Sensory Processing Disorder can create panic in affected children.
Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is a developmental problem causing children to feel extremely attracted to or repelled by certain sights, sounds, tastes, textures and smells. Underdeveloped neural pathways in a child's brain are unable to properly conduct impulses created by sensory stimulation, creating confusion for the brain that often manifests as distress. There's only one cure: developing the needed neural pathways. Sensory integration treatments help trigger the brain to do exactly that. At this point, SPD is not fully recognized by mainstream medicine. However, occupational therapists and a number of pediatric specialists have developed four general approaches to treatment.
Identification Activities
One way to help children's brains become more comfortable with difficult sensory inputs is to help train their brains to understand and identify challenging stimuli. If a child is of speaking age and has the necessary vocabulary and cognitive abilities, games where a child touches, smells, tastes or listens to something blindfolded can be a fun and beneficial activity. For example if a child has trouble with textures, a parent might blindfold him and give him different shaped blocks to identify such as spheres, cones, pyramids, etc. With tastes and oral textures, having the child take a taste and name the food can be a useful and fun game. Therapists and parents have developed myriad identifying activities and usually adapt their approaches to each specific child and situation.
Vestibular Motion
Vestibular motion is arguably the most important activity to developing neural pathways for children with SPD. Motion itself helps trigger the brain to further pathway myelination and development. Running, kicking, jumping, rolling, bouncing, tumbling, swimming, swinging, and spinning are all vestibular activities. Luckily, innumerable activities involve vestibular motion, and many ways exist to get kids to do these them. Because vestibular motion can easily be worked into games, many happily do them on their own. Parents and others helping a child through sensory integration treatment need to make sure the child undertakes vestibular activities as much as possible.
Gradual Exposure
Kids with SPD ultimately need exposure to the very things they dislike or fear to help them develop past their problems. Many sensory integration treatments focus on slowly exposing kids to measured doses of the stimuli with which they have difficulty. For example, if a child who has problems with bright lights sits in a room where light levels begin at low and periodically become brighter, they may be able to experience a bright light without becoming alarmed. However, experts advise that it's very important never to force anything that creates distress. Expose a child only to what she can tolerate. Slow, steady exposure over a long period of time is sometimes the only way.
Heavy Lifting
Lifting and pulling weighted items helps trigger neural pathway development for SPD kids. It can also help ground kids whose SPD may cause them to feel panicky or out of place. Activities such as pulling a wagon with rocks or lots of toys in it can help address SPD. Holding or playing with heavy balls and toys can do the same thing.
Tags: neural pathways, example child, have developed, helps trigger, integration treatments, Processing Disorder