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Sensory Integration
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What is sensory integration?
Sensory integration, simply put, is the ability to take in information through senses (touch, movement, smell, taste, vision, and hearing), to put it together with prior information, memories, and knowledge stored in the brain, and to make a meaningful response. Sensory integration occurs in the central nervous system and is generally thought to take place in the mid-brain and brainstem levels in complex interactions of the portions of the brain responsible for such things as coordination, attention, arousal levels, autonomic functioning, emotions, memory, and higher level cognitive functions. Because of the complexity of the various areas which are dependent upon and interact with each other as well as the child's own personality and environment, it is not possible to have a single list of symptoms which identify sensory integrative dysfunction. |
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Does your child experience an oversensitivity or undersensitivity to touch, sights, sounds, movement, tastes or smells?
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| Touch Sensitivity: |
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- Does your child have trouble wearing certain clothing?
- Do tags or seams bother them?
- Do they complain that the clothing is uncomfortable?
- Does your child notice when there is blood running down their knee from a fall they just had?
- Did they notice that their tooth is loose from a fall on the steps?
- Do they notice the pain from a fall? Or, do they scream from pain from just a small scratch?
- Do they hate to brush their teeth or have their nails clipped or have their hair washed?
- Does your child complain about their bath water being too hot when it is barely luke warm?
- Does your child crave walking barefoot on grass, sand, carpet or hardwood floors? On the other hand, do they become anxious about having to walk on the above?
- Do English peas feel like rocks in your child's mouth?
- Does your child realize that they have food on their mouth?
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| Vision Sensitivity: |
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- Does your child have problems making eye contact?
- Does your child look away when you call their name?
- Does your child stare off into space when other kids are in the room?
- Does your child complain of headaches or tiredness, rub their eyes often or squint?
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| Auditory Sensitivity: |
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- Does the high frequency of the telephone ringing bother your child or perhaps the school bell?
- Or does the low frequency of the lawn mower or vacuum cleaner bother your child?
- Does the fear of a certain sound throw your child into a meltdown?
- Does your child put their hands over their ears when you cannot even hear anything?
- Is your child so preoccupied with protecting themselves from potential noises that they are unable to learn?
- Has your child had a significant amount of ear infections?
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| Taste Sensitivity: |
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- Does your child show resistance to trying new foods or have a limited amount of foods they enjoy?
- Does your child love salty but hate sweet foods?
- Does your child stuff their mouth full to feel that there is something in there?
- Does your child love a certain dish at one restaurant but can't stand the same dish at a similar restaurant?
- Does your child only want crunchy tasting food such as fried chicken or potato chips?
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| Smell Sensitivity: |
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- Does your child squeeze their nostrils closed but you do not smell anything that smells bad?
- Does your child gag, get nauseated or vomit easily?
- Does your child crave a certain smell?
- Does your child become upset by certain smells?
- Does your child want to smell everything?
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EnListen® Can Help:
- Attention and Concentration
- Speech Clarity
- Confident Self Expression
- Relaxation
- Balance
- Hand Eye Coordination
- Comprehension/Memory
- Organization
- Reading and Writing
- Goal Achievement
- Academic Achievement
- Self Confidence
- Sports Performance
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See the Results |
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Parents of Mandy, age 25 months, after 80 hours of EnListen® training
After 60 hours of EnListen® training, Mandy is talking so much, we can’t believe she was not talking at all three months ago! She is counting up to 10, putting the alphabet letters into the puzzle for more than half the letters all by herself. She gets our attention not by grabbing our hands and leading us somewhere but by talking. ‘Hey, guys, let’s play.’ Or she says ‘I want play dough’ or makes another request. She has more than caught up in language after having 4 ear infections during her first year and falling behind. She was not catching up on her own. We were surprised that she seemed to like the music and kept the headphones on for two hours. She even tries to sing and dance with some of the children’s songs in her program. What a different child, and her grandparents notice quite an increase in language, too! |
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Psychologist
If I hadn’t seen it myself, I would not have believed how many changes the students made in social, behavioral, academic, and personal growth areas. At the start of the program, they complained about the Mozart music and keeping the headphones on for two hours. They were constantly putting each other down to put themselves up. They did not bring in work from their class they were missing, mostly because they did not know how to do it. We had a behavioral specialist in the listening session each day to maintain cooperation. By the end of 90 hours, some of the students even admitted liking the Mozart music, were doing projects with art and legos with each other, brought work from class to complete, encouraged someone having a behavior meltdown to cooperate, and occasionally say “thank you for this program. I can read better and understand, too. I’m getting better grades and getting along better with others.” The behavioral specialist was doing art projects with some of the students and found them much more cooperative. Most of these students have an opportunity to learn and be successful now because they can learn more easily. I plan to add EnListen® programs to my private practice based on the experience I’ve had with these students. |
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Mother of Sam, age 11, after completing 60 hours of EnListen® home program training
Sam reads aloud each day without complaining. His attention span has increased from a maximum of 30 minutes to several hours. He said yesterday that he did not seem to shake anymore and that he could control his arms and legs and that they were able to be still now. He is doing his homework with a better attitude and completing it a little faster. He is doing better in school, which is just what we wanted! The EnListen® home program has been easy to use and we appreciate not having to travel to a center to do this program several weeks at a time. |
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