Playing With Sensory Integration in Mind

by Robin Anex

Sensory Integration is an extremely useful lens to look through when working with, living with, or caring for another human.  Beginning in the 1950s, Dr. Anna Jean Ayres’ work focused on the relationship between the brain and behavior. She went on to develop the theory and associated interventions of Sensory Integration. In 1972 she defined Sensory Integration as the neurological process that organizes sensation from one’s own body and from the environment and makes it possible to use the body effectively within the environment. (Sensory Integration and Learning Disorders)

Interestingly, she spoke of experiencing sensorimotor difficulties as a child.  And in her career, she was driven to “help parents to recognize sensory integrative problems in their child, understand what is going on, and do something to help their child.”

I believe this is true of all of us who begin to explore this way of understanding; we see ourselves and with this understanding, we want to help both ourselves and others feel better and function more effectively.  We all are moving through life, noticing experiences that bring us to the “just right place” as well as being familiar with times we are less integrated and less effective. I have learned through my work with children that I also have a mild version of sensory integration dysfunction.

I like to think of times when I am in flow, my life is swimming along, I am comfortable.  I am engaged.  I am analyzing, creating, engaging.  I am able to tune out distractions.  I feel integrated and expansive.

On the flip side, I remember times when I feel bad.  It is hard to make sense of the words being said.  I am having trouble breathing or my stomach is turning really sour.  I am not doing my best.  I am not present for the people around me.  I am noticing a contracted reality, maybe unable to move my focus away from one or two annoying details of my environment.  

As an adult, as a parent, as a teacher, as a yogini, I have tools to self soothe, to reorganize.  I breathe, I move, I try to feel my body.  I am sensitive to noise and touch.  I know these things.  I am pretty good, most days, at getting myself back to the just right place.  Often, I can metaphorically put on armor or reach into my imaginary toolbox to support myself through many times of disintegration. It is a disorder that exists on a spectrum, both with differences between individuals and differences within an individual across time and situations.

Kids need our support.  Some kids more than others.  And in some situations more than others.  How can knowing about Sensory Integration help us be compassionate and effective in our interactions with the littles in our lives?

Let’s keep in mind that Sensory Integration is a humane and respectful system to use in decoding the meaning of another’s behavior.  It is a body based, relationally aware, integrative approach that supports each individual in being in a place of optimum functioning.  Sensory Integration looks at the relationship between a person and their environment.  We all have experienced both sensory integration and sensory disintegration.  Lets look in more detail at our sensory selves.

We are familiar with the five senses we learned in school: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching.  Let us add two more: proprioceptive (joint position sense), and vestibular (balance and movement).  These additions are about sensing where we are in space, and moving through space.  Within each of these sensory domains we can be overaroused or underaroused or possibly in the just right place.  

Let us think about variability of tolerance within auditory input for a moment.  Some people can be supremely distracted by the hum of fluorescent lights.  Some people may have equal trouble working next door to a construction site.  Some people may have no trouble with either situation.  Some people may work best with music playing through headphones. There is no right or wrong way to be, but with awareness of the environment and the individual, we can employ strategies that are effective.

Now let us think about children in a preschool classroom.  Another way the lens of sensory integration is useful in understanding sensory seeking behavior versus sensory avoidant behavior.  We are fingerpainting today.  Lilly dives across the table, disregarding other kid’s work, sliding delightedly to the edges with her hands and forearms.  She is grinning, happy to feel the paint on her arms and joyfully rubs it on her neck then pushes her hair back with her painty hands, grinning ear to ear, surprised that her friend is upset that Lilly has “ruined her painting!!”  Meanwhile, at another table Leo has pushed his chair far back and away, up against the wall, and is sitting on his hands, shaking his head, eyes closed, saying “no, no, no, no!” with increasing volume.  Maybe this behavior is in keeping with their temperaments and personalities.  Lilly runs hard, hugs and leans, and sometimes pushes people out of her way in her exuberance.  Leo likes to be settled and build things.  He has learned that people coming close sometimes knock over his stuff and sometimes touch him.  He sometimes pushes people away seemingly out of the blue.  Both Lilly and Leo are pushing other kids at school.  But when we start to look at the behavior as a message about their experiences, our responses to each child will be different.

Now that we have a beginning understanding of Sensory Integration, lets look at what tools and techniques we can bring into playing and caring routines.

Observation

Notice what is happening.  Put aside your agendas, preconceived ideas, distractedness, and frustrations and foster the practice of noticing.  There are often patterns to upsets.  What are they?  Be curious.  What is fun to your child? What is the message of their behavior?

Touch

What kind of touch does your child prefer? Firm touch? Light touch? Deep squeezes?  Joint compression?  Develop a vocabulary with your child where you offer different touch in a playful environment. Try this: Hickory Dickory Dock with the mouse (your hands) traveling up and down the clock (child’s body) with a variety of tactile experiences (running fingers, tapping, squeezing, brushing.) Help your child identify preferences and enlist them in thinking of other ways for the mouse to travel. 

Breath

Helping your child develop a variety of breath practices to help ground, center, and focus. (Belly breathing, tracing the hand with the opposite finger, inhaling as you trace up each digit and exhaling down.)

Move and Play

Know that kids in motion are learning the ways human brains were meant to learn.  Stop.  Go.  Plan.  Wait.  Notice. Executive function, impulse control, and emotional regulation are integral parts of many traditional early childhood games. Ring around the rosy, The Hoky Poky, Red light, Green Light, and I Spy all are activities that set children up to learn in ways that integrate more areas of the brain than screen time can. 

Adding the elements of storytelling and emotional engagement increase the parts of the brain that are engaged in any activity, thereby creating more robust experiences.  Sing, dance, draw, go outside, be barefoot.  

Want to learn more?

The Out of Synch Child by Carol Stock Kranowitz

The Out of Synch Child has Fun by Carol Stock Kranowitz

Raising a Sensory Smart Child by Lindsey Biel

© 2020 Robin Anex