Sensory Integration Disorder

When my son was first diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder, I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know what Occupational Therapy was either. Over the years, and through many long hours of research, I have become extremely familiar with the term, SID or SPD, and the Occupational Therapy techniques used to treat it.

What is sensory integration disorder or dysfunction?

Jean Ayres, O.T.R., Ph.D., defined sensory integration as "organization of sensory input for use". She was pioneer in the research and development of sensory integration theory. Sensory information includes visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile (touch), vestibular (movement) and proprioception (body position). Ayres based her research on the last three - tactile, vestibular and proprioception - which are often called the "hidden senses."

These primitive senses are developed in utero prior to birth and are closely linked with other brain systems. For most children, sensory integration is automatically part of typical childhood development. However, as Carol Stock Kranowitz describes in her book "The Out-of-Sync Child", it does not happen automatically.

Sensory integrative disorder occurs when the brain is unable to organize sensory information in a meaningful way. SID impacts daily life for children and their families, as the children are not able to accurately register, modulate, discriminate and integrate sensory information. The result is that the child cannot adapt as well and may react negatively to everyday life sensations. The results are difficulties with the child's learning, development and behavior.

How Sensory Integration Disorder is treated

Most children with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) are just as intelligent as their peers. Many are intellectually gifted. Their brains are simply wired differently. They need to be taught in ways that are adapted to how they process information, and they need leisure activities that suit their own sensory processing needs.

Once children with SPD have been accurately diagnosed, they benefit from a treatment program of occupational therapy (OT) with a sensory integration (SI) approach. Occupational therapy with a sensory integration approach typically takes place in a sensory-rich environment sometimes called the "OT gym." During OT sessions, the therapist guides the child through fun activities that are subtly structured so the child is constantly challenged but always successful.

The goal of OT is to foster appropriate responses to sensation in an active and fun way so the child is able to behave in a more functional manner. Over time, the appropriate responses generalize to the environment beyond the clinic or gym, including home, school, and the larger community. Effective occupational therapy thus enables children with SPD to take part in the normal activities of childhood, such as playing with friends, enjoying school, eating, dressing, and sleeping. Ideally, occupational therapy for SPD is family-centered.

Parents are involved and work with the therapist to learn more about their child's sensory challenges and methods for engaging in therapeutic activities (sometimes called a "sensory diet)" at home and elsewhere. The child's therapist may provide ideas to teachers and others outside the family who interact regularly with the child. Families have the opportunity to communicate their own priorities for treatment.

Treatment for SPD helps parents and others who live and work with sensational children to understand that Sensory Processing Disorder is real, even though it is "hidden." With this assurance, they become better advocates for their child at school and within the community.

The exact cause of Sensory Integration Disorder or Sensory Processing Disorder–like the causes of ADHD and so many other neurodevelopmental disorders–has not yet been identified. But the disorder can be seen and clearly diagnosed from a brain scan, like the one that Dr. Daniel Amen uses at his Clinics.

My son sees an OT who is nicknamed, the “Autism Whisperer”. She works with sensory integration disorder in a warm, friendly, environment.