Our senses are our body’s detection system. We all have senses and we all use them every day to take in and interpret everything that goes on around us. When that detection system isn’t working properly, we become very confused regarding what is happening in our environment and how we should respond to it.

This is how people with Sensory Processing Disorder feel all the time. Sensory processing disorder creates considerable discomfort, mental anguish, and delayed development in many children and adults.

This guide will explain what sensory processing disorder is, how it affects daily life, and how you can find out if your child has sensory processing disorder.

What is Sensory Processing Disorder?

Sensory processing disorder, known as SPD, is a condition in which the brain misinterprets information that is gathered by the senses of the body. To understand how this can happen, it is first necessary to understand sensory processing.

The body has 8 (no, not 5 – 8) senses that are used to gather information from the environment and send signals to the brain about that information. The brain interprets that information and responds on both a conscious and unconscious level.

Is Sensory Processing Disorder a Real Condition?

There has been much debate over whether or not SPD can be considered a stand-alone condition.

Originally called sensory integration dysfunction, sensory processing disorder was first described by A. Jean Ayres, an occupational therapist and educational psychologist.

Much of the research surrounding SPD has been limited to case studies or small groups of subjects and focused on the effectiveness of treatment, rather than the causes and corresponding changes in the brain.

Because of this, many health professionals feel that the documentation and research surrounding SPD does not meet the criteria for identification as a disorder all on its own.

In fact, SPD was not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5).

The debate continues, however, and recent ongoing research has focused on studying brain structure in children who are identified as having SPD. In fact, a couple of recent studies were the first to pinpoint changes in the brain that directly correspond to SPD.

The first study used diffuse tensor imaging (DTI) to examine the brains of 16 boys age 8 to 11 who were identified as having SPD, and 24 boys of the same age who were identified as neurotypical.

The study showed specific patterns of reduced structural integrity in the white matter of the brain, particularly that in the back of the brain, in the boys with SPD (Owen, et.al., 2013).

The second study used the same type of imaging to study the integrity of white matter in the brains of 15 boys diagnosed with autism, 16 boys identified as having SPD, and 23 boys identified as neurotypical.

This study showed that both the group with autism and the group with SPD showed structural integrity problems in the white matter of the brain associated with sensory perception and sensory integration, but only the boys diagnosed with autism showed structural integrity problems in the white matter of the brain associated with social-emotional processing (Chang, et.al., 2014).

Both of these studies document that SPD is associated with neurological changes in the brain and that those changes differ from the changes present in autism, which lends evidence to SPD being a separate condition.

In fact, the National Institute of Mental Health has recently proposed adding sensory processing and the senses of proprioception and interoception to their Research Domain Criteria (Harrison, et. al., 219).

Future research should help to substantiate this initial evidence, clarifying the mechanisms involved in SPD.

Signs and Symptoms of Sensory Processing Disorder

SPD has many different signs and symptoms, so we will not list them all here. A person who has SPD may have only a few symptoms, or may have many. These symptoms usually follow one of three patterns that indicate the way in which sensory modulation is affected.

Will Medication Help Sensory Processing Disorder?

One of the reasons some health care professionals do not view SPD as a stand-alone condition is that, until recently, a physiological basis for the disorder was not identified. Medication to affect any physical reasons for SPD was, therefore, not possible.

To date, medication has not been used to directly treat SPD. However, medications might be used to treat some of the symptoms of conditions that often occur along with SPD.

For example, a child with ADHD and SPD may receive medication for the ADHD that might affect the child’s perception of his environment.

A child with an anxiety disorder and SPD might take medication for the anxiety disorder that might help the child feel calmer and reduce oversensitivity to sensory input.

While these medications might help take the edge off of SPD, they are treating the other condition and not directly treating the SPD.

How Will My Child Function in School?

If your child has SPD, you will likely be aware that he or she will have some challenges attending school.

Public schools are large, noisy, visually busy places full of different sounds and smells. Normal children must use all of their senses during a school day and must be able to switch and adjust those senses based on what they are doing.

Children with SPD have great difficulty tolerating and adjusting to all of the sensory input that they are bombarded with in school.

Fortunately, most schools have occupational therapists on staff or at least available to help children with SPD. The OT at your child’s school can identify what types of sensory processing problems your child is experiencing and can help your child to cope with these problems by working with your child to develop and integrate the sensory pathways and providing your child with a sensory diet to address sensory issues throughout the school day.

The OT will also work with school staff to adapt the environment for your child so that your child can function in spite of sensory processing problems.

What Can I Do to Help My Child?

As stated earlier in this article, if you suspect that your child has SPD, talk to your child’s primary care provider and make an appointment for a check-up to rule out any possible medical causes for your child’s symptoms. While there, talk to your provider about a referral to an occupational therapist for an evaluation of sensory processing problems.

If your child attends a public school, your child will already have access to occupational therapy services.

Talk to your child’s teacher about your child’s performance in school. Your child’s teacher will help you to determine if a referral for a special education evaluation, including an occupational therapy evaluation, is needed.

Once your child begins to receive occupational therapy services for SPD, follow any recommendations and home programs that the therapist gives you.

These recommendations will carry the treatment that your child receives over to home and will help your child to adjust to the sensory challenges that he or she has at home or in the community.

Each child’s treatment program is customized for that child, so don’t try things that another child’s parent has recommended or things that you have read about on the internet. These strategies might be effective, but not necessarily for your child.

It is important to find out what specific sensory problems are affecting your child and which interventions are the best for those problems. The best way to do this is to work with your child’s occupational therapist.

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