Sensory Skills Red Flags
Examples of Hypersensitivity include:
- Feeling pain from clothing rubbing against skin
- An inability to tolerate normal lighting in a room
-
A dislike of being touched (especially light
touch)
- Discomfort when one looks directly into the eyes of
another person
Hyposensitivity is characterized by an
unusually high tolerance for environmental stimuli.
- Your child might appear restless and seek sensory
stimulation
Therapy Options
Thankfully, there are many ways to deal with delays in child
development and behaviors.
These include in-home services, outpatient (you take your child
to a clinic), inpatient (following injury or surgery) and school
based services. Which type of therapy should you choose?
Visit our Therapy
Options area to learn more.
Ask a Therapist
We understand developmental milestones and the challenges of
Special Needs children. We spend a great deal of time with
families understanding the inner workings of childhood routines
and interactions. Ask us about your child today!
Ask a Therapist
Is My Baby's Sensory Skills Typical?
Sensory Processing Disorder
A child with this neurological disorder (also called sensory integration
dysfunction) will have difficulty processing information from the five
senses: vision auditory, touch, taste and smell.
In addition, this disorder can cause problems with a child's sense of
movement and/or the positional sense, called proprioception. The child can
sense the information normally, (for example, he can hear), but the
information is processed differently in the brain. This can cause distress
or confusion.
Sensory processing disorder can exist alone or it can exist with other
neurological conditions, such as autism, attention deficit disorders,
dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette's syndrome, multiple sclerosis and others.
What are the symptoms?
Children can be born either hypersensitive or hyposensitive to varying
degrees and may have trouble with one of the senses, a few senses, or all of
them.
How is sensory processing disorder diagnosed?
Unlike many neurological problems that require validation by a licensed
psychiatrist or physician, this condition is most often diagnosed by an
occupational therapist. It is increasingly being diagnosed by developmental
pediatricians, pediatric neurologists, and child psychologists.
What is the treatment?
An occupational therapist will work with your child to focus on
increasing your child's ability to tolerate a variety of sensory experiences
to create the 'just right' fit for your child. In addition, deep pressure is
often calming for children who have sensory dysfunctions.
It is recommended that therapists use a variety of tactile materials, a
quiet, subdued voice, and slow, linear movements, tailoring the approach to
the child's unique sensory needs. The children are engaged in therapy as
play which may include activities such as: finger painting, using Play-Doh
type modeling clay, swinging, playing in bins of rice or water, and
climbing.
Contact Information
Find Early Intervention
Support contacts in your State. If you have a question or comment for
us, please visit our Contact page.
Early Intervention Helps with Developmental Delay
For children with Special Needs, intervention in early childhood
development means finding specific ways to help a child become as functional
as possible.
Learn more on our Parenting
Tips
page.
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