Proprioceptive Sense - Our sense of body awareness

This is our sense of body awareness and how much force to use with movements.

Proprioceptive input plays a very important role when helping us to feel just right. It can help when some of the other senses are overwhelming by calming the body down. It can also help to wake up or alert the body for those who need more stimulation to help them to focus and learn.

Often children will seek out proprioceptive input in order to feel just right when they are struggling to respond to sensory information and it is affecting their emotions and behaviour.

When a child’s proprioceptive system is not working properly they will often use too much or too little force e.g. throw a ball too hard or too softly. They may appear clumsy, crashing into objects and people in the environment because they are unsure where their body is in space. It can make it difficult to learn new movements making activities such as playing sports difficult.