Sherra Bloomenkranz, OTR/L Pediatric Occupational Therapist Evanston/Skokie School District 65
We know that sensory processing issues affect both behavior and learning. What are those affects? How can we identify who has these issues? How can we help these children? These are the questions this workshop will address.
How is SI different than ADHD? ADHD triggers behaviors that are inresponse to internal stimuli. SI is in response to the environment. Input gets misread and sparks incorrect responses. ADHD causes impulsivity and shifting focus. The impulsivity is not as common withSI issues, though ADHD does bring SI problems. So how do you know? ADHD behaviors are across all settings. SI behaviors are responsive, so they can disappear in some settings. When they are fidgety and disorganized, have they lost focus? Do they start things and then move on without finishing? That is less typical of the sensory child. They may tire before they finish, but they do not consistently leave thingsundone.
Everybody has some sort of “sensory issue”. Sensory problems are only problems if they are in your way. For some kids, the processing difficulties can be very painful or unsettling and just knowing something stressful is coming can bring behavior problems. For example, every Tuesday Morah teaches a song with motions. The singing and movement and inability to follow is overwhelming and the child will start getting anxious before she gets there, or as the time nears. Look for the patterns.
Your students are processing all sorts of senses at the same time; sight, touch, sound, vestibular (the sense of movement), and proprioceptive input (sensations from joints, muscles and connective tissues that lead to body awareness that can be obtained by lifting, pushing, and pulling heavy objects, including one's own weight).
There is so much sensory input to process at any given time. The student uses up all his energy just to get by. The new buzz word now is regulation. Regulation is a thermostat. When you are in the playground you are loud. In shul you are quiet. What about ina lunchroom? In class during a discussion? What about the library? There are levels. When a child cannot stay regulated, it means he is not able to match his body’s “arousal level” to the environment, or that he cannot switch between them on his own. The student is getting up and moving around, not because he can’t sit as much as because he doesn’t seem to be clued in that it is quiet time. The behavior is not necessarily wild, it is just not appropriate for the setting. More common is the child who is loud at the right times but cannot change to calm. After lunch, after recess, after short breaks, he seems to be unable to shift to the change in environment. Everyone is laughing. Then everyone gets quiet and moves on. He is still laughing.
These behaviors are very similar to impulsive, ADHD behaviors but usually, once the student calms, he stays calm and can work. The problem is getting there. Some kids get dysregulated (lose that just right state) from emotional input, orfrom getting stressed by sensory input around them, like kids talking nearby, or their body needing a break.
We can’t fix the problem, but we can help. We can figure out what they need, and what we can change or provide. We can notice when it isn’t working and when they need breaks. We can remove the obstacles and can modify the work we expect of them. We can change the environment by putting things in place or taking things away to make the environment work for them. These are the modifications for sensory processing problems that you can make to help your students succeed.
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