Sensory Integration

Sensory Integration is a neurological process that organizes sensation from one's own body and from the environment and makes it possible to use the body effectively within the environment. The theory focuses on the vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile systems.

Until recently, the role of vision in sensory integration theory was reduced primarily to form and space perception, construction, and visual-motor coordination (i.e. paper and pencil task). The new theory on conceptualization of visual spatial ability and relate it more clearly too sensory integration.

The therapist identifies patterns of dysfunction among children with sensorimotor and learning problems and tailors specific intervention strategies. The sensory integration is a theory of brain-behaviour relationships. Sensory integration theory has three components.

The first pertains to development and describes typical sensory integrative functioning; the second defines sensory integrative dysfunction; and the third guides intervention programs. Each component, in turn has a major, overreaching postulate. The major postulates of sensory integration theory are:

Learning is dependent on the ability to take in and process sensation from movement and the environment and use it to plan and organize behavior.

Individuals who have a decreased ability to process sensation also may have difficulty producing appropriate actions, which, in turn, may interfere with learning and behavior.

Enhanced sensation, as a part of meaningful activity that yields an adaptive interaction, improves the ability to process sensation, thereby enhancing learning and behavior.