Occupational Therapy(OT) is a health profession devoted to helping people who have motor and behavior problems learn how to perform purposeful activities. For a child, purposeful activities include play, School-work, and activities of daily living (adl’s).
*Don’t let the title of Occupational Therapy fool you. These specialists work with infants, children and adults. OT’s provide essential evaluation and training to make efficient and effective learning and performance happen.
What is Sensory Integration?
A lot of learning and performance issues are caused from poor Sensory Integration abilities. Sensory Integration(SI) is the ability to take in information through the senses and put it together with proper information, memories, and knowledge stored in the brain in order to make a meaningful response. SI occurs in the central nervous system and is generally thought to take place in the mid-brain and brainstem levels. The body sends information to the portions of the brain responsible for such things as coordination, attention, arousal levels, autonomic functioning, emotions, memory, and higher level cognitive functions.
How Do I Know If My Child Has Sensory Integration Dysfunction?
Because of the complexity of the various areas that are dependent upon and interact with each other as well as the child’s own personality and environment, it is not possible to have a single list of symptoms that identify sensory integration dysfunction. If your child displays any of the following, he/she may have a dysfunction in sensory integration:
To request information about Occupational Therapy and Sensory Integration services, please contact us.