Sensory Integration If the sensory input is not processed and organized accurately, the result is abnormal motor output with abnormal feedback. This cycle continues with increasingly more disorganized sensory input and chaotic output and feedback. The consequences of a disorganized central nervous system are developmental lags, behavioral, emotional, and learning problems. Many atypical behaviors observed in children can be better understood when the effects of a disorganized central nervous system are taken into consideration. Without an efficient nervous system, we are unable to interact comfortably with the world around us.

What is Sensory Integration?

Sensory Integration is the organization of sensation for use so that we can respond.

To put it simply, sensory integration is the ability to take in, sort out, and connect information from the world around us in an organized manner.

Sensory integration puts it all together so that when we eat an orange we have a total experience.

We sense the orange through our eyes, (we see it),
our ears (the sound of the orange skin peeling),
our mouth (the taste)
our skin (on our hands and fingers and in our mouth)
and information from less conscious sensory systems that tell us
the exact position of our hand,
how wide we open our mouth,
how hard to bite down,
how much to move our head to our hand.

Thus, sensory integration nourishes the brain by helping the brain properly digest the sensory information it receives. Every moment countless bits of sensory information bombard our nervous system. It is estimated that 2 million bits per sec enter the central nervous system. Sensations are the food of the brain.

Without adequate sensory information the brain gradually becomes disorganized. In sensory deprivation tanks at first the person relaxes with the reduction in sensory stimulation, however after prolonged periods gradually the person become disorganized and start to hallucinate sensory information, much like a person in the desert hallucinates water. The brain needs sensation and without it, it will create its own.

With too much unmodulated sensory information a person is also overwhelmed and they can either become over stimulated or so overwhelmed they shut down. So the brain needs sensory information as food yet sensory integration can be thought of as how we digest that food. Without proper digestion we do not get the nutrients from the food and without proper sensory integration we do not perceive the world correctly.

As we are bombarded with all this sensory data we need to

Alert - attend or orient to new and/or important stimuli
Protect - Defend us if a stimuli is too overwhelming This is the first level of sensory integration. (Use examples of protection in the tactile system. Failure to respond to name being called in auditory system)
Select - filter out the non-essential input.
Organize - Into meaningful perception. This is accomplished by out central nervous system. It is done on an automatic level- so we don't have to think about it.

The central nervous system receives input from the environment which is organized and processed to produce a motor or behavioral output resulting in accurate feedback and additional input.

If the sensory input is not processed and organized accurately, the result is abnormal motor output with abnormal feedback. This cycle continues with increasingly more disorganized sensory input and chaotic output and feedback. The consequences of a disorganized central nervous system are developmental lags, behavioral, emotional, and learning problems.

Many atypical behaviors observed in children can be better understood when the effects of a disorganized central nervous system are taken into consideration. Without an efficient nervous system, we are unable to interact comfortably with the world around us.

THE SPECTRUM CENTER, Bethesda, MD. Integrated Therapy Services
Tomatis System Listening Training with a Purpose, 4715 Cordell Avenue, 3rd. Floor West, Bethesda, Maryland 20814

Phone: (301) 657-0988
E-Mail: info@spectrumcenter.com

What is Sensory Integration?

Many atypical behaviors observed in children can be better understood when the effects of a disorganized central nervous system are taken into consideration. Without an efficient nervous system, we are unable to interact comfortably with the world around us.

THE SPECTRUM CENTER, Bethesda, MD. Integrated Therapy Services Tomatis System Listening Training with a Purpose, 4715 Cordell Avenue, 3rd. Floor West, Bethesda, Maryland 20814

Phone: (301) 657-0988 E-Mail: info@spectrumcenter.com

copyright valerie m dejean 2000,2001

THE SPECTRUM CENTER, Bethesda, MD. Integrated Therapy Services
Tomatis System Listening Training with a Purpose, 4715 Cordell Avenue, 3rd. Floor West, Bethesda, Maryland 20814

Phone: (301) 657-0988
E-Mail: info@spectrumcenter.com