Sensory Integration
The Foundation for Learning
Sensory Integration is the brain's ability to organize sensory information so that we can pay attention to what we need to attend to and ignore what we need to ignore. SI is the foundation for learning.
Organizing sensory information helps a child develop:
- knowing where their body is in space
- coordination & balance
- postural control
- visual perceptual skills
- Self-confidence, self-control, and self-esteem
- concentration
Sensory information includes the five senses plus processing vestibular and proprioceptive information.
- Vestibular processing is the ability to process movement and our relationship to gravity.
- Proprioceptive processing is information into our muscles and joints that lets us know where we are, how much force to use and how to move our bodies.
“The sensory integration that occurs in moving, talking and playing is the groundwork…for reading, writing and good behavior.”
Sensory Integration and the Child, Jean Ayres
“Sensory Integration problems are not obvious, yet they occur among children throughout the world. They cause some bright children to have trouble learning in school, and they cause poor behavior in some children who have…positive upbringing”
Sensory Integration and the Child, Jean Ayres