Wallkill Central School District

Sensory Integration

Sensations include sight, sound, touch or tactile sense, proprioception (information from muscles and joints that allows us to know where each part of our body is), and vestibular sense (information about the body's movement and the effect of gravity on the body).

Movement activities such as swinging, skating, climbing, gymnastics, jump roping, bicycling, and hopscotch help to improve the ability to process the feeling of movement and gravity on the body.

Activities like climbing, jumping, tug of war, twister, and pulling or pushing heavy items help to improve the ability to know where our body parts are in relation to each other and to objects. This is important for dexterity and coordination in fine and gross motor skills.

The sense of touch is important for providing accurate information about size, texture and shape of objects. This allows for accurate manipulation of objects. Sometimes children are very sensitive or undersensitive to various types of touch.

Activities such as playdoh, sand play, water play with sponges, going barefoot outdoors, finger painting, and exposure to different textures help to improve touch sensitivity.

Coordinating the right & left sides of the body as well as being able to cross the midline of the body is a foundation for fine & gross motor skills. An example is using scissors and writing with pencils. Try activities such as legos and other construction toys, skipping, jumping rope, bike riding, ball games, and jumping jacks.

Motor planning is the ability to think of & perform the movements necessary for a new activity. Lack of good motor planning may result in clumsiness and lack of coordination. Try activities such as obstacle courses, "Simon says", karate/judo types activities, ball games, and "Twister".