Like one child in eighty-eight, my daughter has autism. While many people do not fully understand autism, awareness has improved. What really confuse people are problems with sensory integration, also known as sensory processing disorder or sensory dysfunction.

Sensory integration is the normal neurological process of organizing sensations for use in everyday life. Typically, our brain receives sensory information from both our bodies and our surroundings, interprets these messages, and organizes our response. For the most part, we don’t need to think about this process. It just happens.

Our sensory system includes the five senses we learn about it school—vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—as well as three hidden senses that develop early in the womb:

• Tactile—which gathers information through the surface of our skin, from head to toe, and tells us how we are touching or being touched.
• Proprioceptive—which gathers information through our muscles, joints, and ligaments, and tells us where our body parts are and what they’re doing.
• Vestibular—which gathers information through the inner ear about gravity and space, and tells us where our head and body are in relation to the earth. It helps us keep our balance.

You can think of these hidden senses as the more primitive senses, the ones that trigger the fight-or-flight response. Others have described them as the “lizard brain.”

Speaking as someone who has lived with this issue, a lizard brain is great when it works properly. An improperly functioning lizard brain is no fun at all.

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Sensory issues are difficult to explain, but we all have them to a certain extent. The best example I have involves a horrible mustard gold sweater my grandmother bought in Nova Scotia when I was eight. The fact that my family lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and had no real need for a heavy wool turtleneck did not deter my grandmother, and so my mother dutifully forced me to wear the hideous cabled monstrosity on the rare winter day that allowed its use. I hated this sweater. Not only was the color ugly, but the sweater made me sweat. Even worse, it itched.

For me, ultra-soft Merino wool is scratchy. The hideous gold turtleneck was pure torture. I’d wear an undershirt underneath which increased my sweating, but was the only thing that made the situation even remotely bearable. I’d fidget in school, unable to concentrate on anything the teacher said. It was all I could do not to claw at my neck and arms. It was as if my brain was so filled with unpleasant tactile sensations, that there was no room left over for anything else.

I imagine this is how it must be for Katie nearly every day. Except for her it’s not just tactile overload. She also has problems with her proprioceptive and vestibular systems as well as hypersensitive hearing. And worse, she doesn’t have the ability to communicate her discomfort.

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It is important to remember that there are different “flavors” of sensory dysfunction. Some people are hyposensitive (under sensitive). Some are hypersensitive (over sensitive). And others, like Katie, are called sensory seekers. These children crave additional sensory input, especially from the hidden senses (i.e., tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular). This is why Katie loves to swing, spin, jump, crash into furniture, and run laps on the playground. She is a movement addict.

Except unlike most addictions, this one cannot be denied. It must be fed.

Without movement, Katie can’t learn.

Until next time,
Cynthia Patton