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Understanding Sensory Integration Dysfunction
By Pam Hawkins

Do you have a child whose behaviors and reactions continually puzzle you? Does it seem that the more familiar diagnoses like RAD, ADD, ADHD, ODD, FAS don’t really fit your child? You might feel like you’ve done enough research to earn a PhD and still don’t know where to turn to get a grip on what is going on with your son or daughter!

If your child is experiencing some of the following, this article may be of interest to you:

• Overly or under sensitive to touch, movement, sights, or sounds (very high pain tolerance, tags/seams on clothes may be irritating)
• Easily distracted (jumps from one activity to another frequently)
• Social and/or emotional problems (overly affectionate with others, anxious, difficulty making friends)
• Activity levels that are unusually high or unusually low
• Physical clumsiness or apparent carelessness (accident prone)
• Impulsive, lacking in self control
• Difficulty making transitions from one situation to another
• Inability to unwind or calm self
• Poor self concept
• Delays in speech, language, motor skills, or academic achievement

These are only some of the signs of what is called Sensory Integration Dysfunction.

Sensory Integration is the critical function of the brain that is responsible for organizing the senses so they work together to form a picture of who we are physically, where we are in space, and what is going on around us. Imagine how confusing your world would be without that information!

In her book, “The Out-of-Sync Child,” Carol Stack Kranowitz states that children diagnosed with Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID) have brains that are wired differently than their peers, making it difficult for them to make sense of messages received through any of the five senses. The child takes in too much information and the brain is on overload, which causes the child to avoid sensory messages and stimuli. With too little information the brain seeks more sensory stimuli.

It has been found there are higher rates of SID for children of adoption than with non-adopted children. SID can occur with children who have been institutionalized or hospitalized for long periods early in their life, or have suffered some sort of trauma and disruption in their developmental process.

There is also a high correlation between SI Dysfunction and Learning Disabilities (LD) with 70% of children diagnosed with LD having SI Dysfunction. SI Dysfunction can resemble ADHD with some over-lapping symptoms; however, the optimum treatments for the two differ. While symptoms of ADHD may be eased with medicine, targeted occupational therapy is more helpful in cases of SI Dysfunction.

Additionally, parenting children with SI Dysfunction can be challenging as they tend not to respond to typical interventions such as setting firm limits. Also, what may seem like a small task (tying shoes, cutting food with a knife) can be very difficult for a child with SID because of the many small actions and motor planning it actually takes to accomplish it.

Sensory Integration Dysfunction is diagnosed only by specially trained Occupational Therapists. SID can be treated with targeted occupational therapy individualized to meet the child’s needs.

The Sensory Integration International at www.sensoryint.com and The Sensory Processing Disorder Network at www.spdnetwork.org both have extensive lists of qualified Occupational Therapists located in Wisconsin. The Special Children Center located in Hudson, WI is also a great resource. They can be reached at (715) 386-2128 or on the web at www.specialchildrencenter.com.

Other helpful resources are:

“The Out of Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with SI Dysfunction” by Carol Stock Kranowitz

“The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun: Activities for Kids with Sensory Integration” by Carol Stock Kranowitz

Challenging Behavior in Young Children: Understanding, Preventing and Responding Effectively” by Barbara Kaiser

“Sensory Integration and the Child” by Jean Ayers

“SenseAbilities: Understanding Sensory Integration” by Maryann Colby Trott