Positive Parenting - Supporting sensory needs

Help for parents

What is Sensory Processing?
Sensory processing is the ability to take in, sort out and make use of information from our environment.

All activities in life involve the processing of sensory information. Information is received through all our senses, including vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell.

Sensory processing also includes our movement and balance, our awareness of our body and its location as well as our awareness of our inner body cues.

We all have sensory preferences. Individuals can be over-responsive or under responsive to sensory information. Whether a child is over-responsive and/or under responsive to sensory input, the primary goal is to support and accommodate their sensory needs within their environment to promote their participation in daily activities. Failing to recognise and support these needs is likely to impact on learning emotions and behaviour.

Understanding Your Child’s Sensory and Emotional Needs

Behaviour is how a person reacts in response to things happening inside them (thoughts or feelings) and outside of them (their environment).

As adults we often have the ability to tell others if something is bothering us or to identify and communicate if we have a specific need. Children are still developing the capacity to effectively identify and verbalise their needs. As such their communication is often done through their behaviour.

As parents, sometimes our child’s behaviour can be confusing to us, making it difficult to see the underlying need, and this can be challenging.

Sometimes a child’s behaviour may be indicating an emotional need (for example overwhelm, anxiety, sadness, anger, happiness, a need for connection) or a physical need (for example hunger, tiredness, illness).

Other times their behaviours may be letting us know that they are under or over responsive to sensory information in their environment.

For example, you may observe a pattern where your child’s behaviour and emotions become dysregulated in environments where there is a lot of noise and bright lights or strong smells.
This is not always easy to figure out but when we do so it allows us to identify the child’s sensory preferences and therefore support their sensory needs.

Supporting Your Child’s Sensory and Emotional Needs

Ensuring a good routine to support adequate sleep as well as a good diet and exercise help support physical wellbeing.

Providing time for fun, connection and play with parents and others can fill their emotional cups. Ensuring that there are rules and boundaries that are clear and enforced with warmth and love are also important factors in helping children feel safe.

When we can step back, give ourselves space and time to calm and think about our child’s behaviour, then we can begin to come up with possible reasons to understand why it is happening.
This can help us be more understanding and empathetic.

We can help our children learn to identify and manage their own emotions by repeatedly providing them with co-regulation. Co-regulation is a warm and responsive interaction where parents help label and validate their child’s emotions by connecting with them and soothing their distress.

We need to maintain boundaries, but we can also help with the difficult feelings that come with the upsets and challenges of life.

The trickiest part of this can be recognising our own emotions and ensuring we stay calm and can respond and support our children in a warm and kind way.

This article was contributed by Written by Miranda Comar, Psychology Assistant (Primary Care Child and Family Psychology Service, St Camillus’ Hospital), in conjunction with Senior Occupational Therapists Eimear Goulding (Barrack View Primary Care Centre), and Stephanie Van Haaren (Croom Primary Care Centre) on behalf of Parenting Limerick. Parenting Limerick is a network of parenting and family support organisations.

For more information on this and other topics go to www.loveparenting.ie.