Sensitivity

Some children with behavioural and developmental disorders may display either an overtly heightened or significantly reduced ability to interpret social data such as body language or intent. This may contribute to excluding them from interacting fully with their peers and social groups. The condition of sensitivity is often referred to clinically as Sensory Processing Disorder and while it is perfectly typical for children to display varying degrees of sensitivity, the condition can be said to be present when this starts to impact on daily functioning and the ability for the child to cope with their surroundings.

Sensory processing, sometimes referred to as Sensory Integration or SI, refers to the way the nervous system receives messages from the senses and turns them into appropriate motor and behavioural responses. Whether you are eating a burger, walking along a street, watching television or even touching a certain type of fabric, the successful completion of the activity requires processing sensations or sensory integration.

What is Sensitivity?

Sensitivity is a general term for a wide range of responses to sensory information that invokes an adverse reaction from a child. That may refer to a heightened sensitivity to touch, where a child either craves contact constantly or alternatively cannot seem to be able to bear being touched at all. Often, sensitivity is a result of another underlying disorder such as Autism. A child may exhibit certain characteristics of a particular dysfunction, but sensitivity alone does not immediately prove that the child has that dysfunction. A child that cannot bear to be touched may seem hypersensitive to tactile stimulation but may actually have an emotional problem. The seeming hypersensitivity may, in some cases, be an escape behaviour as our learner doesn’t possess the skills to communicate and interact. The presence of sensitivity does not necessarily facilitate a diagnosis of Autism or any other condition, and the primary objective is to identify the sensitivity and the root cause for it. Sensitivity is also often referred to as Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD).

SPD is a condition that exists when sensory signals don’t get organised into appropriate responses. The condition has been likened to a neurological ‘traffic jam’ that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the information needed to interpret sensory information correctly. A person with SPD finds it difficult to process and act upon information received through the senses, which creates challenges in performing countless everyday tasks. Motor clumsiness, behavioural problems, anxiety, depression, learning difficulties and other impacts may result if the disorder is not treated effectively.

Research by the SPD Foundation indicates that 1 in every 20 children experiences symptoms of Sensory Processing Disorder that are significant enough to affect their ability to participate fully in everyday life. Symptoms of SPD can cover a broad spectrum of severity, and while most of us have occasional difficulties processing sensory information, for children with SPD these difficulties are severe enough to disrupt everyday life.

What are the symptoms of Sensitivity?

The senses give us a huge amount of data to process every second of every day. If that data processing is interrupted, it may be difficult for a child to make sense of their surroundings, cause problems within a social context and develop into other problems such as anxiety, withdrawal, depression or even aggressive behaviour. The child may be both hypersensitive and hyposensitive, meaning that, for example, the child may be extremely sensitive to light touch or contact yet be indifferent to the deeper pain of an injection. This would be categorised as tactile dysfunction and can cause a great deal of anxiety in the child involved in simple actions such as brushing their hair, having to stand close to other people or even refusing to wear new clothes that to them may feel stiff or rough. Hyposensitive children are effected in the opposite way, craving contact and touch (often becoming ‘clingy’ or reluctant to let go of a parent’s hand, for example) and may not realise when they are being overly rough or physically hurting people around them.

Vestibular dysfunctional children may show symptoms of hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity to movement, ranging from moving slowly and cautiously or even having a fear of their feet leaving the ground in hypersensitive children. Hyposensitive vestibular dysfunctional children seem to be unable to sit still. This is often a symptom of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

And therein lies the problem with an analysis of sensitivity. SPD in itself is an extremely difficult disorder to determine, as many of the symptoms are intrinsic to other disorders. Symptoms of SPD may be the first indication that a parent has that there is a deeper, underlying problem or fundamental ‘trigger’ for this disruptive behaviour.

How can VBC help?

Through detailed assessment and working closely with both the family and the learner, VBC can incorporate Verbal Behaviour and cognitive behavioural training to stabilise the child’s behaviour and help them meet their full potential. SPD can have a major impact on a child’s life, making them fearful of imagined (although to them all too real) threats in the environment around them. By working with a learner in the ‘real world’, VBC consultants aim to give the child a sense of proportion and greater control over their own environment, reducing the levels of anxiety and helping to treat the underlying cause of the problem. This may be as a result of a neurological condition, in which case we work closely with other experts and the child’s carers to minimise the impact that hypersensitivity has on their daily life. If the disorder stems from a psychological condition, VBC can help to determine what that condition is and work with both the family and the learner to gradually diminish its effects.

If you would like to know more about how VBC can help you and your child overcome the problems of hypersensitivity, contact us in confidence for further information.