Feeding The Senses Helps Regulate Emotions: Part 1

I feed my kids food to nourish their bodies, but I don’t think of feeding their nervous systems.

If you are anything like me, you’re left scratching your head (or near pulling out your hair) as your child explodes because they didn’t get that toy they wanted, bounces off the walls after a busy day of school, or becomes a heap on the bathroom floor because they don’t want to brush their teeth before bed.

Ever do a mental check and ask yourself, what is the unmet need? Hungry, tired, mad, wanting attention, or just downright locking horns in a power struggle? Sometimes I just don’t know.

One day, in the midst of my son’s full-blown tantrum after a particularly busy day, it hit me. The mama part of me was forgetting what I knew as an occupational therapist. And there, in my kitchen, I found the answer in the most unexpected place … something that rarely crosses my busy mama mind ... sensorial input. Was my child over- or under- stimulated?

As adults, this happens to us, too. It is in the moments that you feel touched out and tired of someone needing or wanting you around the clock. Or when you feel overwhelmed by the background noise of your kids arguing as you try to take a phone call. And those moments when you can’t unsee the mess around the house and it knocks you off your center. This is sensory overload. And the good news is, you’re not alone. It is totally okay - and normal - to feel all of it. And it is okay and normal for our kids to feel it, too.

Sometimes our nervous systems are overstimulated and need a break so we can calm and manage our bodies. And other times, our nervous system needs a good boot to jumpstart it with activities that alert and organize input.

Just as we get hangry when we are hungry, our nervous system fights, flights, or freezes when it needs to calm or alert. Through playful engagement, we can practice noticing our body and giving it the input it craves. And we can help our children do this, too.

A safe and nurtured system is often a well-functioning system, which means fewer power struggles and whining, and more connection and learning.

Sensory Loop

Our senses help us understand the world around us through a feedback loop.

The loop looks like this: Sense receptors detect sensations and send them to the brain via nerves. The brain interprets those sensations and sends orders to different parts of our body through the nervous system. Ever touch a hot stove? It is this sensory loop that tells us to remove our hand quickly to avoid getting burned!

Here are 7 ways our bodies speak to us:

Sight: The ability of the eyes to focus and detect images. Visual perception is how the brain processes these impulses and interprets them.
Sound: Our ability to detect sound through vibrations.
Taste: Our ability to detect the taste of a substance.
Touch: Our ability to feel through receptors in our skin.
Smell: Our ability to detect scent.
Vestibular: The perception of our body in relation to gravity, movement, and balance.
Proprioceptive: Our ability to know where our body is in space to help us plan our movements.

Sensory Thresholds

Everyone has different thresholds for sensory stimulation. Some people react when just a little stimulus is given and some people need a lot of stimuli to respond.

Hypo-Sensitivity

Children and adults with a high threshold tend to be hypo-sensitive or under-responsive, which means it takes more stimuli for them to react. These children may be sensory seeking and look for many sensory experiences to help them regulate their bodies.

These are some examples that may indicate hypo-sensitivity for each sense:

Sight

Fatigues easily while reading
Writes at a slant (up or downhill) on a page
Often loses their place while reading
Difficulty tracking objects with their eyes
Bumps into objects often/difficulty with spatial relations
Difficulty differentiating between similar letters such as p and q, b and d

Sound

Often speaks in a loud voice and/or excessively
Likes the TV or music excessively loud
Needs instructions repeated frequently
Talks self through a task out loud
Disoriented to where a particular sound comes from

Taste

Likes food with strong flavors
Eats inedible objects such as chalk, crayons, dirt, rocks
Often chews fingers, sides of cheeks, clothes, straws, toothbrushes
Constantly puts objects in the mouth, even past the toddler years

Touch

May crave touch, wanting to be touched or to touch everything
May be self-abusive; pinching, biting, cutting, or head-banging
Has a high pain tolerance
Often is not aware of being touched/ bumped unless done with extreme force
Unknowingly hurts other children or pets while playing
Repeatedly touches surfaces or objects that are soothing

Smell

Excessively smells new objects, toys, people
Has difficulty discriminating odors

Vestibular

Craves fast movement
Appears to be in constant motion
Seeks swinging or to spin for long periods
Tends to rock, shake legs, or move head when sitting
Likes jumping, running, or being upside down

Proprioceptive

Likes deep pressure, being squeezed, or hugged tightly
Likes to push or bump against others
Likes jumping and crashing activities
Prefers tight clothing
May clench or grind teeth
Likes to chew on their lip, straw, or shirt collar
May often fall on the floor intentionally

Hypersensitivity

Children and adults with a low threshold tend to be hypersensitive or overly responsive, which means it takes less stimulus for their body to react. These children may be sensory avoidant and may be unwilling to try new things or to participate in unpredictable situations.

These are some examples that may indicate hypersensitivity for each sense: