What are Sensory Processing Difficulties?
Sensory processing difficulties affect the way your brain processes sensory information. These difficulties can affect one or all of your senses including sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste. Sensory processing difficulties are more common in children than adults and can affect the way we process new experiences or information.
Signs of Sensory Processing Disorders
Sensory processing difficulties can show up in different ways and not all children have the same symptoms. Some children have what is described as sensory-avoiding symptoms and others have sensory-seeking symptoms. Not every sense will be affected, for example, some children have aversions to loud noises, but bright lights may not affect them.
Sensory Avoiding
- Overwhelmed by people or places
- Easily startled by loud or sudden noises
- Bothered by bright lights
- Small routine changes are upsetting
- Avoids touching others
- Aversions to new foods
- Strong reactions to smells and different textures
Sensory Seeking
- High pain tolerance
- Fidgets and squirms with difficulty sitting still
- Uncoordinated or clumsy
- Easily distracted
- Rough during play
- Invasion of others' personal space
- Constantly seeking new textures and touching everything
If you believe your child may have sensory processing difficulties, Pediatrics Plus is here to provide therapy services to empower your child to conquer their world! Contact us for more information on our available Therapy Services and our Developmental Preschool.
Resources for this article include Understood.org and FamilyDoctor.org.