Sensory Integration- Current Concepts & Practical Implications

Sensory integration disorders are central nervous system disorders characterized by imbalance among the primary sensations of sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell. Symptoms of sensory integration dysfunction have been known to occur in a wide array of disease conditions such as vertigo, deafness, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and peripheral neuropathy, however the clinical entity of sensory integration in children was first described by A. Jean Ayres in 1972 (Ayres, 1972). As an occupational therapist at UCLA, Ayres identified behaviors in children that resulted from poor integration of the five senses-abnormalities in motor planning, tone, and spatial perception. Dysfunctions of sensory integration (or DSI) disrupted practical day-to-day functions at home, in the classroom, and on the playground, affecting attention & arousal (hyperactivity or hypoactivity), movement, speech, balance, and auditory and visual perception.