Sensory Integration as a Competency Needed for School Success
Sensory Integration as a Competency Needed for School Success
by Susan Orloff
School success is, for the most part, measured by grades. It is about the acquisition and utilization of information. It is about math, reading, science and social studies and all the nuanced and/or expanded categories that are associated with these areas of learning.
Do not get me wrong, I am one of those that remains horrified when Jay Leno goes on the “street” and people do not know basic facts. Basic facts, gleaned from structured learning are essential for creative thought. It is the foundation upon which curiosity is formed.
But there are other competencies as well. These are subtler, and although there are no specific grades for them, they are nonetheless important and when impaired can negatively impact those all-important grades.
There are neurological competencies: hearing, balance (gravitational responses), touch, vision and cognition/attention. At the root of these skills is the ability to sit in the chair and have enough attention to hear, understand and follow directions.
Physical competencies are self-evident, a child must be able to move and handle basic needs in the general classroom settings. However, deficits with strength and endurance can be major deterrents to academic success. Think of the child with hypotonia or mitochondrial disorders, these children fatigue quickly and often have transient endurance. Staying engaged is not about lack of attention or investment with these children but real physical limitations.
Emotional stability in young children is often fragile, even in the child without developmental concerns. When issues with peer relationships, responses to authority, frustration levels, and group interactions are inadequate; the ability to learn is often impaired as well.
Processing information, the organization of data, as well as the ability to prioritize and express thoughts, ideas and feelings appropriately are essential developmental cognitive skills. These skills stimulate motivation, the acquisition of transitional task abilities, memory long and short-term, task judgments (inclusive of the ability to benefit from criticism) and, the all important skill of task/self-care independence.
It is the encompassing sensory integrative therapies that address these competencies helping to create the comfortable child; one who is at ease in his/her own body, free to play and explore.
The child who consistently chooses sedentary play; drawing, computer games, etc., rejecting running and (even non-competitive) group interactive games and activities may be telling teachers, parents, and therapists that movement is somehow threatening. This child may be very good in academic areas, but it is the ability to play freely that is impaired. Unaddressed, long-term this could impact social skills and self-esteem.
Such a child is best illustrated by this brief case description:
Bobby is a bright 10-year old boy who is good at writing stories and drawing pictures. In school he has won art and story contests. He has a small group of friends, and seems relatively well liked within this group. Recess is the worst time of day for him. He does not catch, he flinches when a ball is thrown to him, and does not enter into any activity where he might fall or bump into someone. Even in warm weather he prefers to wear long sleeves. He is very sensitive to corrective remarks, stresses “out” easily and does not like to be challenged either intellectually or physically. He has limited physical play interaction with his 7-year old (much more active younger brother. He is kind, thoughtful and introspective. Although he will always probably be more quiet than boisterous, would this child benefit from sensory integrative interventions?
From the above information, I feel that Bobby is an ideal candidate for short-term interventions so that he can relax more, stress less, and increase interactive abilities. Probably best addressed in summer, participation in therapeutic camps that support graded sensory activities such as hiking, harnessed rock climbing, zip-line games, etc., would go a long way to help him enjoy his own physicality and fully utilize those competencies needed to support school and life skill success.
Doing “good in school” is so much more than grades. It is, as in most things, not necessarily the words or the subjects that are most important, but the spaces in-between. We find children such as “Bobby” in these spaces, and they too, should not be “left behind”. Sensory integrative interventions can be a primary factor in creating the competencies needed for an inclusive healthy development; for Bobby and many other similar children. (originally published in Advance for Occupational Therapy 2009)