What are sensorics and sensory integration? Sensory integration is an unconscious process performed automatically by the brain, organizing information acquired through the senses - sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, balance, vestibular orientation and the position of the body. The brain sifts the entirety of this information, chooses what to focus on and creates the subjective experience. This entire process allows for us to act deliberately, as the brain interprets everything that is happening, communicates it to the body, and tells it how to react.
Sensory integration plays an important role in the development of every living thing. It allows for both dynamic and static balance and dexterity, coordinated movements, and maintaining attention. It also includes processing of information received from the eyes and ears, tracking a moving object, hand-eye-foot coordination, which all directly leads to reading readiness, understanding perspective, size, weight, time, and speech.
All of the information which we receive from our environment arrives in the brain through sensory systems. Many of these sensory processes are often performed unconsciously, which is why we are rarely aware of them. Although we are consciously aware of our sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste, our nervous system is also processing balance, the strength of gravity and the position of our body. In the same manner as the eye collects visual information and provides it to the brain, other sensory systems have their respective receptors, which collect information about, for example, pain, temperature, and pressure. Structures in the inner ear can feel not only the waves caused by sounds but also changes in the position of the head. This information is crucial for precise head movements. Groups of muscles, ligaments, and joints provide the information for the so-called scheme of the body. The sensations of touch, balance, and body position begin to function long before birth. These sensory systems are innately connected and continue to form new connections with the brain as it develops. The interplay of these systems is complicated, however, it is necessary for precise sensory integration of a given situation and thus - an adequate reaction. Precisely this organization of the senses is sensory integration.
Tactile sensory system. As soon as we are born, we require different touches. Receiving tactile information from objects with different textures, the baby is able to get used to various environmental sensory stimuli. With the skin being the largest organ, receiving these different sensations, the child is able to collect a vast assortment of tactile information, encode it in the brain, and thus satiate one of the main sensory systems. Playing with different textures such as sand, water, plasticine, pebbles, etc., gives the child the same type of meaningful stimuli to the tactile system, and often has a calming effect on children. Such sensory play is also shown to facilitate attention.
Sound sensory system The term "auditory perception" refers to the way in which our central nervous system uses the information received through hearing. Adequate processing of auditory information is essential for proper verbal communication. Auditory perception includes systems which organize, discern, analyze, transform, and integrate different auditory stimuli. Talking to the baby, even while it is still in the womb, is extremely important for speech, as well as mental and intellectual development. Providing the child with different age-appropriate sound profiles and music also proves to be beneficial to the sound sensory system and the overall development of the child.
Gustatory Sensory System From the point of birth, babies distinguish different tastes from breast milk or formula milk. Nursing is extremely important for the "waking up" of the taste receptors, which can be over 10,000, according to recent studies. The inside of the mouth is rich with these receptors, through which we receive rich multisensory feedback for the objects in the mouth. Interestingly enough, acoustics are also involved here, as the period in which children most often put objects in their mouths (6-9 months) corresponds to the period in which the vocalization of consonants emerges. It has been established that children regularly vocalize and attempt to pronounce different sounds when they have something in their mouths. it is entirely natural for babies and small children to learn about new things they find interesting by putting them in their mouth.
Visual sensory system Visual stimulation for babies and children is extremely important. It has been found that babies prefer to look at black-and-white shapes because the retinal structures that perceive colour are not yet mature enough to perceive bright colours. Later in development, children's attention is strongly attracted by the variety of colours and shapes in the world around them. Eye tracking from an early age pays off later in school in learning to read. Children who have been sensory-visually stimulated easily move their eyes along the lines of texts and concentrate more easily.
Olfactory sensory system Areas in the cerebral cortex responsible for perceiving olfactory information are known to be associated with those for memory and speech. Children are able to recognize different smells from an early age. During feeding, the olfactory stimuli become more numerous, as children begin to learn about food not only by its appearance and taste, but also by its aroma.
Proprioceptive sensory system This is the sensation that gives us information about the position of our own body in space. When we use our muscles or stretch and flex our joints, we stimulate this sensation. The receptors of the proprioceptive system are all over our body, deep in our joints and muscles. When we push, pull, or lift heavy objects, we stimulate proprioception.
Speaking of proprioception, we can't help but mention the vestibular system. It is part of the inner ear and helps with precise eye movements so that we don't get dizzy when we move our head. This system is interrelated with balance, spatial awareness and body posture. The messages sent by the nerve endings of the vestibular apparatus and received by the brain play an important role in all aspects of the child's development, such as visual development, muscle tone, position in space. Directly or indirectly, the vestibular system affects almost everything we do. It is like an unifying system in our brain that modifies and coordinates information received from other systems. Already in the womb, the "sense of balance" is activated by the turning, movements, kicking of the fetus. It is important to give the baby such opportunities in the first months after birth.
Interoception Broadly speaking, it is body awareness. At birth, babies still don't know where their body begins and ends. Every touch and movement creates messages that are sent through nerve endings to the brain. This helps babies discover that they have many different body parts. Primitive reflexes create the first impressions in the newborn and the initial awareness of the body. For this purpose, the brain must receive messages from the neural networks (senses) to create a complete map of the body. Activities that involve movement provide one of the best ways to promote body awareness.
Sensory-integrative dysfunctionThese are conditions in which one or more of the above sensory systems suffers and fails to process information from the outside world through its assigned neurons. The brain has not been able to build a good enough system of neural connections so that the stimuli from our environment can pass smoothly through us and be processed into the information we need.
In disorders of the tactile sensory system, hypersensitivity to touch, substances, change of weather conditions is observed. The skin reacts to external stimuli, the brain fails to process them, as a result of which the external stimulus becomes unpleasant and even unacceptable to the touch. This disorder is often expressed in a fear of rough or atypical materials, sensitivity to certain types of clothing or parts of them, touching the skin, hugging.
Auditory sensory system disorder is expressed in intolerance to loud sounds, crowds of people or sounds with a certain hertz that this sensory system cannot process. Often, children with an impaired auditory sensory system have the ability to perceive only their own self-produced auditory stimuli.
Generally speaking, the disorder in the gustatory and olfactory sensory systems is expressed in picky eating. It is an underdevelopment of taste and smell receptors that were not stimulated enough at an early age to be able to process information from food and send it as feedback to the brain. Often, children with impaired gustatory and/or olfactory sensory systems are reluctant to try new foods, react with anxiety to them, and stick to a minimal number of tastes and types of foods to which they are accustomed. Also, children with impaired taste sensory system have a harder time learning to swallow, suck, drink from a straw/cup, chew food and, accordingly, speak. This is due to the fact that they significantly less experiment with their mouth and all the receptors in it.
The disorder in the visual sensory system is most often detected in school, when the literacy process begins. In fact, the disorder can be noticed at an early age. Then the baby learns to track the dynamic objects in its surroundings, which strengthens the eye muscles. Or then are the first signs of concentration when it fixes its attention on a static object and examines it thoroughly through its vision. The lack of these visual skills leads to weakened eye muscles, difficulties in concentration and retention of attention, which in themselves make learning academic processes difficult.
Disorders in proprioception are mostly related to body awareness. Usually, such people initially have no sense of where their body begins and ends, no sense of physical boundaries - neither their own nor the world around them. Such a violation leads to disorientation in space, impaired balance and coordination. This type of person often has difficulty riding a bike and/or scooter, standing on one leg, swinging in swings, and often gets sick when riding in a car. Children with impaired proprioception often experience a fear of heights, swings and slides, behave much more cautiously in their movements, or on the contrary - they lack a sense of self-preservation and their movements are chaotic and unpredictable in relation to the environment.
How does sensory integration therapy help in the sensory room? For most children, sensory integration develops in everyday activities. For others, however, it does not develop as qualitatively as it should and they need more activities and support in this direction. All the above-mentioned sensory systems should be developed from early infancy and in sync. If a violation of any of the sensory systems is detected at a later stage of development, it is possible to partially "awaken" the sensations and catch up with their development.
The sensory room/hall is decorated with a variety of pastel colors, but also bright lights for visual stimulation. It is equipped with a number of motor challenges to help develop proprioception. Children there are also stimulated aurally with different music and tones, gustatory and olfactory. Regular periodic visits to a sensory room/hall help to awaken the senses in a protected and interactive environment under the supervision and work of specialists. Children are provided with a variety of stimuli according to their needs so that they can develop their full neural potential and create as many neural connections as possible.