Six-year-old Chanie often seems to be in a daze, bumping into furniture and stumbling on grass, as if she doesn’t quite see where she’s going. Chanie also does not appear to hear ordinary sounds, disregarding oncoming noises that would cause anyone else her age to stop and listen. Moreover, she tends to act lethargic, taking a long time to carry out many basic movements and mostly avoiding participation in classroom activities. Yet paradoxically, she sometimes displays exuberant energy, volunteering to push the grocery cart and pull her older sister in a wagon. Chanie’s parents have no idea how to handle their daughter’s contradictory and often counterproductive behavior.
Eight-year-old Heshy is constantly fidgeting. In his classroom at yeshivah, he doodles with markers, taps rulers and breaks pencils in half. His body seems to be in perpetual motion. He’ll tip his chair all the way back and then bring it forward with a jolt, and he regularly jumps out of his seat. Although his nonstop activity disturbs his teacher and classmates, the boy can’t seem to control himself. In general, Heshy is always seeking sensations, overeager to touch things around him, even when doing so is obviously inappropriate.
There are many children whose predicaments are similar to Chanie’s and Heshy’s—they do not have any identified disabilities, yet they struggle with the basic skills of managing their responses to ordinary situations and of regulating their attention and activity levels. Despite the range of differing symptoms that they exhibit, these children have one thing in common—they have Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), which is the brain’s inability to properly take in and use information received through the senses in order to function smoothly in daily life.
As an experienced educator, I have successfully treated children with this condition through carefully monitored sessions of social skills training. In the course of my work, I have learned that SPD consists of several unique categories of behavioral dysfunction. A child with Sensory Modulation Disorder will have one of three types of reactions to such common sensory experiences as touch, movement and balance, body position and muscle control, sights, sounds, smells and tastes. When faced with one or more of these routine sensory experiences, the child may either be: over-responsive, avoiding the experience as much as possible; under-responsive, acting unaware of obvious manifestations of these sensory encounters; or sensory-seeking, engaging with the sensory experience in an unusually aggressive manner. SPD can also feature Sensory Discrimination Disorder, wherein the child is unable to distinguish between individual sensations (such as similar visuals or words), and Sensory-Based Motor Disorder, which causes the child to lose their balance as well as move or coordinate with significant difficulty.
A child who has any of these behavior issues will obviously find it difficult to succeed. Whether at home trying to perform everyday tasks, in school attempting to learn, or seeking to play and socialize with friends, the child inevitably becomes frustrated when he or she fails to complete routine activities in an appropriate manner. When these personal obstacles repeatedly hamper the child’s performance, the youngster unfortunately becomes alienated from their peers and suffers both academically and emotionally.
As the “first line of defense” for children who have SPD, parents can take an active role by introducing a balanced “sensory diet” for their children to engage in at home, including activities that strengthen neurological development and improve their self-help skills. A balanced sensory diet is a planned and scheduled activity program that is designed to meet the specific needs of a child’s nervous system. Adherence to such a program helps the child become better regulated and more focused, adaptable and skillful.
A sensory diet consists of a combination of alerting, organizing and calming activities. Alerting activities benefit the under-responsive child, who needs a boost to become more active within his environment. These can include bouncing on a beach ball or jumping up and down on a mattress or trampoline. Organizing activities, which help regulate the child’s responses, can include pushing or pulling heavy loads, or getting into an upside-down position. Calming activities help the child decrease sensory over-responsiveness or over-stimulation. They can include swaying or swinging slowly to and fro, or taking a bath. Parents should be aware of proper guidelines for how best to implement a sensory diet for their child. Some of these guidelines would be: scheduling specific times during the day for a structured sequence of activities; letting the child direct the play, to ensure that they are enjoying it; and changing the routine and environment to keep a sense of variety.
Through the combination of a balanced sensory diet at home and supervised sessions with a caring professional, the child who is struggling with Sensory Processing Disorder will ultimately achieve the desired level of functioning that will imbue him or her with the requisite confidence to succeed in everyday life.
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Mrs. Rifka Schonfeld founded and directs the widely acclaimed educational program SOS, servicing all grade levels in secular as well as Hebrew studies. She offers teacher training, consulting services and evaluations. She has extensive expertise in the field of social skills training and focuses on working with the whole child.
