HOW CAN WE AS OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST HELP OUR SENSORY CHILDREN FIND A BALANCE WITHIN THEIR SEVEN SENSORY SYSTEMS?

A-Z

The Roots: The research

• When considering my essential question, “How can we as occupational therapist help our sensory patients find a balance within their seven sensory systems?”, first I must learn what are the sensory systems and which are treated by OT. Then consider what are some disorders that affect the sensory system. Once I learn what may cause an imbalance in the sensory system I can ask what are some treatment plans OT utilize when working with sensory children. Then once I define what treatments are used, I can look more closely at the benefits and functions of each of those treatments. Hence then I will arrive at my answer to what, how, and why OT are able to help sensory children find balance within their seven sensory systems.

• I know that the sensory system includes audio, visual, tactile, olfactory, taste, and two other senses. I assume that each sensory input imbalance is treated differently in order to achieve balance. I also assume that OT have various tools or techniques to help them achieve a sensory balance within their patients. Along with this I assume some sensor imbalances are relatively easier to correct than some sensory imbalances that originate from sensory disorders.

• My first dive into my research began with my Mentor Mrs.Debbie. She is an Occupational therapist at CHOA. At my first session with her, she utilized the sensory room and therapeutic brushing on the patient. This opened the door to developing my essential question. The more and more she taught me on the different senses and how to get the body to register the sensory inputs the more I began to be interested. This is when I found  my second annotated bibliography “Effectiveness of sensory integration program in motor skills in children with autism”. This article simply support what I was learning from my mentor and introduced me to sensory diets. Such as using headphones to listen to music so that a child sensitive to auditory input can become accustomed to the sensory input. Which lead to my second annotated bibliography “The effectiveness of auditory stimulation in children with autism spectrum disorders: A case-control study. This article also proved how sensory diets assist sensory patients with living their daily lives. As it displayed the positive results from utilizing auditory stimulation. My research mainly came from the questions I asked my mentor and learning while observing my mentor.

• What I first discovered is that there are seven sensory systems. Followed by how imbalances in those systems would be treated. The control center of all of the sensory systems is the Vestibular sense. If the vestibular system is not registering input proper or is hyper sensitive then there will most likely be imbalances in the other sensory senses. This system is in charge of registering all movement. This registering is done by recognizing any spinning, swinging, or hanging upside down. The receptors to register movement are located in the inner ear. When children are not registering vestibular input their systems are bombarded by spinning or being upside down activities.A type of sensor disorder that can be associated with this is sensory processing disorder which refers to when the brain has difficulty organizing the information it receives from the senses.Children with this disorder can be very sensitive to any sensory input. There is a proprioceptive sense. Which is in charge of registering sensation from the joints, muscles, and connective tissues that underlie body awareness. Proprioceptive input includes lifting, pushing, and pulling heavy objects. This sense is important as it plays a huge role in coordination as it allows us to know where our body is without having to look. When children are not registering proprioceptive input they do activities such as crashing and jumping. Then we have the auditory sense which is pretty self explanatory, it is responsible for registering and processing sound. When children have hypersensitivity to sound, such as when they are in the cafeteria at school they get treated by listening to music. So they get to have headphones playing tunes while they do normal activities like homework. Another sensory disorder called sensory overload which occurs when there is overstimulation in the body’s senses due to the environment. This can occur in places that are overcrowded or noisy.There is also the tactile sense. This system is responsible for registering touch whether that be light or firm touch. Along with registering pain and temperature. If a patient is hypersensitive to touch such as only likes to wear specific types of fabrics or socks as the others are uncomfortable, then they can be treated with therapeutic brushing. This brushing just helps the patients to get accustomed to being touched. Finally there is the visual sense that processes visual input and there is the Olfactory sense which is responsible for sensing smell. Now most of the treatments I have listed below truly fall under sensory integration therapy. Sensory integration therapy explained by Ayres is “How the neurological process of processing and integrating sensory information from the body & the environment contribute to the emotional regulation, learning, behavior, and participation in daily life”(p 5). This theory is used to explain why individuals behave in particular ways, plan intervention to improve particular difficulties, and predict how behavior will change as result of intervention. This therapy is done by incorporative treatments such as the ones i've previously listed, sensory rooms, or tools like putty and shaving cream into the patient's life. This is called a sensory diet. A personalized activity plan that provides the sensory input a person needs to stay focused and organized throughout the day. Such as fulfilling that upside down urge for children craving vestibular input. By utilizing sensory integration therapy and sensory diets OT are able to assist their patients in finding a balance within their senses.