Sensory Processing: Tactile System

Lacey Lubenow, MOTR/L, CLC

Purpose: The tactile system is responsible for receiving information from the environment through touch. It’s important in keeping us safe through the detection of potentially dangerous stimuli such as hot, cold, or sharp objects.

Function: The tactile system is composed of receptors that detect pressure, temperature, vibration, and texture in our external environment. The tactile system works alongside the proprioceptive system to communicate with the brain through sensory receptors throughout the body.

Why it’s important: As mentioned previously, the tactile system serves a lot of purposes, but none more important than safety. Without the tactile system, the body would be at risk of harm through things like heat exposure when cooking or bathing or cold exposure when outside in the elements. It also serves the purpose of emotional attachment (think skin to skin after birth), body position, and feeding and nutrition.

System Breakdown: Because the tactile sensory system is so vast, children who have difficulty with tactile processing may present with a combination of over or under responsive tendencies. Children who are over-responsive to tactile input may be resistant to self care tasks like hair brushing/cutting, nail trimming, tooth brushing, or face washing. They may have a hard time feeding, which can lead to picky eating habits. Children also may avoid or dislike messy play such as finger painting, sand play, or playing with food. Resistance to certain textures of clothing, socks, difficulty with tags or seams, or tight clothing can also be a sign of tactile over-responsiveness. Children who are under-responsive to tactile input may seek out various textures and use parts of their body that have more touch receptors including lips, tongue, and face to feel them. They may not recognize tactile input as easily and thus have a lack of awareness of when their face or hands may be dirty. They also may appear to have a high pain tolerance and seek out messy play opportunities rather than avoid them. Similarly to other sensory systems (proprioceptive and vestibular) children may also engage in active or rough play like running, jumping, or crashing into things.

OT Intervention: Every person is unique to their sensory processing needs. It only warrants intervention if it prevents participation in meaningful activities and impacts their quality of life. Regardless, tactile input is beneficial for children with and without sensory impairments. A sedentary lifestyle restricts the opportunity for engaging the tactile system and can lead to sensory processing difficulty purely due to a lack of exposure. Our sensory systems require frequent input to process information efficiently and effectively. Occupational therapists assist with creating a ‘sensory diet’ that is unique to each child’s needs to help them better process sensory information and promote improved regulation. Examples of activities that OT’s may use to promote exposure to tactile input include:

Water Play: Water is a great way to engage the sensory system without the feeling of being too messy.

Brushing Protocol: The Wilbarger brushing protocol is often used by OT’s to assist with desensitization of the tactile system using a specific brush on the skin. It can decrease over-responsiveness to clothing, food, and self care like hair or tooth brushing.

Deep pressure: A powerful tool that not only helps with regulation of the proprioceptive system, but the tactile system as well.

Exposing children to various textures through play over time will assist in desensitization of an over-responsive tactile system. If a child is under-responsive, providing and educating them with safe sensory opportunities that allow them to feed their sensory system through rough or messy play is equally as important.

Sensory Processing: Vestibular System

Purpose: The vestibular system is responsible for sensing the direction of our body in space; up, down, backward, forward, spinning, and speed. It plays a critical role in our balance and coordination and can act as a powerful tool in regulation.

Function: The vestibular system is made up of structures within the ear which include three semicircular canals and two otolith organs. Hair cells, crystals, and fluid provide the brain with information about head movement and position. Children can be over-responsive to vestibular input, making them sensitive to excessive or specific types of movement. They can also be under-responsive, requiring increased movement to remain engaged.

Why it’s important: The vestibular system provides us with important information pertaining to balance, orientation, coordination, eye control, and security in movement. It can be thought of as an internal GPS and without it, movement would be very difficult, if not impossible.

System Breakdown: Children with vestibular processing difficulties may present with resistance to change in position. This can look like fear or avoidance of swinging motions or refusal to partake in activities that involve climbing, jumping, or going upside-down. This would be considered over-responsive to vestibular input and result in sensory avoidant behavior. Children with these tendencies are often perceived as overly cautious. If the child is under-responsive to vestibular input, we would see just the opposite and they would be seeking out that sensory input for regulation; running, jumping, climbing, rocking, and fidgeting, which is often summarized as difficulty remaining still.

OT Intervention: Each person is unique to their sensory processing habits. It only warrants intervention if it prevents participation in meaningful activities and impacting their quality of life. Regardless, vestibular input is beneficial for children with and without sensory impairments. A sedentary lifestyle restricts the opportunity for engaging the vestibular system and can lead to sensory processing difficulty purely do to a lack of exposure. Our sensory systems require frequent input to process information efficiently and effectively. Occupational therapists assist with creating a ‘sensory diet’ that is unique to each child’s needs to help them better process sensory information and promote improved regulation. Examples of activities that OT’s may use to promote exposure to vestibular input include:

Swings: There are many different types of swings available and therapy gyms often have more than one to assist with various needs. However, regardless of the type of swing, they all target the vestibular system.

Climbing equipment: Rock walls, jungle gyms, and slides are all great pieces of equipment that can frequently found in a therapy gym to promote engagement of the vestibular system.

Bouncing: Trampolines and exercise balls are useful tools that make bouncing easier and fun.
Inverted exercises: Yoga, bars, and exercise balls are great tools to move the body upside-down, which is a great way to target the vestibular system.

10 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE IDEAS (SPEECH AND OT THERAPIST APPROVED!)

Toys and games that promote language, social communication, sensory regulation and fine motor skills

Looking for holiday gifts for little ones can be HARD, there are so many options that may make it difficult for parents or loved ones to find a gift that will keep a child engaged while also targeting some skills they are working on in therapy. We compiled a (short) list of some of our favorite toys and games that we use in speech and occupational therapy to help encourage expressive and receptive language, build core vocabulary, develop fine motor skills and explore our sensory system to help you navigate gift giving this season. Something these toys have in common are that they are simple and promote interactions, which from a social communication level--we love! These are for the most part very low-tech and allow room for the caregiver to model and encourage language while playing!

“Learning Resources Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog” (ages 18 months +): Language goals/core vocabulary to incorporate: “in/out, colors, my turn, pull, push.” Targets fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination.
“Melissa and Doug Pizza Party Wooden Play Food Set” (ages 3+): Language goals/ core vocabulary to incorporate: “more + food, counting, eat, I want + food, yummy, yuck!, cut.”
“B-Toys- Interactive Red Barn” (Ages 2+): Language goals/core vocabulary: “Ready, set, GO!, down, up, push, open, close, animal names + sounds, ball, roll, slide, spin, peek-a-boo!” Target spatial concepts, following 1-2 step directions and fine motor skills.
"Melissa and Doug Slice and Bake Cookie Set” (ages 3+): Language goals/core vocabulary to incorporate: “more + flavor/color, on, off, help me, hot, cut, open.” Target spatial concepts (i.e. put it on top, take it off, cut.”
“Magna-Tiles” (ages 3+): Core vocabulary to incorporate when requesting additional tiles: “More + color, colors, shapes, up, down, on, off.” Can incorporate special concepts and following directions.
“Melissa and Doug Take Along Tool Kit Wooden Construction Toy” (ages 3+): Language goals/core vocabulary to incorporate: “bang bang, boom, turn, help, on, off, in, out and dump.” Targets fine motor skills with turning gears and tools.
“Ocean and Sand Sensory Bin” (ages 3+): Language goals/ core vocabulary to incorporate: “uh-oh, hide, my turn, shake shake, dig + animal names.” Targets fine motor skills, imaginative and sensory play skills.
“Melissa and Doug Examine and Treat Pet Vet Play Set” (ages 3+): Language goals/core vocabulary to incorporate: “Ouch! Boo-boo, help, open, shot, look!, dog, cat, meow, woof + body parts.”
“Melissa and Doug Magnetic Matching Picture Game” (Ages 3-5): Language goals/ core vocabulary to incorporate: “on, off, up, down, go, stop, swing, vroom, drive, bus, + farm animals.” Target spatial concepts, matching and following 1-2 step directions.
“Let’s Go Fishin” (ages 4+): Language goals to increase core vocabulary: Open/close + Colors. Fine motor skills: pincer grasp. Social communication: working on taking turns.

Sensory Processing: Proprioceptive System

Purpose: The proprioceptive system is responsible for obtaining information about the body's position in space.

Function: Proprioceptors are small sensory receptors that are located within muscles, tendons, and joints. Information is received from proprioceptors when these structures pull, press, bend and straighten. When these receptors are pulled, pushed, bent, or stretched, information is sent to the brain to provide us with a sense of body awareness, motor planning, and coordination. A breakdown with processing this information can be caused by damage or dysfunction to sensory receptors, nervous system pathways, or areas of the brain responsible for interpretation.

Why It’s Important: The proprioceptive system provides us with important information for participation and completion of everyday tasks such as washing our hair, brushing our teeth, getting dressed, or eating/drinking. Without these receptors providing information, these tasks would become much more challenging or even impossible.

System Breakdown: When children have difficulty processing proprioceptive input it can often present as clumsiness or being uncoordinated. Children may seek out more input if they have a low proprioceptive threshold, which can present as rough play (crashing), deep pressure (hugs), or big movements (running, jumping, pushing, pulling, heavy lifting, climbing). If they’re over responsive to proprioceptive input, then children tend to be more cautious in their movements and avoid physical activities.

OT Intervention: Everyone processes sensory information differently and it doesn’t necessarily warrant intervention unless it prevents a child from participating in meaningful activities that impact their quality of life. Proprioceptive input is beneficial for children both with and without processing difficulties. A sedentary lifestyle restricts children’s opportunity to engage in proprioceptive activity and can ultimately result in sensory processing difficulty solely due to lack of exposure. Our sensory systems require frequent input and exposure in order to be able to process information efficiently and effectively. Occupational therapists assist with creating a ‘sensory diet’ to improve children’s ability to process sensory information that is unique to their needs. Some examples of activities that OT’s may use to promote exposure to proprioceptive input include:

Fine Motor: pinching, pulling, or squeezing playdough or putty, opening/closing objects, or manipulating velcro strips.

Gross Motor (frequently referred to as ‘heavy work’): jumping jacks, pushing/pulling/carrying heavy objects, building a fort, climbing on a jungle gym.

Oral Motor: blowing bubbles, chewing gum, eating certain foods like jerky or licorice.

Weighted objects such as vests, blankets, or lap pads can be helpful as deep pressure stimulates the release of serotonin and encourages the parasympathetic response, which assists with regulation by providing feedback for body awareness, decreased anxiety levels, and improved attention.