities at Home to Develop Tactile Integration

Now for the fun part! The following are some things you can do (and are probably already doing!) at home to help your out-of-sync child integrate his tactile sense.

· Hideaway. Kids with Sensory Integration issues love being under a table or inside a big box. In fact, my little ones used to hide in the same box even as babies. This is a good spot for some "time out" when things get a little out of hand. It is very calming.

The Vestibular Sense

    There are two components to the vestibular system: Defensive and Discriminative.

    Vestibular dysfunction occurs when there is inefficient processing in the brain of sensations that are perceived through the inner ear. If this is not working properly, the child will be oversensitive to movement, or under-sensitive or both. The Vestibular sense affects the following everyday skills:

Vestibular Hypersensitivity

A child with this disorder may be intolerant of movement because her brain can’t

regulate movement sensations. Instead, it processes way too many and her vestibular

system is overloaded. It is easy for these children to become overexcited. The child may also avoid sliding and swinging or even riding a bicycle. Moving in circles may make her head ache. Because of gravitational insecurity, she may be terrified of her feet leaving the ground. I myself suffered with this as a child and refused to go down the slide because the climb up frightened me, and I was also terrified of the teeter totter and swing. Children with this disorder can seem to be willful, cautious, a sissy, be afraid of elevators and

escalators, and need constant reassurance and intervention from a trusted adult. My Isaiah

is this way. Whether riding the camels at the zoo or riding the escalator—he was terrified.

Learning to ride a bike was terrifying and confusing because his feet had to leave the

ground. These children also don’t like to have their heads tilted when washing them,

because there is that constant fear of falling. No wonder the twins screamed during bath

time! Isaiah will now hesitantly climb up a ladder to slide down a slide, but he is hesitant

to do so the first time. What a smile I see on the way down! And to see him want to do it

again is an awesome reward.

Vestibular Hyposensitivity.

These are the kids that are constantly on the move. They crave more and more

movement because the brain is not interpreting the movement messages correctly. These

kids like to hang upside down, run instead of walking everywhere, will rock or spin

constantly, and climb. The world is a ladder to this child and she moves without caution.

At-Home Activities for Developing Vestibular Integration

The Proprioceptive Sense

Proprioception is considered the "position sense." It sends messages about whether the muscles are stretching or contracting, and how the joints are straightening out or bending. When this sense is functioning smoothly, we can tell without looking at ourselves if we are seated, or our hands are holding something. This type of perception is needed for throwing and catching a ball or moving up or down stairs. It is considered an "unconscious" sense of body movement. The skills that are affected by the proprioceptive sense are:

The child with a poor proprioceptive sense will have difficulty interpreting

sensations about the position and movement of his head and limbs. Motor planning is very

difficult and the child may be clumsy and easily frustrated. He may play too roughly with objects, spill milk, and break crayons while coloring. Because he has poor body

awareness, he needs to be able to see what his body is doing. Because each new movement and each new position throw him off guard, he is emotionally insecure. These kids like tight clothes, chew constantly on cuffs of shirts or other objects, deliberately bang into objects, frequently break objects, are very clumsy, and pick up an object with more force than is necessary.

At Home Activities to Promote Proprioceptive Integration

This is where we as home schoolers shine! Especially those of us who have

encouraged our children to participate in the chores at home. The most important

activity for these kids is carrying heavy loads! They can carry the laundry baskets, the

groceries, the garbage, firewood, toy boxes, books, pails of water…anything you can

think of that is heavy and needs transported— grab the kid with Proprioceptive Integration

dysfunction! Pushing and pulling is important, too. They can push the vacuum, the wheelbarrow, wagon, rake, sleds, or whatever else you can think of. This helps the child work up the muscles and joints. Some other activities include:

By now you have noticed that these activities don’t need the supervision of an

Occupational therapist, but can be implemented under the guidance and love of caring and attentive parents. In his hot new book, "The Child with Special Needs, Encouraging Intellectual and Emotional Growth" Dr. Greenspan emphasizes the need for our special children to develop good sensory integration in order to move on to higher cognition. He says what home schoolers have always said: that every child, no matter what the label, is unique and different from any other child, and that the vital key to the best outcome is

constant interaction with a loving parent. Finally! The world is beginning to see what we’ve known all along: Parents make the best teachers. And they especially make the best teachers for Special Needs children. The book emphasizes the importance of floor play and constant interacting between the parents and the special needs child. He also has a section in his book that speaks of getting siblings involved in floor play with their special needs brother or sister. I think this is a great book to quote to school districts who are giving anyone a hard time about home schooling their special needs child. There is no way a school can provide the continual one on one floor time that Dr. Greenspan speaks of in his book. I am particularly fond of a paragraph found on page 437:

"Most often when a child becomes a teenager and is several years behind his

peers, we stop offering interactive therapies (which might build the basic skills) and

instead emphasize practical splinter and community-based skills, such as making things and handling money. As a result, the child’s cognitive education is halted and he never advances to more abstract levels of thinking and behaving. But why assume that because a child has not learned to think abstractly by age 15 he never will? Our brains continue to develop until our mid-50’s. Why not assume that if we continue to work with children in optimal programs, they can move up the ladder of milestones and become – at 20, 30, or even 40 – flexible, logical, abstract thinkers?"

Why not, indeed?

My twin sons have been in Mommy’s "Sensory Integration Program" for the last 3

years. To give an example of progress that has been made, when we began our sensory

program, the twins slept under their mattresses, and couldn’t stand the feeling of sheets on their bed. They chewed on their pillows and clothing, and craved constant movement and

deep pressure. I am happy to report they are now sleeping on top of their mattresses, and the sheets, blankets and pillows are no longer an issue. They have even learned to pedal a bicycle! And those are only a few of many issues that we’ve seen improvement in over time, that I believe are directly related to their improved sensory integration. Without good sensory integration, it will be difficult also for Isaiah and Isaac to develop a mature sense of right and wrong. And most of all, I want them to learn empathy so they will have a desire to please God.