Sensory Integration

Sensory Integration Disorder / Sensory Processing Disorder

Sensory Integration/Processing Disorder (SID/SPD) is thought to affect approximately 5-10% of children (Kranowitz, 2005). Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is impairment in detecting, modulating, interpreting, or responding to sensory stimuli. Recent studies indicate a high rate of comorbidity between ADHD and sensory-related issues (Mangeot et al., 2001; Miller, Coll, & Schoen, 2007; Yochman, Parush, & Ornoy, 2004).

Sensory integration can be described as a theory of brain-behaviour relationships based on the following premises (Glomstad, 2004):

1. Learning is dependent on the ability to take in and process sensation from movement and the environment and use it to plan and organize behaviour

2. Individuals who have a decreased ability to process sensation also may have difficulty producing appropriate actions, which, in turn, may interfere with learning and behaviour.

3. Enhanced sensation, as a part of meaningful activity that yields an adaptive interaction, improves the ability to process sensation, thereby enhancing learning and behaviour (p. 4).

Sensory integration-based occupational therapy involves the use of sensory-rich activities using products designed to engage the senses.

(the above text is from a section of the literature review of a graduate thesis titled “The Green School Effect” on Students with Specific Learning Differences by Jennipher Spector)

Works Cited in Literature Review

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