Sensory Over- Responsiveness

A person experiencing sensory over responsiveness are sometimes called sensory defensive. People experiencing this sensory defensiveness have a hypersensitivity to  sensory input and can often find the senses they experiences awful and scary. The  different sensory defensiveness’s people can experience are;

1.     Tactile/ touch

2.     Gustatory/ oral

3.     Olfactory/ smell

4.     Visual/ sight

5.     Auditory/ hearing

6.     Vestibular

7.     Proprioceptive

This link will take you to a website which has descriptions of each defensiveness.  Children that have sensory over responsiveness or defensiveness in the areas or tactile and auditory senses, can impact in a children’s learning environment. (Ben-Sasson et. al., 2009).

When working with children that you think or know they have sensory defensiveness, I think it is essential to complete a sensory diet form, most of these are similar and there are many that are online that are free. This is a link to one which I have found online.  They are good for gaining understanding on what the children like to do for calming and energizing, this form may need to be completed with the assistance of the parents. This is a link to activities that can be carried out with children that have sensory defensiveness. This link is good for gaining ideas on what to do with your children. 

This is a video showing how to complete deep pressure for a child this is one of the examples that comes from the list of activities and this can be incorporated in a fun or innovated way such as a bear hug.

Ben-Sasson, A., Carter, A & Briggs-Gowan, (2009). Sensory Over-Responsivitiy in Elemantry School: Prevalence and Social-Emotional Correlates. Journal     of Abnormal Child Psychology, 37

Biel, 2013. http://sensorysmarts.com/about_book.html (accessed 01/07/13)