Understanding Sensory Processing Needs

Originally posted October 14, 2023

Every person has a unique make up of how their body takes in sensory stimulii, the brain translates it into a message and sends it out. But for some people, the wires of communication work faster or slower, take detours or short-cuts and sometimes even the brain misunderstands the messages and sends out the wrong reaction. This is called Sensory Processing Disorder. Sensory Processing Disorder is a common comorbidity with Autism and ADHD but can sometimes stand alone.

The different sensory needs are as follows:
– Sight
– Hearing
– Touch
– Smell
– Vestibular
– Interoception
– Proprioception

There are so many children who have different sensory needs. One of the biggest reasons I want to open an indoor playground is to help alleviate these needs for local families. So below I want to introduce the major sensory processes and explain them briefly. Because of our own experiences at home, I can give greater insights into certain sensory needs, while I’m sure you may be more aware of others due to your own experiences.

Sight

Some of these sensory needs are fairly easy to understand but I wanted to break down how they can be understimulated or overstimulated. A person who gets easily overstimulated by visual information doesn’t like bright lights, sunshine, flashing lights and may require sunglasses in enclosed buildings or likes to hide in dark spaces. As a mother, I become so easily overstimulated visually because my son will find a YouTube video he is excited about and shove it in my face to see! This is one of my biggest triggers with my kids!! Being understimulated will cause the person to seek out bright flashing lights, bright TV shows and may stand up close to the TV or tablet screen as much as possible.

Hearing

Those who are overstimulated with sounds prefer the use of Noise Cancelling Headphones or like to use the noise filtering ear plugs like Loop. You can easily spot these struggles in noisy bathrooms with automatic flushing toilets and powerful hand dryers, noisy store environments, noisy streets, large crowds, etc. My kids would immediately cover up their ears and cry and shake. We have invested in several pairs of Noise Cancelling Headphones to help us navigate long road trips and shopping days. On the flip side, there are people who CRAVE the loud noises and need that extra stimulation. I remember my younger years of blasting heavy rock into my CD walkman headphones throughout the day. The loud beats and rhythms were very soothing for my stressed nerves in high school.

There are also some strange variations that can occur within the hearing sensory needs: volume may not be the only sound irritant. Complexity of sounds may also trigger overstimulation. Restaurants are notorious for this. All the loud clanging and talking background noises can be overwhelming to those whose brains are unable to filter out the sounds like most “neurotypical” people. And then to use all your extra senses to compensate: trying to focus to read lips and watch body language is exhausting. This may also explain why some people avoid the loud environments mentioned above but blast their personal music in their own spaces. The beats and rhythms are timed and expected whereas the chaotic environments are unpredictable and jarring.

Touch

Touch or tactile. This one can also be very complex. There are so many different forms of tactile information that some are wanted and others abhorred. Some people love the sticky, messing feeling of paint, play-doh, slime, glue, bubbles, shaving cream, etc. Others will avoid it at all costs! I have one child that will be covered from head to toe in paint and another that will demand to be wiped off immediately if a speck gets on his finger.

Meanwhile, the same child who hated the sticky messes, would constantly dump out his basket of toys and roll around in them, step on and crawl through his PILES of toys just to satisfy his need for extra stimulation. He would create huge piles of blankets and stuffed animals and crawl underneath for the extra weight and pressure. My kids love to have their souls squished and squeezed out of them with bear hugs or couch smooshes!! For the past few months my son has started to pile up thick blankets on top of him to help him go to sleep at night. He prefers to be cold so its not the warmth he’s seeking, its the weight and pressure to help him go to sleep.

Smell

Smell or olfactory. We could probably squeeze gustatory into this one as well. This makes me think of all the candle aisles and wax melts, the wonderful smells of bakeries, and pungent chemical smells on unexpected toys. Some people can be extra sensitive to smells, my son will make a face and demand to know what he’s smelling. I have recently discovered he is not a fan of my favorite moisturizing hand lotion. Ugh.

Gustatory (taste) sensitivities effect food tolerances. A common complaint of parents is that their kids are “picky eaters.” But this actually runs much deeper than a taste preference. Certain textures and tastes can actually trigger gagging and vomitting. My son will almost always refuse a soft, mushy food, like yogurt or applesauce. Some taste sensations are so sensitive that the person can detect a different brand, marinade or cooking convention. There’s also a popular meme floating around Facebook that perfectly explains why someone would choose an unhealthy alternative (say cracker) to a fruit or vegetable: texture and taste is reliable and consistent. They can trust the cracker to always have the same taste and crispness whereas the fruit might be firmer or mushier, sweeter or sour.

There’s also an eating disorder called Pica where the child eats non-food items: dirt, chalk, grass, toys, etc. Sometimes this is caused by a nutrition deficiency, but it can also be the need for oral stimulation. My first two children didn’t really put any toys in their mouths, but my youngest needed intense feeding therapy to learn how to properly suck as an infant and desensitize her gag reflex. So after being used to having to chew on teethers all the time, she continued to chew on EVERYTHING well long after therapy. There are now so many durable chew toy options for these needs. Also, offering crunchy foods, sucking smoothies through straws and chewing gum can help too.

Vestibular

Vestibular relates to the inner ear and balance. This one isn’t as commonly known, but those who struggle with this particular stimulation love to swing and spin. When you see a child spinning in circles over and over again, its giving them the sensation of their place in the world. It could also be providing visual stimulation with the constant moving motion. As we started to transition our youngest to sleeping in her sister’s bedroom, it took a full one to two hours for her to scream and finally calm down for bedtime. It was emotionally and physically exhausting for us as parents and who knows how troubling and disorienting for our daughter. This was our greatest need for an Occupational Therapy evaluation for her. She didn’t know how to communicate this sensory need and all she could do was scream. So very heartbreaking. The need? Vestibular. We purchased and installed a sensory swing. I gave her time to swing before bedtime every night, sometimes singing to her, sometimes she just wanted silence. Over time her routine has morphed into starting with jumping on the bed while singing “3 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” and then swinging while I sing “Little Bunny Fufu.” When I call out “the end!” she’s ready to hop out and lay down for bed. What a difference it makes when we take the time to figure out what sensory needs our children have and to provide for them!

Interoception

Another not so well known system is Interoception. This is when the body struggles to communicate or overcommunicates its needs that include toileting, hunger, hydration, gauging temperature and feeling one’s own emotions. Growing up and now into adulthood, I can tell you that I was very hyper sensitive of my body’s functions. So much so that I would complain about maladies before any doctor could detect or test for it, which caused and still causes a lot of frustration for me.

Most of my children seem to be more hyposensitive. We’ve really struggled with our daughter being able to recognize when she is hungry. We’ll ask her what she would like to eat for lunch but she’ll respond she doesn’t want anything. Over an hour has passed, we’ve moved on to different activities and she’s now ready to eat! As you can imagine, this causes a lot of disruption in our day and forces us to be very flexible with our home routines. The opposite is also possible, where the person’s body won’t communicate when its full causing overeating. The same child also has had significant trouble recognizing when she has to potty. This is why forcing an arbitrary timeline on skills is not at all beneficial. A person’s body may not be able to effectively communicate the need in time until it has matured in that area. Another one of my children is extremely intolerable to heat and will become overwhelmed very quickly out in full sun.

Proprioception

Lastly there is Proprioception. This comes from the internal sense relating to the joints, muscles, ligaments and other connective tissues. The biggest indicator for this is when you watch a person constantly bump into their peers or trip and fall all the time. Their body is not sensitive enough to communicate how close they are to something or someone. Many children could be wrongly labeled “aggressive” when it is just their body lacking the ability to communicate its surroundings. These needs are assisted with jumping, crashing, pulling, and pushing. These activities are referred to as “heavy lifting.” Unfortunately many people are under the impression that removing free activities like recess as a punishment will help with outbursts and poor behavior but in actuality it compacts the problem exponentially.

When we were struggling with understanding our youngest’s sensory needs a year or two ago, her Occupational Therapist suggested ankle weights because my daughter demanded to go to bed with her shoes on for the longest time. Her OT explained that for some children, their bodies cannot interpret their place in space and feel like they’re almost floating in air!! So the extra weights actually helped them feel like they were anchored to the floor and relieved a lot of their anxiety!

In Conclusion

As you can see, understanding sensory processing needs and providing ways to avoid them or amplify them can make life so much more tolerable and enjoyable for those who struggle with this disorder. We have been blessed to be able to provide some sensory equipment for our children at home. But having a much larger area with greater outlets for energy and exuberance would be even better!

As you read these sensory processing needs and recognize them in your own families and friends, pray for God’s provision in this endeavor!! I hope that we can assist our community with these specialized needs!