Good sensory processing skills are essential for the child for many reasons. Sensory processing skills are the skills a child uses to demonstrate proper overall organization skills and attention to task. How a child attends to and completes a task relate back to his or her overall sensory processing skills. Thus, occupational therapy services are essential to afford the child the optimal opportunities to effectively learn.

The following are the essential sensory processing skills a child needs:

Tactile - Tactile sensation refers to our ability to interpret stimuli received by the skin. This stimulation may be in the form of touch, pain, pressure, or temperature. There are two components of this system: a protective component which tells us that we are in contact with something dangerous and a discriminatory component which allows us to determine where we are being touched and what it is that is touching us. A child who demonstrates difficulty in this area may not like being touched by others or throw a tantrum when certain aversive stimuli touch his hands or other body parts. In turn, the child's overall learning experience can be greatly affected.

Proprioceptive - Proprioceptive input gives information to the brain about where our body parts are in space and what they are doing. The receptors for this system are located in our muscles and joints. Without the proper proprioceptive input processing skills, children often appear clumsy and are unable to remain seated and focused on the task at hand. Also, many times they are unable to appropriately gauge the proper amount of pressure needed to complete a writing task.

Vestibular - The vestibular system is our sense of movement and gravity. The receptors for this system are located in the inner ear. Vestibular input tells us whether or not we are moving and in what direction we are moving. Children demonstrating difficulty in this area do not like quick spinning motion or play performed on suspended equipment (like swings and slides). They tend to demonstrate gravitational insecurity. As a note, children with seizure disorders should not be moved in a spinning motion on any type of equipment. This can cause the onset of a seizure. A linear swinging motion is OK.

Visual - Visual activities involve processing of visual information (light, color). They require interpretation of visual environmental information and the ability to attend to what is necessary and ignore what is not relevant. Children with diagnoses such as Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)/autism often demonstrate difficulty in this area because they tend to get visual stimulation from different brightly colored or odd-shaped objects. Thus, learning is negatively impacted.

Auditory - Auditory activities involve the ability to process various sounds and intensities of sound along with the ability to filter out or ignore sounds that are not relevant. Some children are unable to take in all the different noises and sounds which are coming at them all at once. As a result, many children are unable to filter our the auditory stimuli that they need, and it causes them to have difficulty following directions and remaining organized and attentive to task.