Making Sense of Sensory Issues

Summary

The video by Reaching Families discusses the complexities of sensory processing and its impacts on individuals, particularly children, with sensory difficulties. Our brain naturally filters sensory information to help us focus, but this process can misfire, leading to either sensory overload or sensory seeking behavior. For instance, while some individuals might feel overwhelmed by sensory input, others might find their environment under-stimulating. Strategies to support those with sensory issues include understanding their unique sensory processing needs and adopting flexible approaches to mitigate stress. The video also highlights resources available through West Sussex services and Reaching Families for additional support.

Highlights

• Sensory processing involves our brain filtering large amounts of sensory information. 🧠
• When the brain lets too much through, it can result in sensory overload, making simple tasks difficult. 🤯
• Too little sensory input can lead to a state known as sensory seeking, causing restlessness. 🔍
• Understanding each person's unique sensory needs is key to helping them cope. 🤝
• West Sussex offers resources and support for families dealing with sensory difficulties. 📚

Key Takeaways

• Our brain filters sensory information, but it can sometimes misfire, leading to overload or seeking more stimuli. 🧠
• Sensory overload makes it difficult to focus due to excessive awareness of stimuli. 🤯
• Sensory seeking occurs when too little information is processed, leading to under-stimulation. 🔍
• Understanding individual sensory needs is crucial to providing support. 🤝
• Resources from West Sussex and Reaching Families can offer further support. 📚

Overview

Our daily sensory experiences are vast, and our brain helps by filtering out what's unnecessary so we can focus. However, this filtering can sometimes go awry, leading to sensory overload or sensory seeking behaviors. People experiencing sensory overload might be hyper-aware of environmental details like ticking clocks or temperature changes, making tasks like conversations stressful.

On the flip side, some might receive too little sensory input, finding their surroundings under-stimulating and engaging in behaviors to fill these gaps. This explains habits like fidgeting or unnecessary movements. Understanding that a person's behavior might only be a small part of the sensory challenges they're facing is vital.

When supporting someone with sensory difficulties, patience and understanding are key. Each person's sensory journey is unique, and their sensory challenges could vary widely. It's important to consider changes in environment or routine that could impact their sensory processing. West Sussex and Reaching Families provide valuable resources and support for navigating these challenges.

Making Sense of Sensory Issues Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Every day of our lives, our senses give us a huge amount of information. This information is sent to our brain which does the job of making sense of all this information. Our Brain filters out any information that it deems to be unnecessary in order to understand the situation we find ourselves in so that it can focus on what is important. For many people, and not just those with special educational needs, this filtering process may not get the balance right
• 00:30 - 01:00 letting through more or less information than would be ideal. these sensory differences can cause different situations to be more challenging for the child or young person imagine you have a sensory cup and your brain drip feed it with information from your senses if our brains filter let's through too much information it is as if your sensory cup is being filled up very quickly this can cause
• 01:00 - 01:30 sensory overload imagine having a conversation with a friend at home for somebody with sensory overload they wouldn't be able to help being aware of the program on TV the clock ticking the temperature the movements their friend is making the smell of food the cat the dripping tap the washing machine and so on this can make concentrating on the conversation a very difficult and stressful task
• 01:30 - 02:00 for those who have difficulty expressing how they feel in these situations this may result in negative behavior even simple everyday situations could prove difficult to those with sensory overload on the other hand if the brain let's through too little information it is as if the century cup is being fed with very small amounts of information it can take a long time for the cut to be full and this can cause a child to be sensory seeking for those children who
• 02:00 - 02:30 are sensory seeking the same situation of having a conversation at home may feel under stimulating this can result in behaviors that are intended to fill these century gaps such as fidgety cheering fiddling or moving around the room remember what we save a person's behavior is only the tip of the iceberg there is a lot more going on behind the scenes then they may be able to tell you
• 02:30 - 03:00 see behavior think sensory so what can be done to help if child or young person you support suffers from sensory difficulties it all comes down to understanding as an individual talk to them and try to understand what they find difficulty different situations everybody is different and they're century difficulties may not be simple you may find some of their senses are over swords if whilst others are under
• 03:00 - 03:30 responsive remember that the individual is processing the situation differently to you and things may appear very different to them there is more than one way to interpret the situation they may not feel able to express themselves so you have to read between the lines of what they say and do and try to respond in the way you think is right sometimes finding the way is straightforward
• 03:30 - 04:00 other times it may not be so easy so don't be put off you don't get it right the first time remember it will get easier with time as you learn to understand the world from their point of view when the child or young person seems to be having sensory difficulties in a particular situation then you should think through these steps in order to help support them identify the cause of the stress and then see what you can do to solve it or at least distract from it a good first
• 04:00 - 04:30 step is to think of anything has recently changed consider the environment from their point of view things can appear very different inside their bubble anything that might be difficult to process or distressing they need something more to keep their minds engaged remember to think about all the senses sight sound taste smell touch as well as vestibular our sense of balance
• 04:30 - 05:00 and proprioceptive our awareness of our bodies in space all our senses build up the picture of our environment and it may not be immediately obvious what the issue is think back what were they doing earlier in the day for example a child may be able to cope with a hectic day school but will come home feeling like a fizzy drink that has spent the day being shaken up ready to burst it may seem
• 05:00 - 05:30 that something that holds the trigger but perhaps this was just the tipping point from a stressful day have there been any unexpected changes or situations in the day those with sensory difficulties can find new situations stressful as there is a lot of new information to take in remember something that may seem an ordinary situation to you may be unexpected or difficult for somebody with special educational needs whatever situation do try and put yourself in the position of the child or young person
• 05:30 - 06:00 you will find some strategies to help and when you do you will make life easier for the child support as well as yourself these strategies can adapt over time as your child's needs change if you feel like your child could benefit from more help with their sensory differences then please get in touch with the west sussex county council autism and social communication team as well as the west
• 06:00 - 06:30 sussex occupational therapy service more information about both can be found on the west sussex local often at west sussex . local cash offer . for further information and support then please get in touch with reaching families reaching families is our west sussex based charity for parents of children send we deliver information and training on many key areas including sensory issues mr. website at www.amazon.com
• 06:30 - 07:00 ok where you can find a series of fact sheets about a variety of subjects relevant to parent carriers including sensory issues you can also find out more about how to get hold of our book available free to parent carers making sense of it all contains vital information about all aspects of care and the children will send