The term “sensory integration” refers to the processing, integration, and organisation of sensory information from the body and the environment. Essentially, it is how you experience, interpret and react to (or not) information coming from your senses.
We need to be able to integrate our sensory information from our environment. It plays a vital role in allowing us to participate in daily activities such as getting dressed, eating, moving around, socialising, learning and working.
Some individuals may have difficulty processing input from one sense (eg, visual processing), whereas other individuals may have trouble integrating inputs from more than one sensory system. This can lead to challenges in our everyday lives and have a negative impact on our social, emotional and physical well-being.
We all have a sensory system, and we all need to ‘feed’ it so we can participate in our daily activities.
Sensory approaches can support you to manage your emotional, physiological regulation through a calming/alerting scale, targeted strategies to use when feeling overwhelmed or strategies to help us feel more alert throughout the day.
Sensory modulation
Sensory modulation relates to the brain’s ability to respond appropriately to the sensory environment and to remain at an appropriate level of arousal or alertness. In other words, Sensory modulation allows you to focus on what is most important at that moment.
Praxis
Praxis is our ability to decide what your body has to do and then do it. It relies on integration of all our sensory systems to work correctly.
Sensory Assessments
Sensory assessments are undertaken by a trained Sensory Integration therapist to fully identify what your sensory challenges are and plan specific interventions to help support you to engage in daily activities. The assessment process will involve gathering a detailed history of your/your child’s development, completing relevant questionnaires and practical observations. Once these have been completed target-based strategies can be drawn up to identify what difficulties you may be experiencing in relation to your sensory systems. A formal report will be written outlining specific recommendations, and an intervention plan should you wish to pursue this following your assessment.