Sensory Integration
Let's discuss Sensory Integration.
Sensory integration refers to the processing, integration, and organisation of sensory information from the body and the environment (Sensory Integration Education, 2023. SIE).
Basically, how our body experiences our senses. It is important throughout our lives and helps us to meet our basic needs such as dressing, eating, socialising, moving, learning, and working.
What is SPD?
Over time, Sensory Integration was the original term used by Jean Ayres, but over time, this is now referred to as Sensory Processing Disorder.
Individuals who have SPD tend to have difficulties associated with our seven senses.
1. Tactile: Sensitive to touch – doesn’t like being touched, unusually sensitive to being hot or cold, different textures of clothing.
2. Visual: Sight – feeling overwhelmed in certain environments.
3. Auditory: Listening – overwhelmed by noise, may hurt ear or head, or perhaps the opposite, difficulty registering sound.
4. Oral: Taste and texture – Dislikes brushing teeth, specific on foods taste and textures, may chew or lick inedible objects.
5. Olfactory: Smell – Notice specific smells others don’t, certain dislikes of cooking, or specific smells such as perfume.
6. Vestibular: Movement – Fear of heights, or the opposite, seeks height. Enjoy fast movement and spinning, thrill-seeking.
7. Proprioception: Body position – Doesn’t understand where the body or body parts are, appears clumsy.
Who does it affect?
SPD can affect many different individuals; therefore, research suggests it can be difficult to put a number on who and how many people it may affect.
SIE (2023) states that One 2009 *study, found that 1 in every 6 children has sensory processing issues that make it hard to learn and function in school. Other studies have found that **66% of autistic children (65-90% of autistic children, depending on the research study), and 32% of children with special education needs (who were not autistic) show definite differences in sensory behaviours.
More recently, a 2020 paper*** found that sensory processing difficulties predicted executive and cognitive dysfunctions in inhibitory control, auditory sustained attention, and short-term verbal memory in autistic children within a school context.
How can Speech and Language Therapists help?
When looking at a child’s communication style, we often refer to the ‘Communication Triangle’. This pyramid is often used to raise awareness of the ‘building blocks’ of communication, and that we don’t just use ‘speech’, this pyramid suggests that similarly to ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’, we must succeed in one building block before we move on to another.
Jean Ayres suggests that Sensory needs must be met before we can move forward with our communication, therefore adding SI to the bottom of the communication pyramid ensures that an Individual sensory needs are being met before focusing on the next component, if a child is dysregulated, they won’t be in the correct state to focus on the next building block.
Whilst Speech and Language Therapists refer to this communication model regularly, we do know that not everybody develops in the same way. This model could potentially mislead people to believe that a certain skill must be obtained before moving on to the next.
This model is referred to, to show how speech and language skills are supported by other skills, such as play, attention and listening, and sensory integration.
Difficulties with the proprioceptors and vestibular senses can impact an individual’s communication, for example:
· Difficulties with proprioceptors – the individual may have oral-motor difficulties or are perhaps craving some sensory input by clenching their jaw shut, resulting in inaccurate movements from their articulators, or low intelligibility due to a tightly shut jaw when talking.
· Difficulties with the vestibular system – vestibular and auditory work together, producing movement and sound, therefore playing a vital role in language development, if these are interrupted, this may result in speech and language difficulties and/or processing difficulties.
Therefore, if speech and language therapists, such as us at Unlocking Communication can integrate sensory needs into our therapy session, we have a better chance of stimulating those specific senses that are being directly impacted, which will then facilitate better speech and language development.
https://www.sensoryintegrationeducation.com/pages/what-is-si
