Module III: Intervention of Sensory and Motor Issues in Individuals
with Asperger’s Syndrome
Sensory Integration
The Theory
A. Jean Ayres defined sensory integration as “the interaction
and coordination of two or more functions or processes in a manner
which enhances the adaptiveness of the brain’s response”
(p.25-26).1 We are constantly receiving sensory information both
externally from the environment and internally from our bodies.
The nervous system then has to organize and interpret this information
and decide how it will respond to the input and how the input can
be used for skill development.
When sensory information comes in, most of us will make an adaptive
response. Ayres defines adaptive response as a “purposeful,
goal-directed response to a sensory experience”(p. 126).1
Ayres described sensory integration intervention as “providing
planned and controlled sensory input with usually-but not always-the
eliciting of a related adaptive response in order to enhance the
organization of brain mechanisms”(p.114).1
Therefore, if you work on building the foundation of the nervous
system by providing appropriate sensory input that aids the system
in growing and developing, you prepare it better for action and
putting everything together.
Let’s take an example of how we have to put all of the different
sensations coming into our nervous system together for purposeful
activity or making an adaptive response. The task will be to eat
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Spend a moment imagining yourself
in your kitchen with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the
table in front of you. First, we get sensation to our eyes and
our visual system. How does the sandwich look? Is it appealing
to the eye or does it look like something we should not eat? Is
the bread fresh or is it getting moldy and stale? We then get information
to the olfactory system as to how the sandwich smells. Do we like
the smell of the peanut butter or is it overwhelming to the nose
and causing us to turn our heads away and put the sandwich down?
Do we know what it smells like? Can we even smell the peanut butter
or jelly? Does it smell good or does it smell like the brand of
peanut butter we don’t care for? If we determine that the
sandwich looks good and smells okay, we then receive tactile information
through our hands when we pick up the sandwich. How does the sandwich
feel? Is it sticky from the peanut butter? Perhaps we don’t
like the feel of the peanut butter on our hands and therefore know
that we won’t like the feel on our mouth. We also have to
judge the size and texture of the sandwich so that we know how
to hold the sandwich in our hands without squeezing it too hard
that it is squished, or too lightly that we drop it. Once we pick
it up appropriately, we have to bring the sandwich to our mouths.
In order to do this, we must judge where our mouth is on our face
and bring the sandwich off of the plate to our mouth instead of
overshooting or undershooting the target and hitting our nose,
chin, or cheeks. Thus the muscle and joint receptors in our hands
and arms must process information correctly so we that we know
how far to lift the sandwich to our mouth. Then our mouth has to
open up to take a bite of the sandwich. As this is happening, we
are still taking in more information through our eyes, hands, nose,
and muscle and joint receptors. As we prepare to take a bite out
of the sandwich, our olfactory receptors in the nose and gustatory
receptors in the mouth are receiving a lot of information about
the smell and taste of the food. When we finally take a bite of
the sandwich, our mouths have to open up and our teeth have to
bite down with enough force to break a piece of the sandwich off.
As this is happening, the tongue is in the correct position and
begins to taste the food. How does it taste? Is it pleasing to
the palate or does it make us want to spit it out. What is the
texture like – soft, hard, smooth, gritty, crunchy, or lumpy?
What is the temperature – hot, warm, cold, or cool? Is the
temperature safe so that we won’t burn our mouth? Once we
know what it tastes like and what the texture and temperature of
the substance is, we then decide what to do with it. Does it need
to be chewed or does it simply slide down our throats. If we need
to chew it, how do we get it over to our teeth and how much do
we have to chew it before it can safely pass to the back of our
mouths and down our throats. The muscle and joint receptors of
the mouth and jaw along with the tactile receptors are receiving
the information regarding the size, texture, shape, and consistency
of the food. The tongue is also working to move the food and push
it to where it needs to go. When everything is coordinated and
put together, we simply pick up the peanut butter and jelly sandwich,
take a bite, chew, and swallow.
You can see from this example the intricate process of how sensory
integration simply “puts it all together”. Eating a
sandwich is something that most of us do without even thinking
about it. If it is familiar, we do not think about the things mentioned
above when eating; we simply perform the action. To people that
have difficulty processing sensory information and putting it all
together, these tasks are much more challenging, much less natural,
and often not as enjoyable. As we saw above, all of the different
senses are involved with the task of eating. We know the basic
five senses – visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory.
But there are two more senses that are not as well known. They
are the proprioceptive and vestibular senses. In the next section
we will discuss these seven senses more thoroughly.
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