Sensory Processing Disorder 101

My first experience with sensory processing disorder (SPD) was visiting some friends in Singapore, whose child had been diagnosed with SPD. They showed us his playroom, filled with all these climbing walls, balance beams, and just about any physically-challenging “toy” that any of my kids would’ve loved to have in the house! Interestingly, it was during those same trips to Singapore that I would suffer debilitating migraines while attending conferences, and for some reason, my husband and I realized it was the bright lights that were causing the headaches.

Years later, when I suffered a sensory overload breakdown, an occupational therapist confirmed that I myself had SPD—something I’d had since childhood but never knew about. A disclaimer is in place, though, as she was also quick to tell me: SPD is not considered an official “diagnosis,” but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. In this post, we hope to unpack just the basics of SPD, which may or may not co-occur with other ND conditions.

What is Sensory Processing Disorder?

First, let’s talk about our senses. We all grew up learning about our five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. These are pretty straightforward, as we all learn about how we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel the things we touch. 

But do you know that we have three more senses? These are the proprioceptive, vestibular, and interoceptive sense. 

Let’s break these three lesser-known senses down into layman’s terms: 

• The proprioceptive sense refers to our sense of movement. It tells us where our bodies are in relation to space, and keeps us from bumping clumsily into things. 

• Another word for our vestibular sense is balance. Our sense of balance depends on our inner ear, and whenever our bodies change position, our brain registers that. This sense therefore manages things like motion sickness and bilateral coordination, or coordination between the left and right side of our bodies. 

• The interoceptive sense refers to our sense of what’s going on inside our bodies. This includes identifying emotions, feelings like hunger and thirst, regulating body temperature, and regulating sleep patterns, among others. 

These eight senses are our brain’s source of information; the brain naturally and unconsciously takes in these data and then automatically processes it, usually with little to no effort. However, the amount of effort required to process this information differs from person to person. 

Sensory processing disorder happens when a person’s brain processes these sensory inputs in less than efficient ways. What does this mean? This can occur in one of two extremes: first, the person may require greater concentration and effort to process sensory information. 

On the other end is someone who absorbs these information so much more deeply, in a way that overwhelms him. Another term that’s often used for this is highly-sensitive persons, or HSPs. 

From these two extremes, we can see that children (or adults) with sensory processing disorder can manifest in two polar opposites: they can be under-responsive, such as showing an extremely high tolerance to pain, or over-responsive, such as being easily overwhelmed by bright lights or loud noises. 

Examples of Over-Responsive SPD

An individual with SPD that tends to be overwhelmed by too much sensory input may be termed over-responsive, or, because of the stress of sensory input, sensory-avoiding. Here are typical symptoms: 

• Unable to concentrate in places with loud music or talking 
• Gets unusually agitated from loud noises 
• Getting a headache from bright lights 
• Unusual distaste for strange textures in food 
• Discomfort with certain textures in clothing, including tags or uncomfortable footwear 
• Easily gets motion sick 
• Gets unusually agitated when hungry or thirsty 
• Feels emotions deeply, whether his or her own or another person’s 

Examples of Under-Responsive SPD 

On the other hand, SPD can also manifest in a different way, where someone is not as responsive to sensory input. These individuals may sometimes be aptly called sensory-seeking, where they can seem to desire more sensory input simply because whatever they’re receiving, they’re responding to less than the average person. Here are some examples of how this looks: 

• Needs to keep moving, such as bouncing on one’s seat, turning around in circles, hanging or swinging from places 
• Thrives on loud music, sounds, or banging noises 
• Tends to speak in a louder voice than average, or likes singing out loud or yelling for fun 
• Cannot regulate body temperature well 
• Cannot feel hunger, thirst, pain, or other bodily warning bells 

An Occupational Therapist Can Help 

Of course, this post is not meant to be a diagnostic tool nor a complete recommendation program. We believe that an occupational therapist can be the best person to assess whether SPD is affecting your child’s (or your) ability to function in daily life. 

From there, he or she will be able to give you recommendations to thrive in the “occupations” of day-to-day living. The important thing is that we understand the unique wiring and specific sensory preferences of the neurodivergent person in our life, so that we can make the necessary accommodations to help them thrive.