Sensory Integration Disorder: Types, Causes, Symptoms And Treatments
Although we use vision, touch and the rest of the senses as if they were unique and coherent blocks of information that we all experience at the same time, the truth is that for several parts of the human brain to work well they must work in coordination with each other.
Even if we believe that at a given moment our consciousness perfectly integrates what we hear, touch, see and taste, what actually happens is that our nervous system interweaves totally different data.
This is something that becomes evident in cases where a person suffers sensory integration disorder, a disorder that is relatively common in boys and girls and what we will see next. In fact, it is estimated that approximately 15% of school-age children have the type of problems associated with this disorder.
This mental disorder, also known as sensory processing disorder consists of an anomaly of neurological functioning that generates a problem when processing data coming from the senses, while the stimulus-receiving organ and the nerve that connects it to the rest of the nervous system are healthy.
For example, where there is a sensory integration disorder, it is possible that certain relevant and unambiguous sensory information captured by the eyes be omitted or arrive “late” to consciousness and, consequently, does not generate an adequate reaction or in a reasonable period.
It is also common for people with sensory processing disorder to feel discomfort when feeling “overloaded” by data coming from the senses, or the opposite, a lack of stimulation that makes that they have the feeling of living in a bubble.
For example, a girl may try to go somewhere else because what is in front of her eyes is too complex, has many colors, etc. That is, boys and girls with sensory integration disorder are more likely to notice excess stimulation even maintaining a passive and non-exploratory attitude towards the environment, or quite the opposite, a hyposensitivity
Unfortunately, The little that is known about this disorder makes diagnosing it complicated although the number of registered cases is increasing little by little, both in minors and adults.
Symptoms of Sensory Processing Disorder
The main symptoms of this alteration depend in part on whether hypersensitivity to stimuli or hyposensitivity is shown. In cases where there is a lot of sensitivity, characteristic symptoms are the following:
1. Hypersensitivity
For example, the boy or girl avoid being near bright lights or he shows very particular tastes with the clothes that he may wear because “it’s itchy” or he feels it too much.
2. Clumsiness and lack of coordination
Costs know what place the parts of your body are occupying at all times which is why he falls relatively frequently and feels unskillful when manipulating objects.
3. Propensity for distractions
The high sensitivity to sensory stimuli whose information they cannot process well makes these little ones distracted more easily, since keep your mind busy with these kinds of complications.
As for those who experience hyposensitivity, the warning signs are like this:
1. Seek constant contact
This can lead to asking for tight clothing, for example, or asking for hugs at all times.
2. Restless attitude
Constant stimulation is sought through various means, and They try to find places with many items to touch interesting sounds, etc.
3. Low sensitivity to pain
Even if their body is damaged, they react relatively mildly.
4. Fear of the uncertainty of your position
Some children with this disorder They fear the possibility of changing the position of their head and become “misplaced” by that change.
Guys
Sensory integration disorder is not a completely homogeneous phenomenon, but the diversity of known cases leads us to think of various sub-categories. These are the types of sensory processing disorder that are considered so far:
Sensory modulation disorder
This variant It is characterized by low sensitivity to stimuli. For example, it does not take long for a person to react to a new stimulus after having been exposed to several that are exactly the same as each other.
Sensory motor disorder
In these cases, the “lag” with which the sensory information arrives causes the difficult to coordinate one’s own movements when trying to adapt to that environment that changes and offers different sources of stimuli.
Sensory discrimination
Significant difficulties appear when distinguish clearly different stimuli or it is achieved but after having tried for too long a time.
Causes of this alteration
The causes of sensory integration disorder are not known, although it is estimated that a dysfunction of the cortical areas involved in advanced processing of sensory information, since it is not exactly deafness, blindness or anything similar: it is poor management, by the brain, of the data that is coming from the senses.
In this sense, the cortical association areas and the white matter areas, which are those that communicate with each other parts of the brain responsible for processing different sources of data, could be involved.
Therapy
There is no known definitive cure for this disorder, although there are intervention proposals aimed at mitigating the harmful effect that the symptoms have on the quality of life of children and adults who experience it.
Sensory integration therapy Specifically, it makes the person get involved in learning tasks that require coordinating their senses at the same time in real time with the aim of creating opportunities for the corresponding brain areas to get used to working with each other through brain plasticity. .
