In today’s world of medicine and education, the tendency to label a child’s behavior as a “behavior disorder” or to file it in a diagnostic category is a common practice. As a result, the child’s parents shift back and forth from one professional opinion to the other, starting a therapy treatment for the child’s disorder only to let it go, while the child starts to feel more and more helpless and out of control, which can become evident in their behavior.

As a subtype of sensory processing disorder and from an occupational therapy perspective, sensory modulation is the ability of a person’s autonomic nervous system (ANS) to regulate the activity between the sympathetic (arousal) and parasympathetic (inhibition) systems, allowing them to increase or decrease activity so that the desired outcome of activity creates harmony in all functions of the central nervous system (Ayres 1979).

In sensory modulation disorder (SMD), a regulatory imbalance often causes difficulties in a child’s behavior while anxiety levels rise. The child often is labeled as “having behavior problems” and also is blamed for them, even though it is a developmental delay and a neurobiological condition.

Sensory modulation disorder has long-term impact on a child’s development. If a child has a developmental delay, whether visual, auditory or otherwise, sensory modulation often impacts how these different sensory systems register information in order to process them. It really supports the ‘entry point of information’. If there is a disorder in this function, it’s a disconnect between what’s coming in externally from the context of the environment and the person’s internal experience of that same environment. That alters what we call the adaptive response.

Understanding A Child’s Behavior 

A child’s response to sensory input is dictated by their central nervous system. Each person has unique thresholds of response that cause a nerve cell or a system to activate. Children with a low threshold notice and respond to stimuli often, and their systems are frequently activated. Children with a high threshold miss stimuli that others notice and need stronger stimuli to activate. 

The hallmark of sensory modulation is that the child does not have consistent performance. It depends on how they slept. It depends on what they ate. It depends on how their system is adapting. It depends on how many coping strategies are available to them at any given moment. It’s not willful behavior.

The Four Patterns of Self-Regulation

Self-regulation is a behavioral construct of Dunn’s Model of Sensory Processing. According to Dr. Dunn, people either have a passive strategy or an active strategy for reacting to things that happen around them. She sites these examples: 

When a passive strategy for self-regulation intersects with an active strategy, four basic patterns of sensory processing emerge that involve the relationship among thresholds, self-regulation and sensory processing patterns:

Sensation Seeking – high thresholds with active self-regulation

• Enjoy sensory experiences and input
• Move more, hum during the day
• Jump up and down, rub hands together often
• May be distracted by new sensory experiences
• May have more difficulty completing tasks
• May lose track of daily life tasks

Sensation Avoiding – low thresholds with active self-regulation

• Notice things much more than others
• Like quiet environments, to be more isolated or alone
• Get anxious more quickly
• Withdraw from challenging environments 

Sensory Sensitivity – low thresholds with passive self-regulation

• Detect sensory events more frequently
• Get distracted more easily
• Get upset by seemingly unnoticeable things
• Notice more details in life
• Notice changes in setting or moods more quickly
• Get interrupted from completing tasks

Low Registration – high threshold with passive self-regulation

• Miss more cues than others
• Fail to notice details
• May be more easy going
• Take no notice when called
• Drift away during activities
• Find it hard to get tasks completed in a timely manner

Self-regulation is the basis upon which we build all our functions. This is why we see so many kids wanting to be controlling. They are acting out of a subconscious need for self-protection. They want to control others externally so that they can feel in control internally.

For example, a child may continue to sit amidst other children during play and become irritable because of all the random sounds in the play area. It is a passive self-regulation strategy to remain in this noisy play area even when the child feels uncomfortable from all the sounds. At the other end of the continuum, persons utilize an active strategy … For example, the same child playing amidst other children would crawl to a quieter place when the sound got overwhelming. It is an active self-regulation strategy to adjust one’s position to get a more manageable amount of sensory input. 

Link Between Childhood Trauma and Sensory Modulation Disorder

Chronic traumatic stress such as abuse and neglect creates changes in a child’s brain that trigger their fear response automatically, which is called a state of “hyperarousal.” Physiological changes during hyperarousal influence thinking, feeling and acting, which indicate a neurogenic response rather than a behavioral reaction. 

You cannot treat sensory modulation through a behavior program. You are going to fail. The neurological system will have to be reset. We want kids to think and then do and then feel. Children with sensory modulation disorder feel first, then they do, then they think.

Some successful neurogenic treatments for sensory modulation disorder include programs that strengthen interoception and the awareness of self. 

Interoception, one of the newest buzzwords in occupational therapy circles, allows people to “feel” internal organs and skin while providing a status report on the internal condition of the body. Interoception involves a variety of general, localized feelings such as pain, body temperature, itchiness, sexual arousal, hunger, thirst, heart rate, breathing rate, muscle tension, pleasant touch, sleepiness and bathroom urges as well as warmth or coldness, tickling or shivering, tension or relaxation, constriction or expansion, sinking or lifting, trembling or steadiness. These feelings are a key component of emotional experience and the basis for how people feel emotions. Often called “the eighth sensory system,” interoception can help a child calm down and self-regulate as a result of being more aware of the feelings within their bodies.

Interoception, combined with the awareness of self, form a social foundation for how people behave and interact with their surroundings and allow the development of a first-person perspective that connects thoughts, feelings, intentions and the body. When a child starts to understand themselves and develops a healthy self-awareness, only then can they move on to understanding others and the environment they live in.

By Maude Le Roux, OTR/L, SIPT, RCTC, DIR® Expert Trainer at A Total Approach

For many children, self-regulation is a daily struggle. Self-regulation is the ability to understand your own behavior and modify it while reacting to the world around you. It’s about effectively managing your emotions in a wide variety of situations – and it doesn’t come easily to everyone.

Imagine being a child who has challenges with self-regulation. Things constantly pop up to provoke your emotions. Yet teachers ask you to be quiet. People tell you to calm down. Friends shy away when you’re feeling distressed.

How frustrating this must be! It’s no wonder that these children often go into meltdown mode when loving parents are only trying to help. If this sounds like the situation for you and your child, I’d like to share some tips for helping them self-regulate more effectively. 

Moderate Your Voice

As a parent, you can support your child’s self-regulation by staying calm and thinking carefully about how you speak. Avoid raising your voice, use a neutral tone, and speak to them in short, simple phrases when you can see they’re struggling with their emotions. 

Establish a Safe Space

Create a safe spot at home where your child can retreat during difficult times. Calmly encourage them to seek out this spot when they feel too overwhelmed to regulate their emotions. 

For more information about establishing a safe spot, I invite you to take the Golden Nuggets parent course from The Maude Le Roux Academy. It explains this concept in much more detail.

Raise Sensory Awareness

In order to self-regulate, your child needs more awareness about what’s happening within themselves. Allow your child to experience their emotions and begin to discover an awareness of how the process of self-regulation feels. 

Be advised that their emotions may become more even intense at first, rising to a crescendo before they can begin to self-regulate. This is normal. The goal is to give your child a “felt” sense of internal control, where they can see how it feels within their body to self-regulate. Over time, they will gain an understanding of this new sensation and will be able to recognize it as it happens.

Allow Time for Self-Discovery

Instead of trying to tell your child how to self-regulate, provide them with the opportunity to accomplish it for themselves. Don’t tell them how to feel. Give them the chance to feel what they will feel, then to find their own path to self-regulation.

This is a valuable opportunity for them to discover a new sense of personal power. Allow your child the time and space it takes to accomplish this their own way, and you will both be rewarded with an improvement in self-regulation.

Tell Them You’re Proud of Them

When your child is completely calm, share a big hug and tell them you’re proud of them for handling their own emotions. Move on and continue whichever daily tasks you were accomplishing when they had a moment of difficulty with self-regulation.

I’d also encourage you to reflect on the day with them later, during a quiet moment when you can discuss the day’s events. Bring up the moment that caused a crisis of emotion for them. It’s okay to tell them you were concerned about their reaction at first, but then you were so proud of them for regulating their own emotions.

Learn More About Self-Regulation

If you’d like to learn more about helping your child self-regulate, I recommend contacting A Total Approach. They have therapists who are trained in my methodology and share the self-regulation techniques that give your child a sense of empowerment. 

CONTACT US TODAY

By Maude Le Roux, OTR/L, SIPT, RCTC, DIR® Expert Trainer at A Total Approach

Is your child a rigid thinker? You’re not alone. Many children exhibit inflexible thinking, particularly those with attention, learning, and sensory processing disorders. 

Rigid thinking is characterized by a desire for predictability, displaying difficulty with unmet expectations, feeling compulsions to do certain things, and in some cases exhibiting perseveration – repetition of words, phrases, and gestures. Children who are rigid thinkers often show behaviors like explosive outbursts, meltdowns, difficulty communicating, or even a state of near-incoherence in moments of intense frustration.

But I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about the negative aspects of rigid thinking, so today I’d like to focus on the positive. Let’s take a closer look at the positive side of your child’s rigid thinking.

Rigidity Reduces the Guesswork (Or Does it?)

When your child is a rigid thinker, they may prefer that things predictably happen the same way, day after day. Of course, the world doesn’t always behave as we expect. Unpredictable circumstances can send your child into a tailspin, as they may become emotionally overloaded by unfamiliar sensory experiences.

As a parent, you can probably predict how your rigid thinker will approach many kinds of daily situations. Even if your prediction is simply, “He won’t like it,” you still have some awareness of how your child will react to certain events.

 However, I’d suggest that you avoid allowing your own assumptions to limit the potential you see in your child or the potential they may see within themselves. When a child begins occupational therapy, they are encouraged to learn in their own way. Their rigid thinking isn’t, and shouldn’t be, a limitation on how much they can do.

Coping With Chaos and Uncertainty

We live in a chaotic world. As your rigid thinker comes into contact with new sensory experiences, they may feel overwhelmed. Some children feel compelled to assign things certain labels and fit them neatly into the sorting boxes in their minds.

This is normal human behavior, even if the labels aren’t always kind, helpful, or accurate. Labeling people and things is a way of coping with uncertainty and gaining a sense of control. To some degree, everyone does it.

If your child seems to have a strong desire to name, sort, and categorize things, this could be a form of self-soothing and self-reassurance. And if they become extremely distressed when things don’t sort correctly – for example, when someone they labeled “friend” is unfriendly – you’re seeing their frustration about the uncertainty of the situation. 

This can manifest as a meltdown, but your child isn’t being bad. They’re just struggling to sort things out in their mind. Here’s a more positive way of looking at it: Your rigid-thinking child has excellent mental organization, but sometimes the world just doesn’t want to be organized.

Rigid Thinking in Schooling and Therapeutic Settings

Many children with autism, anxiety, and/or sensory processing disorders experience school quite differently from those without these challenges. A child who is cognitively flexible can easily transition from subject to subject and activity to activity.

For your child, one rigid moment can cause such intense emotion that they are unable to make a smooth transition. Their classmates and teacher may or may not understand what is happening or how to help, depending on the setting and the resources provided at school.

This is why occupational therapy can be such an effective way to support the education of children with rigid thinking. As long as the therapy takes a child-led approach, the child is in charge of their own process and their own progress. 

Your child’s thinking might be rigid, but it doesn’t have to be restrictive. Within the therapy setting, their rigid thinking can be a benefit rather than a detriment. Their therapist can help them learn techniques that will allow them to blossom in many other settings, including school.

Thriving for a Lifetime

Some children with rigid thinking thrive in environments with a fairly high degree of order and structure. Others prefer a certain level of personal structure but actually thrive in more flexible environments. It depends on your child’s individual needs.

Do you worry about the many types of environments your child will encounter in the future? Perhaps you’re concerned about how they will handle college, a workplace, friendships, and relationships down the road in life.

Well, here’s a comforting thought: Your child is full of potential. The precise form of rigid thinking they exhibit at age 5 is not necessarily representative of the thinking they will exhibit at age 25.

This is why I recommend taking a holistic developmental approach to supporting children with rigid thinking. It’s an approach that goes beyond one skill deficit or performance issue and examines how the child is forming their total sense of self, based on how they experience their world. 

I believe we can dig deeper to find the “why,” and then take it a step further by saying, “We can change the why.” This is a method of reshaping the child’s self-perception to think, “I can do this,” which will be a benefit to them for a lifetime. 

For more information about finding the positive side of rigid thinking, I encourage you to explore the wealth of resources provided by the Maude Le Roux Academy and A Total Approach.

CONTACT US TODAY!

Ever wondered what was going on in your child’s head when they look at you? It may surprise you to know the real needs behind different facial expressions. Though there are many, we will cover three major facial expressions today.

Downcast eyes, not fully wanting to make eye contact, downturn of mouth, coming closer slowly, hesitantly:

Your child is feeling insecure, not sure how you will respond to a request or situation to be shared. Children always want their parents’ acceptance and love. They want to know they are not disappointing you even as they disappoint themselves for not having the control they think they should have had, for causing a “bad” situation to take place. No matter the behavior, they always want your love, even when they test your patience sorely. When you think they are not looking, they are scouring your face from the corners of their eyes, listening to your voice tone, continuously assessing what “mood” you are in. The problem with a developing child is that they perceive you according to their own perception of the moment, not the actual reality of the moment. They do not see what you see or hear what you hear. You think they should be listening, more than they are looking, but this is not the case, they are looking, more than they are listening. And your facial and physical gesture is going to be interpreted according to their own logic, not yours. This forms the foundation for many power struggles, preventing a meeting of the minds to come to some common conclusion.

Belligerent eyes, fierce attitude, scowl on face, body pulled up in extension, ready for fight, or flight, harsh tones, angry words:

Believe it or not, but your child is still feeling insecure, pulled into self-protection through the defense mechanisms, with a strong need to protect vulnerability at all costs. The fighting child is a frightened child with all sorts of hurt feelings inside. When the child searches, your face, your voice tone, which may be perceived as being angry, mad, disapproving, his sympathetic nervous system goes into over-arousal, kicking in his Amygdala in full action, which causes logical thinking to disappear into the night.

Blank face, non-committal, low voice tone, shoulders slightly stooped or too erect – act as if does not care:

They do care, they care intensely, but if they allow themselves to show what they feel, it would make them feel fragile, needy, and vulnerable to being “bullied” or being told “no” or even
worse, that their opinion is not valued. Children are trying to find themselves, their place, their “mold” in this world. As they are still searching to make sense of it all, it opens them to experience strong emotions at times that they may not feel safe and protected. They also learn and respond to their emotions from the modelling of their parents. They are learning from you
how to handle things. It is a scary thought, as we certainly cannot be perfect each time. But as scary as it is, it does not shake the truth of it. If you get mad in response to a situation, they

learn it is ok to do it. If you cry at the drop of a hat, they learn it is ok to do it. If you throw or hit something, they learn from it for themselves. Research states that each one of us are
building the kind of parent we are going to be in the first 9 months of our lives.

What do we do?

• Think about how you respond to your child in different circumstances. What do you want your child to see when they look at you?
• Reflect on your own experience as a child and your thoughts of your parents through these early developing years
• Reflect on your own behavior and what you are modeling for your child. Is your own behavior what you would like them to follow?
• Do not take the child’s response as fact, it often is built upon the fantasy of their own perception, which makes it true for them, but not necessarily true to the situation. This helps to fray those edgy nerves we have, though you still do not want to minimize their emotion. To them it is real and therefore should be treated with respect.
• Whatever the emotion, try to respond with the cue of “emotional safety” first. It is connection before correction that counts.
• Meet them in their emotion, not in their words. Gain regulation first, then go into the situation.
• Do not solve their problems for them. Frame it, help them reflect, but allow them their own process so they can “own” the success of their solution and build on it.

When parenting alone does not help and you are feeling lonely in trying to understand your child, call us at 484 840 1529 and let’s talk!