School Difficulties Viewed Through A Sensory Lens, Part 1

The sensory lens: my SI goggles

Sight and hearing are not the only senses that are important for school performance. For children to learn and participate successfully, it is essential that their body senses—their sense of movement in space (vestibular), sense of touch (tactile), and sense of force and movement (proprioceptive)—function well. These senses are the building blocks of childhood development toward school readiness.

In her theory of Sensory Integration, Dr. Jean Ayres demonstrated 50 years ago the important role that the proximal senses, which usually work unconsciously and automatically in the background, play in determining our emotions, our behavior, and our learning (Ayres 1972) by laying the necessary foundations—from alertness, regulation, and attention to motor control and the integration of complex information into a coherent whole.

While the body senses are still the most important senses for babies and toddlers, through which they experience their bodies and the world around them, the distance senses of sight and hearing become more prominent at school age. However, they build on the foundations provided by the body senses. They are largely responsible for how motivated and attentive a child is, how easily they learn to write, whether they can keep their things tidy, and which friends and sports they will prefer—and much more.

Children with sensory integration disorders often hear, “You just have to try harder, then it will work.” But in reality, these children often work harder than others – and still reach their limits.

A look through my sensory goggles shows that many school problems have their roots in the way children process, integrate, and use sensory stimuli. Let's take a closer look:

The Vestibular Sense – Foundation of Attention, Posture, Coordination, And Spatial Orientation

The vestibular sense develops very early in the womb and, through its connections, lays the foundation for the brain's neural network, linked by countless synapses.

Functions for which our brain needs vestibular information:

• Alertness – the ascending reticular activation system (ARAS) is activated by vestibular signals – and in turn activates the brain for attention

• Posture – keeping the head and trunk upright against gravity, balance, and coordination – especially the interaction between both sides of the body

• Spatial orientation and spatial awareness

• Dynamic motor planning – i.e., whenever speed and movement in space play a role, e.g., in road traffic or ball games

While the focus in school is often on sitting still and paying attention, all of the above functions are equally important for academic success and learning.

What problems do vestibular disorders cause at school?

What are the visible consequences when the vestibular sense is not working well and the brain does not receive sufficiently accurate, clear vestibular information?

The child may

• fall asleep in class

• not be able to sit upright for long periods of time, but hangs on the chair, lies on the table, or rests their head on their hands

• fall off their chair

• be restless, cannot sit still, has to move constantly, rocks back and forth on their chair

• turn the page instead of working across the center of their body

• have difficulty crossing lines, especially diagonals

• have no established writing hand – is ambidextrous (and that's not good! Read more about this in the blog post on ambidexterity!) and switches the pencil between hands

• get confused at the beginning of a line, writes in mirror writing

• have difficulty with tag, ball games, juggling in gym class

The above signs do not all have to be present in the same child. Probablems can occur in different combinations. In any case, without a well-functioning vestibular system, school becomes an enormous effort compared to what it should normally be.

The Sense of Touch – Basis For Regulation, Motor Planning, And Fine/Graphomotor Skills

If you have already learned about Sensory Integration, you know that the sense of touch consists of two parts: a protective system and a perception system.

A mostly overlooked but often consequential influence of our tactile system is that it can put our brain into a state of alarm when it receives too many uncontrollable, diffuse, uninterpretable stimuli through the skin. These can be uncomfortable clothing materials, a fidgety neighbor, or other children who have to walk behind our chair and constantly touch us unexpectedly and fleetingly. It is the role of the protective system to warn us of potential dangers.

Functions for which our brain needs tactile information:

• Regulation of the level of arousal – not entering a state of alarm unless there is a real danger

• Feeling whether and where you have been touched

• Touching and recognizing – even without looking

• Developing an unconscious, internal map of our body (body schema), which, like a car navigation system, is the basis for

• motor planning – i.e., being able to quickly and automatically plan and execute new movements

What problems do tactile disorders cause at school?

I would like to describe three examples of how poor functioning of the tactile system can lead to problems at school:

1. The child with a hypersensitive sense of touch (Ayres coined the term "Tactile Defensiveness”):

   1. They are constantly on guard and in a state of tense alertness. This makes them very distractible and easily frightened. Instead of concentrating on letters and content, their brain is busy regulating stimuli.

   2. They may suddenly lash out—for no apparent reason to the outside world. Then they are classified as aggressive. However, after tolerating many hours of various tactile stimuli—from clothing, hair, classmates, adults, and work materials such as glue - yet another fleeting touch may cause the explosion of a barrel that is already under high pressure. Although invisible from the outside, the brain's state of arousal has risen higher and higher until it finally no longer had the capacity to suppress the survival response...

2. The child with a hyposensitive sense of touch and a resulting tactile perception disorder:

   1. This child does not feel the things it touches very accurately. Perhaps this is why it still puts many things in its mouth. In any case, it needs to be able to see things in order to recognize them. For example, when it needs something from its school bag. Instead of simply reaching in and feeling for the desired object like other children, this child has to empty the entire school bag onto the table. Chaos is inevitable!

   2. Of course, they also cannot feel the pen or fountain pen very well between their fingers; they lack “fingertip sensitivity.” Their pen grip will be rough and unnatural, which means they cannot move the pen very skillfully on the paper. And now there is another factor that makes learning to write more difficult:

3. Children with a disorder in motor planning (dyspraxia)

I mentioned above that clear tactile stimuli are necessary to develop a good body schema and that we need this map to plan new movements – such as when learning to write. Forming letters and automating movement sequences requires good movement planning, which in turn requires good tactile perception as well as proprioceptive and vestibular processing.

If this foundation is missing, we see typical patterns:

• Letters are constantly being planned from scratch.

• Movement sequences are uncertain, slow (because the child has to think much more) and not fluid.

• Letters are recognized when reading, but the child cannot implement them motorically, i.e., write them.

The result is therefore not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of automation of writing. These children often still have to think about where to start with a letter and how to construct it in the 3rd grade. They have to work harder than their classmates and, understandably, tire more quickly. At the same time, they get less done because they are slow and constantly experience frustration and a lack of understanding from adults.

Conclusion: Learning Requires Functioning Body Senses as Much as it Requires Functioning Distance Senses

Our body senses create the foundations for skills that children need to be able to perform with ease and joy in school in terms of emotional regulation, behavioral control, and learning.

Whether it's attention, learning to write, social interactions, or resilience - many school difficulties cannot be solved by “more practice” alone. Looking through the sensory lens shows how profoundly our senses influence success at school.

Once we recognize these connections, we can provide children with specific support: with sensory breaks, adjustments to the requirements and amount of learning material, and an understanding, supportive approach to the child. The adults around the child must be clear that this child's problem is not caused by their unwillingness but by their inability to perform better.

PODCAST TIP: Watch the episode on school difficulties as a video podcast!

👉 On YouTube you can turn on closed captions to understand the podcast that is only available in German at this time. There will be three episodes on the topic “What parents should know: School difficulties and sensory integration”.

BONUS

And here's a bonus: a long-term study that specifically examined the relationship between sensory integration skills and school performance: Parham D. (1998) The Relationship of Sensory Integrative Development to Achievement in Elementary Students: Four-Year Longitudinal Patterns. OTJR Occupation Participation and Health 18(3):105-127 DOI:10.1177/153944929801800304

For subscribers of the SiNN-VOLL blog: In the subscriber area, you will find the entire study in English and German with a brief description of the most important results!