By Valerie Dejean

Danny is a beautiful four-year-old boy with two loving parents.After his birth by Cesarean, Danny nursed well and thrived.He reached the major developmental milestones on time -sittingat six months and walking at one year.Inother ways, however, Danny was just a bit different; he never respondedto the typical "so big" games, never clapped his hands, and never pointed.Inaddition, Danny was not a good sleeper and woke frequently at night until he was three years old.When he firstbegan solid food, Danny ate reasonably well, although every new food would initially elicit gagging.Over timeDanny began to refuse more and more foods, often without even tasting them.Now Danny has an extremely limited diet and will go without eating at all ifhis "favorite foods" are not available

Danny is extremelyresistant to hygiene activities such as bathing, hair washing, and nailclipping.Getting a haircut is virtually impossible.Danny does not deal willwith transitions and seems not to enjoy any of the "normal kid pastimes;he avoids messy activities such as finger painting or Play Dough.Herefuses to sit at story time and in general avoids his classmates, preferringto build complex block-towers in the corner of the room by himself.Danny's pediatrician says there is nothing wrong and suggests that maybe the parentsover anxious.His grandparents thinkhe is "just spoiled."

As parents you becomefrustrated, confused, and tired.

What is Sensory Integration Dysfunction?

Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SI Dysfunction) is the inability of an individual to appropriatelyprocess sensory stimulation. Our brains constantly receive sensory input-ourears constantly hear external and internal sounds, our skin receives constantsensory messages from the air, our clothes, and gravity, our eyes (whileopen) continually adapt to what is in our line of vision.Thesesensory messages are, in essence, "food for the brain."Ina well-functioning brain, messages from the central nervous system reachtheir optimal destination in the brain and are responded to appropriately.For individuals with SI Dysfunction, some messages are not received orare perceived improperly.They maybe misinterpreted, intensified or omitted, which, in turn does not allowthe brain to respond appropriately.Themixed messages and unusual responses leave the individual with SI Dysfunction"out of sync" with his or her world. (See The Out of Sync Childby Carol Kranowitz and Sensory Integration And Your Child by A.Jean Ayres.)

Thecause of SI Dysfunction is not known, although there are many theoriesthat range from genetic causes to traumatic birth experiences.SIDysfunction is also difficult to diagnose.Thebody's sensory integration systems are complex and interrelated; when dysfunctionoccurs, it can manifest in a variety of areas and behaviors.Also,some of the behavioral responses of SI Dysfunctional individuals are verysimilar to characteristics of other disorders, e.g. ADD.Finally,since many children exhibit similar behaviors in response to certain activities(e.g. a lot of kids hate to have their hair washed), it is difficult totell if a child's strong negative reaction in one area is "normal" or ifit is indicative of a problem.Itis necessary, therefore, to view the child overall to determine if, puttogether, all his or her "little idiosyncrasies" add up to something.Beloware some common behaviors and reactions of individuals with SI Dysfunction,broken into four categories: attention and focus, kinesthetic ability,sensory defensiveness, and socialization.

Attentionand Focus

To pay attention, one must be able tonot only concentrate on the task at hand, but also filter out irrelevantstimuli.An individual reading abook on the subway is an example of someone "blocking out"irrelevant stimuli-peopletalking, sound of the subway car, announcements of stations-andfocusing her attention on her book.Individualswith SI Dysfunction often cannot discriminate relevant from irrelevantstimuli.For example, a parent maycall the child's name repeatedly while in the room with her and she willnot respond.Yet she will look upin response to the faint sound of the train whistle as it passes severalblocks away. Individuals with SI Dysfunction often key in to backgroundnoise (refrigerator motors, washer/dryer cycles) but may be unresponsiveto other, more essential stimuli (a question directed to them, the soundof their name). At the same time, these individuals may be hypersensitiveto some sounds-thesound of the vacuum cleaner may drive them crazy-butoblivious to others-firesirens are no big deal. 

Someindividuals with SI Dysfunction are unable to focus their attention onone task for any length of time. They may wander around a room of toys,pulling out this and that but not really playing with anything.Otherswill spend hours focusing on one aspect of a toy-theymay pull out the "voice box" of a talking stuffed animal and play it overand over to figure out exactly how it works.Stillothers will play repetitive games-thedoll goes in the car, the doll comes out of the car, the doll goes in thecar again.Since many individualswith SI Dysfunctionhave motor planningproblems, they often cannot tolerate a change in their game or a rapidtransition from one activity to another.

KinestheticAbility

Many children withSI Dysfunction are "off balance."Theymay be physically awkward or clumsy, tripping and falling for no apparentreason.Others are "dare devils"-theydo not realize the potential danger of climbing too high, or they may cravethe stimulation of spinning as fast as they can.Stillothers are overly cautious-theynever seem to get hurt and tend to be very careful during physical activities-climbingslowly and carefully on the playground, sitting or crawling over a lowstep or bump so as not to fall.

The SI Network (www.sinetwork.com)identifies individuals with SI Dysfunction as often being sensory seekers,sensory avoiders, or a combination of the two.Thesensory seekers "have nervous systems that are under-responsive to sensation. Asa result, they seek out more intense or longer sensory experiences."(SINetwork homepage).The sensory seekersmay tend to exhibit hyperactive behavior in their unquenchable guest forsensory input.Since they oftendo not get dizzy, they will swing or spin for prolonged periods.Atbedtime, they may find it very difficult to settle down either becausethey have not received enough stimulation for the day, or because theirconstant activity has actually over-stimulated them.

Sensory Defensiveness

On the contrary,the sensory avoiders "have nervous systems that are overly responsive tosensation.As a result they may have'fight or flight' responses to sensation, a condition called 'sensory defensiveness'(SI Network, homepage).Those withsensory defensiveness may be uncomfortable in groups or busy places likecrowded malls.They may also beunable to tolerate certain fabrics, tags in their clothes, or wrinklesin their socks.Individuals withsensory defensiveness are often very picky eaters-theycannot stand the texture of many foods, and may also be extremely sensitiveto odors.Sensory defensive individualsoften avoid messy activities such as finger painting, making mud pies,etc.To some of these children asmall wet-spot on their shirt is enough to distract them for the entireday-theycannot function until they have changed their shirt.

Socialization

Socializingcan be difficult for individuals with SI Dysfunction.TheirDyspraxia (poor motor planning) makes it difficult for them to adapt tonew situations, a necessary skill in order to play with peers.Ifthey have any sensory defensiveness, they may also shy away from or respondnegatively or aggressively to unexpected touch.Communicatingwith others may be extremely difficult if filtering out background noise(like extraneous classroom noise) is a challenge.Also,as these children grow, they may become more and more aware of their differences,which can lead to esteem issues.

How The Spectrum Center Can Help

Copyright 2008
 
 

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