• Visual Sense

  • Auditory Sense

  • Olfactory Sense

  • Gustatory Sense

  • Tactile Sense

  • Interoceptive Sense

  • Proprioceptive Sense

  • Vestibular Sense

Sensory Processing

 

Sensory processing is how our body receives and understands information from the world around us. We gather information from what we see, hear, touch, taste, smell and our movements. We also get messages from inside our bodies from organs like our heart, stomach or lungs. Each sense then gives a message to our brain to tell us how to react or interact with what is happening and gives us clues to our emotions.

The sensations sent to our brains also link to our memories telling us whether something is safe or unsafe or whether we like or don’t like it. Over time we can then utilise these memories and think of different tools we can use to help in all sorts of different situations.

In some children the messages sent to the brain from the senses are not so easily interpreted. This could be from one sense or lots of senses. Therefore the brain tells them to react or interact in a way that is not expected. Children show this in different ways:

  1. The brain gets stuck and can’t focus on the information it needs.

  2. They feel like there is too much information and they need to run away from it all.

  3. They panic in response to the information such as cry or fight back.

  4. They ignore the information and shut down