How Your Child’s Sensory System Relates to Behavior

How many times a week is your child melting down? Running to their rooms to hide? Refusing to participate in an activity at school? Sometimes our child’s behavior may feel defiant or combative, seemingly out of the blue. Parents and kids alike can struggle with behavior and figuring out how to make sense and regulate certain reactions.

But if we look at behavior through a sensory lens, we may find clues triggers for these behaviors. Our sensory systems including our nervous system, brain, heart, and body are integrated and connected. When our brain perceives something as dangerous it signals our muscles to react. We may have a flight reaction, a fight reaction, or a freeze reaction.

One of the keys to that last paragraph is perceives. Our brain is perceiving a danger and telling our bodies to react. But what if the information our brain is receiving or transducing from the stimuli is an overreaction or overstimulation of the actual danger? Sometimes our sensory integration gets mis-wired, telling us that certain triggers are dangerous, and our brain perceive them to be life-threatening when they are not in reality.

We know that behavior comes from the brain. Our brain produces thoughts, feelings, and actions. Understanding how the brain works is key. The brain gets its information from our outside environment as well as our internal environment. Our outer senses include touch, smell, taste, hearing, and sight. Our internal senses include our vestibular sense (balance), proprioceptive sense (muscles and joints), and introceptive sense (what you’re sensing from organs, temperature, or other internal stimulations like from our bladders and need to go to the bathroom).

Sensory integration is the connection between sensory system, brain, heart, body, and behaviors. If parents take a deeper dive into learning about and understanding sensory integration it can change the way parents think about behavior and help create more success, more calming, and more regulation. Because when any of these sensory components are mis-regulated, either over stimulating the actual input or under-stimulating information to our brains, our behavior can be skewed.

A parent may see dramatic shifts with implementing tools that help the child regulate their sensory input. Shifts in behavior come from shifts in functioning and body and brain becoming more regulated, body signals being signaled in a different way. When you understand what your child is experiencing and why it pulls shame and blame out of behavior.

What can parents do? What is the first thing to think about once we understand sensory integration?

1.       Establish a vocabulary with your kids so they can communicate how they’re feeling and what they need. You may use language like: “How did you feel, what did you sense, and where did you sense it before your tiger came out?” Where the tiger represents aggressive behavior.

2.       Study your kid’s environment and reactions. Keep a journal of what is happening in your child’s environment so you may be able to learn triggers that distract or derail their behavior or concentration.

3.       Seek an assessment from a psychologist trained in sensory integration and perhaps work with an occupational therapist to know what activities or actions can help regulate and sooth your child.

Last week on my podcast I spoke with Jessica Sinarski, LPCMH, therapist, speaker, author, and expert on sensory integration. She had more examples and tips for parents on how to work with kids through sensory integration discovery. Her book series Riley the Brave educates kids and parents about sensory integration issues. It is now available for pre-order and with a pre-order you get a bonus parent resources bundle. Pre-order the book here and listen to the podcast here.

Be healthy,

Dr. Laura Anderson

Dr. Laura S. Anderson specializes in educating and supporting families, as well as clinicians who support transracial adoptive families, across the globe to overcome barriers, derive strength from their differences, and thrive. She is a dynamic advocate for multiracial families and a strong advocate for supporting "third culture" children and families who may need support with the stressors associated with living out of their countries of origin.

Contact Dr. Anderson here.