Experts' Corner


Healing Autism
Dr. Annette Cartaxo, MD
Dr. Garima Jain, ND.

Calming Strategies for Asperger's
Kathy Lindert

Occupational Therapy

SENSORY INTEGRATION DISORDERS may have impact across a variety of domains such as Self Regulation, Sensory & Vestibular Processing, Proprioception, Visual Perception, Tactile System, Auditory Processing, and Motor Planning. SELF REGULATION relates to your child's ability to appropriately achieve, maintain and change their arousal level to a given situation or demand. SENSORY PROCESSING is your child's ability to perceive information from the environment, process, organize and then use it effectively to adapt to environmental demands and tasks. VESTIBULAR PROCESSING concerns the inner ear and tells your child where their bodies are in relation to gravity. Are we moving? Fast? Slow? Up? Down? The vestibular system provides this kind of input. PROPRIOCEPTION is sensory information your child creates when moving joints, or stretching and contracting muscles. It allows your child to know where their body is in space. VISUAL PERCEPTION is your child's ability to differentiate size, shape, & color. Visual perception also contributes to depth perception, visual attention, and visual memory. The TACTILE SYSTEM allows your child to respond to various touch stimuli on the surface of the skin. AUDITORY PROCESSING is a way of describing how your child's brain recognizes and interprets the sounds around them. MOTOR PLANNING is your child's ability to spontaneously sequence and organize movement in a purposeful, coordinated movement to complete novel motor tasks. Motor planning includes ideation, planning and execution. In other words what your child wants to do, how they will do it, and then demonstrating it. Some Fine Motor skills are speech, writing, and picking up items. Examples of Gross Motor skills include skipping, bike riding, and climbing. The Motor System is crucial to all aspects of child development.