Sensory Integration Dysfunction
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Sensory Integration Dysfunction is a neurological disorder causing some people to have difficulties in integrating information coming in from each of their five senses. Sensory integration disorders span a wide range of neurological conditions, including autism spectrum disorders, dyslexia, pervasive developmental disorder, multiple sclerosis and speech delays, among many others.
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Meaning of sensory integration
Sensory integration is the ability to take in information through the senses of touch, movement, smell, taste, vision, and hearing, then combining the resulting perceptions with prior information, memories, and knowledge already stored in the brain, and to then derive coherent meaning from processing the stimuli. The mid-brain and brainstem regions of the central nervous system are generally recognized as the control locus for sensory integration, where complex interactions enable processes including coordination, attention, arousal, autonomic function, emotions, memory, and higher level cognitive functions.
Sensory integration and hypersensitivities
Sensory integration disorders vary between individuals, and dysfunctions of this type can range from very mild and almost undetectable to very noticeable and severely affecting a person's daily life.
Children can be born hypersensitive, or hyposensitive, to varying degrees, in any one or more of their five senses. An example of an hypersensitive child is one who complains their clothes hurt or itch, or lighting is too bright. Another example is someone who does not like to be touched or caressed, or someone who will not look directly into the eyes of another person. Hypersensitivity is also known as sensory defensiveness. An example of a child or adult with hyposensivity is one who throws themself into a wall in order to get a sense of their body.
Sensory integration dysfunction generally tends to affect three over-riding systems inside the body: tactile (touch), vestibular (balance-located in the ears), and proprioceptive (awareness of where body parts are located spatially in relation to one another). Hypersensitivities affecting these systems may complicate a person's sensory integration disorder, more than a simple hypersensitivity confined to either hearing or sight, which involve integrative processes confined to the brain. A proprioceptive sensitivity may significantly impair a person's awareness of the boundaries of their body, like where the beginning and end of one's arms are, or where they are in relation to the rest of the body. Tactile hypersensitivities may manifest in many different ways. Someone who has a vestibular sensitivity may really like roller coaster rides because of their centrifugal force, which gives extreme stimulation to their vestibular system.
Sensory integration and autism spectrum disorders
Sensory integration dysfunction is a common symptom of autism. Often, autistic children receive too much sensory stimulation through one or more of their senses, and in order to turn down the volume, they tend to avoid people, noises and bright lights. Autistic children do not develop the neurotypical capacity to integrate and modulate information from the five senses.
In her book, Thinking in Pictures, Temple Grandin reports the results of a survey about sensory integration in a relatively small population with autism spectrum disorders from one center:
- "A survey of sensory problems in 30 adults and children was conducted by Neil Walker and Margaret Whelan from the Geneva Centre in Toronto. Eighty percent reported hypersensivity to touch. Eighty-seven percent reported hypersensivity to sound. Eighty-six percent had problems with vision. However, thirty percent reported taste or smell sensivities."
See also
External links
- Autism.org (http://www.autism.org/si.html) - 'Sensory Integration', Cindy Hatch-Rasmussen, MA, OTR/L
- Genetic.org (http://www.genetic.org/ks/scvs/stephens.htm) - 'Sensory Integrative Dysfunction', Linda C. Stephens, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA
- LearningBreakthrough.com (http://www.learningbreakthrough.com/parents/sensory.htm) - 'Sensory Integration'
- SensoryInt.com (http://www.sensoryint.com/) - Sensory Integration International
- TheGrayCenter.org (http://www.thegraycenter.org/sensory_integration.htm) - 'Sensory Integration', Laurel A. Hoekman