We often talk about a child having sensory meltdowns or feeling sensory overwhelmed. Each of us as humans experiences the world through our sensory system. These signals come from the things we touch, see, smell, hear or taste. They also come from the way our body senses our internal self. Feelings of hunger, pain, or going to the bathroom are known as interoception. Where our bodies are in space is known as proprioception and the vestibular sense of where our bodies are in relation to gravity is the vestibular sense.
Our brain has to process a lot of information all at once. As we get older, our brain has the ability to filter some things out easier than others due to desensitization due to exposure but this can vary from person to person.
When too much information is coming in at one time and our brain can not process it all at once, it can be overwhelming. This is the same for children as adults but we often don’t talk about sensory overwhelm for adults. Think of our sensory system as a bucket. When the bucket gets too full, we just can’t take in any more information.
Think about a busy day, you are stressed, stuck in traffic, hungry and late for an appointment and then your child starts to cry in the backseat. Your tolerance for the noise may be very low. This is because are brain in already processing a lot of information and one more thing just feels like too much.
If you were not late, in a car and hungry and your child starts to cry, you may be more patient and comforting as your brain is able to process and deal with the situation at hand.
It is normal to have those moments of sensory overwhelm but what we need to do as adults is try to recognize when this is happening and find healthy ways to calm our system down. This could look like taking a walk outside, sitting in a quiet or dark room, listening to music, having a snack or a cup of tea.
Using these moments to share with our children how we are feeling and what we need to do to calm our system down will help our children to see what they can also do to regulate their sensory system.
Want to learn more, reach out for a free 15 minute consultation to learn more about what we offer.
