Our Amazing Senses
We have eight sensory systems:
Visual (sight)
Auditory (hearing)
Tactile (touch)
Olfactory (smell)
Gustatory (taste)
Vestibular (balance, movement and coordination)
Proprioception (body awareness and position)
Interoception (internal "hidden" sense)
Our sensory systems send information from our senses to the brain via nerve impulses. They tell the brain something is happening in the body.
Sensory Processing &
Integration Difficulties
Poor sensory integration can result in many difficulties, some of which are:
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disengagement in educational activities;
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reduced attention and concentration;
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missing developmental milestones;
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struggling to communicate and socialise;
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an inability to independently carry out daily living tasks.
Fundamentally, the way to cope with and reduce these challenges is to improve the individual’s sensory integration with treatment and therapy.
What is Sensory Integration?
We are not born with all of our senses fully integrated. Sensory integration happens when we interact with our environment.
The brain receives this information from our sensory systems , puts it together (integrates it), checks our memories to decide how we need to respond, and then sends signals back out to the organs, skin, muscles so we can act on the information.
Adapting to and learning from changes in the environment allows the brain to grow and develop.
When our senses are integrated correctly we are able to respond appropriately to the sensation.
This gives us an understanding of who we are, where we are and what is happening around us.