What is sensory integration therapy?

Written By bridie travers

Sensory Integration therapy or framework is a model of therapy focusing on a person’s sensory processing. Sensory Processing refers to the 8 sensory systems and the stages in which we develop awareness and an ability to function based upon interpreting the world we live in.

There are 4 main steps to sensory processing and integration:

  1. Reception- our sensory receptors registering activation or data presentation.

  2. Transmission or Filtering- the process from receptor to the brainstem, cerebellum and cortex in which the receptor data is electrically transmitted to the brain.

  3. Integration- the process of data being analalysed via webs of synaptic cortical connections.

  4. Output- the process of an action being selected and output to respond to a specific event or situation.

Within all steps, the 8 sensory systems are working together to form an understanding of our environment and produce skills humans are known for.

Our 8 sensory systems are:

  1. Vestibular- our motion detection system which detects the motion of our head through space. The vestibular system has highly important jobs from generating a resting pulse important for data mitigation to arousal control.

  2. Visual-

  3. Auditory

  4. Proprioception

  5. Interoception-

  6. Tactile

  7. Taste

  8. Smell

All systems are important and vital which at TK we focus upon to develop comprehensive skills. Within sensory integration therapy we assess and develop a plan to stop or develop the system, transmission and integration to produce functional capacities.

Sensory Integration involves a circuitry of filtering pathways to, within and from the brain which produce our functional capacities and skills such as motor skills, emotional processing, cognition and social skills. Sensory Integration is not simply swinging on a swing or playing in a ball pit. It is much more complex and not step of intervention which is completed as a warm up or when a person needs a break.

Sensory Integration use to be an area of foci for OTs however at TK, we have trained all clinicians in sensory integration to enable all clinicians to support the process of skill develop via understanding the process from collection, integration and output of a skill. In every session you will see TK Clinician use integration equipment including swings, slides, lycra tunnels, trampolines and many more to activate the sensory systems to the client’s registration profile and enable integration or data mitigation to work towards developing a new mapped skill. And because we are working with kids and kids who have fixed interests we weave in creative and fun ideas such as cars, trains and rockets to build a storyline to the process of integration and ultimately code cognitive skills simultaneously.

bridie travers