Sensory integration has had it's champions and it's adversaries through the years. Is sensory integration real? From my experience as a parent and professional, I would say it's real for those who have good integration of their sensory systems. Those individuals who have sensory systems that don't work together well, sensory integration is not real....it isn't working. When it isn't working, life is not fun for that person or anyone around him. I will define some sensory terms and then illustrate what this might look like.
Sensory Systems
Visual- things that a person sees. This may come in the form of light and dark. It may be the things that are in a person's sight whether it is desiring lots of visual stimulation or very little.
Auditory- what a person hears. Are there sounds that are comforting and other sounds that are distressing? There are considerations of how fast a person can process auditory instructions. Does an individual hear a sound at the volume as others?
Tactile is what one experiences primarily through the skin. This involves touch, temperature, water or other substance touching the skin.
Gustatory(taste) is anything that involves the mouth. It could be about the texture of a food. It can involve a taste of a a food. It also involves the intensity of foods and motor movements of the mouth. Sucking, chewing and blowing are examples. The gustatory system is highly connected to olfactory system.
Olfactory (smell) is the sense that is all about the odors of things in the environment. It is highly connected to the gustatory system.
Vestibular helps one to know where he is spatially. It aids an individual in movement and balance when it works as it should.
Proprioception: The ability to sense stimuli arising within the body regarding position, motion, and equilibrium. It is knowing where you are. Where is your hand in relationship to your foot?
So here are the seven sensory systems that occupational therapists work when helping people with sensory integration needs. Each system has an important function. Many of the everydays tasks that each person must do requires more than one sensory system to work together to accomplish them. There are problems that happen when a needed sensory systems isn't working properly. The task is hard to complete without tremendous effort. This is multiplied many times if two or more of the sensory systems need to integrate to accomplish a task and they are unable to do it.
Next week we will look at what happens when sensory integration doesn't happen or when sensory integration isn't real!
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