Learning and Support Plan | Sensory-Introduction

SENSORY PROCESSING
INTRODUCTION

Effectively supporting students with sensory processing needs begins with having a common understanding of the way people process their environment using all their senses. To gain a deeper understanding, use the information contained here as a guide with a small group or in the Learning and Support Team (LST), and then begin your own research into sensory processing and how to adapt your classroom to meet all of your students’ sensory processing needs.

If a student has had involvement with an Occupational Therapist, they will have had an assessment and, probably, a range of strategies will have been suggested for the school setting. Consult with parents/carers to share in the expertise of other professionals involved with the student.

Sensory Processing

There are five commonly known sensory systems: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, which provide us with information about the world around us. Less well known are the other important internal monitoring senses, which give us information from within our bodies. The six sensory processing systems that will be dealt with in this plan are:

Visual
Light and Vision
Input from the eyes. No diagnosed visual deficit.

Olfactory & Gustatory
Smell & Taste
Input from nose and mouth.

Proprioception & Kinaesthesia
Body sense
Input from the muscles and joints about body position, weight, pressure, stretch, movement, and changes in position in space.

ASSESSMENT

Auditory
Sound and Hearing
Input from the ears. No diagnosed hearing problem.

Tactile
Touch
Input from skin receptors about touch, pressure, pain and movement of hairs on the skin.

Vestibular
Movement sense
Input from the inner ear about equilibrium, gravitational changes,
movement experiences and position in space.

PLANNING

SENSORY PROCESSING

Sensory Processing