Sensory Under-Responsive


A person showing sensory under-responsiveness is when a child or person will not react to a stimuli, or stimulation, they may be seen as they do like interacting with people, they will come across as disinterested and are hard to get engagement in activities, they will be described as passive (Collins & Miller 2012).  Symptoms of sensory under-responsiveness can be described in the seven sensory fields below:

“Visual: loses place when reading, complains of eyes being tired

Auditory: does not respond to name being called, may hum while working on a task

Olfactory: does not notice a strong odor in the refrigerator that others instantly notice

Taste: does not notice or care if foods are spicy or bland

Vestibular: does not voluntarily choose to play on playground equipment, preferring sedentary tasks

Tactile: may not notice if they get hurt or bumped

Proprioception: slumps in chair or leans on walls, may have weak muscles”
                                                                                    (Collins & Miller, 2012)

Children that have sensory under responsiveness can have poor inner drive and have a lack of desire to play and will often bump into things and have a lower sense of pain when they do this. (Bialer & Miller, 2011). To get children that have sensory under responsiveness to be better at participating in activities they should be undertaking pre activities that will alert their senses such as; loud music, swinging fast, high movement and also changes in food might make some changes in the responses a child may have (Collins & Miller, 2012).

Some ideas for interventions is having a corner before therapy that is filled with things that will stimulate the senses. Things that could be included in this corner could be bean bags, touch books, blankets of differing materials and anything that will provide stimulation.

Bialer, D. S., and L. J. Miller. 2011. No Longer A SECRET: Unique Common Sense Strategies for Children with Sensory or Motor Challenges. Arlington, TX: Sensory World.
by Britt Collins, MS, OTR and Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR
Autism Asperger’s Digest | March/April 2012

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