Week 4 - Sensory Processing Flashcards
What is sensory integration?
Bringing information from the senses together and processing them to interact with the environment
What is sensory processing?
How we take information from the environment and integrate it
What is sensory modulation?
The ability to regulate and organise the degree of intensity of responses to sensory stimuli
Example of sensory modulation
When you put clothes on for the first time in the morning, you will feel it. But as time goes on, you forget about it
- For people with low sensory modulation, they struggle to forget about that sensory stimuli and acts as a form of annoyance to them
Sensory processing process
- Intake: sensory registration and modulation
- Use of input: organising actions
- Interpretation: discrimination and affective appraisal of input
Sensory processing disorders can occur as a result of:
- problem in intake or effective appraisal
- problem using the input
- a problem of discrimination
What is a neurological threshold?
The amount of stimuli required for a neuron to respond
- This is different for everyone (some require more or less stimuli)
Habituation in neurological thresholds
Recognising familiar stimuli that do not require additional attention
Sensitisation in neurological thresholds
Enhances awareness of important stimuli
Balance between habituation and sensitisation in neurological thresholds
Require for generation of appropriate responses to stimuli in the environment
Hyper-responsive
When responses are larger than we would normally expect
Hypo-responsive
When responses are smaller than we would normally expect
What is responsiveness
Ability to balance competing excitatory and inhibitory demands to determine appropriate adaptive response
What is passive self-regulation strategies?
Let sensory events occur (fidget toys)
What is active self-regulation strategies?
Select and engage in behaviours to control own sensory experience
Dunn’s Model of Sensory Processing
- Performance problems result from inadequate skill development or insufficient environmental supports
- Addresses participation through skill development or changes to task or environment
High threshold =
Slow to notice sensory stimuli
Low threshold =
Quick to notice sensory stimuli
Passive self-regulation =
Allow sensory experiences to happen and then react
Active self-regulation =
Engage in behaviours to manage or control sensory input
What are the four categories in Dunn’s Sensory Processing Framework?
- Bystanders
- Seekers
- Avoiders
- Sensors
Bystanders =
Miss more sensory cues than others
- High threshold
- Passive self-regulation
- Don’t know what they are missing
- Easy going and can focus even in busy places
(ADD - drift away)
Seekers =
Are busier and more engaged in sensory experiences
- High threshold
- Active self-regulation
- Always want more
- Create excitement and change all around them
(ADHD)
Avoiders =
Are more likely to retreat from unfamiliar situations
- Low threshold
- Active self-regulation
- Want more of the same thing and nothing more
- Create routines to keep life peaceful and manageable
Sensors =
React more quickly and more intensely than others
- Low threshold
- Passive self-regulation
- Keep track of everything
- Notice what is going on and have precise ideas about how to handle situations
Sensory avoiding behaviours impact
- Overwhelmed by sensory rich environments
- Intentional withdrawal or blocking of sensation
- May be reliant on rituals, rigid, enjoys routine
- High ability to design and implement structure
Sensory processing in ASD
- Atypical responses to sensory input
- More likely to have avoiding pattern
- Mixed patterns
- Predictability
How to evaluate sensory processing
- Sensory history
- Questionnaire or interview, informal or standardised
- Experienced with sensory input during every day life - Physiological measures
- Arousal and sensory reactivity - Formal assessments of sensory processing
- Sensory profile
Coaching to select strategies (for parents)
- Support parent to:
- Problem solve
- Reflect on recent experiences
- Develop strategies to meet needs - Build on parent’s:
- Existing competencies
- Insights
- Strengths and resources - Outcomes
- Capacity building
- Decreased stress
- Improved child participation
- Higher sense of parental competence
Strategies to support performance: sensory seeking
- Incorporate additional sensory inputs within routine so thresholds can be met within activities
- Select sensory alternatives that are less interfering and socially appropriate
Strategies to support performance: sensory avoiding
- Honour need to limit input
- Broaden sensory range within selected rituals
- Avoid or reduce exposure to aversive stimuli
Strategies to support performance: sensory sensitivity
- Provide calming sensory input within tasks to reduce chances of arousal
Strategies to support performance: low registration
- Intensify sensory information so thresholds are met and child will notice and respond
- Structure environment/activity to enhance focus on task
- Set clear boundaries and use salient visual supports
What might change look like?
- Change to design/modification of activity (writing implements)
- Routine changes (when ability to concentrate is best)
- Inclusion of physical activity/opportunity to avoid sensory stimuli (movement break)
- Access to materials to meed sensory needs (dynamic seating, fidget toys)
Sensory stories
Create stories that talk child through a situations (e.g. hairdresser)
To teach children sensory strategies they can self-employ
- Used in preparation for challenging occupation
- Child chooses strategy and self implements
Risk management considerations
Harm, cost, benefits, duration, plausibility, practicality, content
