Sensory processing issues are very very common in our children it makes sense when you think about
it developmentally when a parent holds their newborn child they're touching them they're
cradling that maybe feels the warmth of that parents hand the warmth of the parents body
when I hold my baby against my chest they feel my heart pounding and thumping gently when I speak
they feel the vibrations matter of fact I'll often ask parents who are talking to me just put your
hand to own your chest and keep talking to me and feel that vibration our babies as they're held in
cradle they feel our warmth they might taste our milk the mother's milk they they hear our voice
they see our face the sensory regions of the brain come alive in that environment there is a lot of
research from 50 years and longer of research with deprivation that shows if children and even any
living creature but if we're not picked up and held touched cradle to nurture the brain simply
doesn't mature in appropriate regions there's not synaptic connections one of the real travesties
about that that we know as well is if there's a change in the sensory processing we've got
changes in the brain development also the brain chemistry so actually children who don't process
the senses are now going to be much higher risk to be reactive to senses so think about there's
five external senses we all think about smell and sight and sound and so forth but think about the
internal senses so the first internal senses it's called vestibular which is just a big word that
means I know where I am in space when I pick my baby up the vestibular fluid in the inner
ear moves so that baby knows when I'm being picked up when they're being picked up that they're here
with me they were here now they're here with me a lot of our kids if they're swinging or
spinning or doing an activity they don't know where they are in space and they're thumping
into things they're bumping into things they're clumsy they're breaking things they're not being
malicious but this sense didn't mature then for a lot of our children there's another senses called
proprioception it's just how tightly my muscles register deep touch now for me as the mother when
my child cries I hold them tighter if they cry harder I rock and I hold them tighter well that
rocking is the vestibular feedback that gives them calming in the deep muscle calming when I
hold them tighter now though a child is older I come to maybe kiss them and I give them a little
feathery kiss and they Yelp or they brush off my kiss because they don't know how to interpret that
the sense of that muscle I might come to my child as well and give them a hug and they might Yelp
but when they give me a hug they might crush my bones are they being bad no they're not processing
that sense they don't have the brain development to understand that sense and and the third
internal senses tactile so most of your since your greatest since organ in your body is touch
is your skin the first since it's available that's online in utero for every living creature that we
know of is touch so touch is hugely important but think about a child who's not touched and cradled
carefully that child is going to be the child he'll have trouble when somebody touches them
knowing if they were hit or touched that's again the child who you give a feathery kiss to and
they don't know how to interpret that and so they don't want your kiss they rub it off the senses
understanding the senses is dramatically important and we recommend that parents understand it it is
my earnest belief you cannot serve in your home in your school in your church in your nursery in
any environment you cannot serve an at-risk child unless you understand the sensory processing there
are many find resources there's raising a sensory smart child Lucy Miller has written several good
books I very often refer to Carol crow knowit's books beginning with the out-of-sync child and
then going to the out-of-sync child has fun any of these will give you a primer in in Carol's
book she taught us to take a one-week diary and take all the bad behaviors all week and then to
look for ways that you can identify if that was a behavior that was driven by sensory overload
what happens for our families is that they very very quickly realize that much of the behavior
is being driven by these sensory deficits in our children so in the in Carol's book the out of sync
child you can also there's a screening instrument for elementary and preschool children or you can
just go through and see what is going on then you can do the the journal for the cost of about
fifteen or sixteen dollars you can get deeply into the waters it's only going to be beginning
it's good to get into the waters but if you have a child who's come from hard places prenatally
or postnatally you must understand sensory processing and how it is affecting your child
you