Support with Sensory Needs

What is sensory processing? 

We all receive and process sensory information continuously throughout the day. For most people this is not a problem but for some children this can cause difficulties with behaviour and concentration, as well as carrying out everyday activities. 

Each of the sensory systems is responsible for providing us with information about the world around us. Sometimes these systems work too well and too much information is taken in, overwhelming your child and making them avoid certain situations (e.g. covering ears when noises are too loud). Sometimes they don’t work as well as they should and in those cases your child is likely to seek more of the sensation (e.g. spinning round and round to feel the movement).  Sometimes this is known as being hypo- sensitive or hyper-sensitive.

Our 7 sensory systems

• Auditory Processing -how we hear sound            
• Tactile processing- how we experience touch
• Vestibular processing -how we feel movement
• Proprioception -our body awareness
• Visual processing -how we see things
• Gustatory processing - our sense of taste
• Olfactory processing-our sense of smell

The following websites have some useful information for parents of children with sensory processing difficulties.