Friday, November 28, 2008

Sensory Processing Disorders (Part 2 of 3)

(Continued from last post…)

 

More on sensory processing disorder:

  • Visual – Refers to the brain’s interpretation of what one sees
    • HypersensitivityMay be sensitive to bright lights and may have difficulty keeping eyes focused on work.
    • Hyposensitivity – May have difficulty discriminating between similar shapes, like a square and rectangle or similarly shaped letters like “p”, “q”, “b” and “d”.  Visual processing deficits result in problems described in the previous post on perceptual processing manifestations.  
  • Vestibular – Refers to the interpretation of information gathered from the inner ear about one’s position in space, movement and balance.
    • HypersensitivityMay be overly sensitive to motion, avoiding swings or slides.  May get car sick and may be fearful of escalators.   May also demonstrate poor postural control.
    • Hyposensitivity – May crave motion.  May spin, jump, run into walls, or purposely fall without the expected negative reaction.  Again, look at the previous posts.  Deficits in this area are closely aligned to deficits classified as motor problems (see October 27,2008 post) as well as perceptual processing problems described in the October 31, 2008 post.
  • Proprioceptive – Refers to the interpretation of information gathered from joints and muscles about one’s position in space, movement, pressure and weight.
    • May use excessive force when interacting with objects, animals or other people.
    • May seek out activities that provide sensory input, like jumping and banging objects. 

 

Please post your experiences under the comment section because in sharing your experience, you help increase everyone’s knowledge base.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello!

I am a pediatric OT interested in exploring use of the Wii for children with vestibular hypersensitivity (increasing tolerance to movement in a variety of plances/ decreasing gravitational insecurity)-- but I am not very familiar with the system, its games, etc. Does anyone know of any examples of this type of use?

Thanks!
Emily, OT