By Stacy Lyons
From the ages of newborn – 7 years old, the primary way that we learn is through our senses. It’s why the first year of our life is mainly focused on gaining control of our body and our movement (as we start to move against gravity – sitting, crawling, cruising, and independently walking). Subsequently, this movement becomes more refined and skilled over the next six years. Sensory Integration and Sensory Processing refers to this learning process. It is taking in information about our body and the world around us, developing the perception (or brain level understanding) of this input, and using it to engage with the world around us. By understanding these sensations and what they do for us developmentally, it becomes easier to analyze our child’s preferences, unique development, and what they need in order to be successful in developing their skills.
We get sensory information from our seven senses…yes, I said seven. We learn the five basic senses - taste, touch, smell, vision, and hearing - in any educational environment. You learn the last two senses there as well, in the form of body awareness and balance. BUT these two senses are much more than that, and they play a very big part, arguably two of the biggest parts, in our development. They are proprioception and vestibular processing.
Proprioception is a sensation that comes from the compression or stretching of our muscles and joints, which is the reason we think of it as body awareness. It tells us where our body is (what position our muscles and joints are in) and how hard or soft we should do something (force gradation).
Vestibular is a sensation that comes from our inner ear. It tells us where our head is in space (in relation to gravity), how that gravity affects us, and how our head is moving (when we are moving). It can tell us about linear horizontal, linear vertical, rotational, and multi-planal movement. It is the foundation for our tone (or the resting state of our muscles – most importantly our postural muscles) and our balance.
As we explore each sense, I will post articles providing more information for each specific sense and what it does for us, including Vestibular and Proprioceptive Processing.
My hope for parents is that you can take this information, grasp it, engage with it, and then use it to feel the freedom to engage with your children in a new and powerful way.