When everyday activities become frustrating for a child, it may be because he or she is having trouble organizing and using the information from their senses. This is known as sensory processing disorder.

What is a sensory disorder?

Sensory integration issues can show up in many different ways. Your child might seem to be over or under reactive to different types of sensory experiences such as textures, sounds, or movement and certain clothing and foods may seem to bother them more than what is normal.

A child might also appear clumsy or disorganized and/or have difficulty sitting still and paying attention. In some instances, behavior might be interpreted as being too rough or aggressive, contributing to social challenges.

These things can all affect a child’s performance in school and make interacting with friends extremely challenging. We often get the feeling that these children come to us feeling frustrated & sad, rather than playful and happy. If this sounds like your child, he or she may have a sensory processing disorder.

At IPT Kids, we believe every child is unique both in their abilities and in their possible areas of concern. The good news is that the effectiveness of sensory integration therapy is proven to help children with sensory and motor challenges. So what can be done to help if a child or young person you support suffers from sensory difficulties?

Through sensory integration therapy, our occupational and physical therapists can improve a child’s ability to use sensory information while participating in a variety of fun sensory integration therapy activities. Kids don’t even realize it’s therapy because of the fun we infuse into every session.

Sensory integration therapy often takes place in our large gym that has lots of inviting opportunities for children to experience movement using their total body senses to play, learn, and develop. We create an environment where your child can learn how to control his or her body & enjoy movement, as well as sitting still, all in a very fun way!

While children are fully engaged in play while swinging through the air on a trapeze or net swing, climbing a rock wall or hitting a target with a bean bag, newly acquired skills along with improvement in strength & coordination generalize successfully to other functional activities. Skills required to copy words from a blackboard, develop healthy friendships, read a book & even ride a bike are frequent results. Sensory integration therapy helps kids simply be kids by learning and playing alongside their friends and fully enjoying their lives, while building on important foundational skills!

Some of the many beneficial goals of therapy include not only making important functional gains in each child’s life, but also in developing self-confidence, self-esteem, and positive interactions with others. If you think your child may have issues with sensory integration or sensory processing disorder, reach out to IPT Kids. Problems in sensory integration are not helped by waiting it out. The sooner you get the right help, the faster gains can be made, and larger problems can be prevented from occurring. Even so, it’s never too late to start!