The nervous system is constantly receiving information from our bodies and our surrounding environment. Sounds, movement, light, touch, smells, and body position are all signals being sent to our nervous system every day. Our nervous system must then process all this information and figure out how to respond to all this sensory input.
For some people with sensory issues, processing this information can be difficult. A sound that feels normal to one person might feel distracting or overwhelming to another. Someone else may have trouble being aware of their body and its position (body-position), judging movement, coordination, or remaining present and alert during an activity.
Sensory integration therapy at Dublin Post Acute addresses sensory processing challenges that can interfere with daily activities and functioning. It is commonly associated with occupational therapy and is based on an individualized assessment, functional goals, and ongoing evaluation.
Key Takeaways:
- Sensory integration is the nervous system’s process of organizing and responding to sensory information.
- What is sensory therapy? Sensory integration therapy (SIT) is a type of occupational therapy (OT) that helps patients improve their response to sensory input.
- Sensory strategies are based on individual assessments.
- Family members and caregivers in the Dublin, Ohio area can find personalized SIT at Dublin Post Acute.
What is Sensory Integration?
To understand what is sensory processing, it helps to begin with the way the nervous system receives and organizes information. Sensory integration is the neurological process of receiving, organizing, and responding to information from the senses. This process helps people understand what is happening within their bodies and in the environment around them.
Sensory processing involves more than the five familiar senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. It also includes sensory systems that support movement, balance, and body awareness.
The Sensory Systems
The primary sensory systems include sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, movement and balance, and internal body cues like hunger.
- Visual: Information received through sight, including light, color, contrast, movement, and spatial relationships.
- Auditory: Information received through hearing, including volume, pitch, rhythm, and background noise.
- Tactile: Information received through touch, including pressure, texture, vibration, pain, and temperature.
- Olfactory: Information received through smell.
- Gustatory: Information received through taste.
- Vestibular: Information about movement, balance, and the position of the head in space.
- Proprioceptive: Information from muscles and joints that helps a person understand body position, force, and movement.
- Interoceptive: Information from inside the body, such as hunger, thirst, temperature, fatigue, and the need to use the restroom.
These systems work together rather than operating independently. For example, walking across a room requires visual information, balance, body-position awareness, touch, and coordinated movement.
What is Sensory Integration Therapy?
Sensory integration therapy is a type of sensory therapy with structured, individualized interventions that uses sensory and movement experiences to support participation in daily life. It is often provided by occupational therapy practitioners with appropriate education and experience in sensory integration and processing.
One formal intervention model is Ayres Sensory Integration, or ASI, which is based on the work of occupational therapist and researcher A. Jean Ayres. ASI has defined principles related to assessment, therapist qualifications, the treatment environment, individualized challenges, and the resident’s active participation.
How Does Sensory Integration Therapy Work?
Sensory integration therapy begins with understanding how sensory processing may be affecting everyday function. The clinician will carefully assess each resident to determine their personal needs. Then they will develop a treatment plan based on the person’s needs, preferences, abilities, medical condition, and goals.
The purpose of sensory therapy is not simply to expose someone to more sensory input. Instead, the clinician selects and adjusts sensory experiences to support an appropriate level of challenge to help heal or strengthen certain neural pathways to reach specific goals.
The sensory integration therapy process includes an initial assessment, individualized goal setting, purposeful sensory experiences, and ongoing monitoring. A sensory integration occupational therapy intervention should remain connected to a meaningful activity rather than focusing only on a person’s response to isolated sensory input.
1. Assessment
A sensory assessment should consider the whole person. Pain, fatigue, medication effects, hearing or vision changes, cognitive changes, anxiety, medical conditions, and environmental demands may all influence how someone responds. A clinician’s initial assessment may include:
- Reviewing medical, developmental, and occupational history
- Discussing sensory preferences and areas of concern
- Observing responses during meaningful activities
- Evaluating balance, movement, coordination, or body awareness
- Considering environmental factors such as noise, lighting, and crowding
- Using standardized assessment tools when appropriate
- Identifying activities that are important to the person
- Establishing functional and measurable goals
2. Individualized Goals
The goal of sensory integration occupational therapy is to focus on activities of daily life that are important to the person. Depending on the person, goals may relate to:
- Dressing and grooming
- Eating or participating in meals
- Moving safely through an environment
- Completing school or work activities
- Participating in rehabilitation
- Managing daily routines
- Tolerating necessary care activities
- Taking part in leisure or social activities
- Using sensory strategies more independently
3. Purposeful Sensory Experiences
A clinician may incorporate various forms of sensory stimulation like touch, movement, resistance, balance, visual information, sound, or body-position input into an intervention. The type and intensity of input should be selected according to the assessment and adjusted in response to the person. Examples could include:
- Practicing a daily task in a quieter or less visually distracting setting
- Using movement as part of a therapist-directed activity
- Incorporating pushing, pulling, or resistance into a functional task
- Adjusting seating or positioning to support participation
- Introducing textures gradually during grooming or self-care
- Using consistent cues before movement or touch
- Modifying lighting, noise, or visual clutter
- Practicing strategies for managing challenging environments
4. Monitoring and Adjustment
The clinician monitors how the person responds during and after an intervention. Sensory integration therapy should remain responsive rather than following the same routine for every person. It’s a very personalized therapy approach, led by an occupational therapist who designs a personalized plan for you. The treatment plan may be adjusted based on:
- Comfort and safety
- Medical status
- Alertness and fatigue
- Participation
- Progress toward functional goals
- Cognitive or communication needs
- Personal preferences
- Changes in the care environment
What Does Sensory Integration Therapy Look Like?
There is no single routine used for everyone. A session may include movement, balance, resistance, textures, positioning, environmental changes, or practice doing an everyday activity. The selection of each intervention depends on assessment findings and treatment goals.
A session should have a clear purpose. For example, the therapist may use a carefully selected activity to support body awareness during dressing, attention during a functional task, or safe participation in rehabilitation. The clinician observes the person’s response and adjusts the activity as needed.
An appropriate intervention should not be uncomfortable simply for the sake of exposure. The therapist should account for consent, communication, medical precautions, fatigue, pain, balance, and the person’s preferences.
What are Sensory Processing Challenges?
Sensory processing challenges may appear differently from person to person. A person may be more sensitive to certain input, have difficulty noticing it, seek additional input, or respond inconsistently depending on the setting.
Possible signs of sensory issues may include:
- Becoming distracted or overwhelmed in noisy environments
- Avoiding certain textures, sounds, smells, or movements
- Reacting strongly to unexpected touch
- Having difficulty judging force or body position
- Seeking frequent movement, pressure, or physical activity
- Appearing unusually cautious during movement
- Needing additional time to adjust to a new environment
- Having difficulty remaining alert or engaged during an activity
- Struggling to participate in grooming, dressing, meals, or other routines
These signs do not establish a diagnosis. Similar responses may be related to pain, anxiety, hearing or vision changes, medication effects, neurological conditions, fatigue, trauma, or other medical factors. OT for sensory issues will evalutate any symptoms to help determine what may be contributing to the difficulty or if OT for sensory integration disorder could be helpful.
Who Benefits from Sensory Integration Therapy?
Therapy for sensory integration disorders are used across different settings and populations. They are most strongly associated with pediatric occupational therapy, particularly when sensory processing challenges interfere with play, education, self-care, or social participation. But sensory stimulation therapy can also help anyone of any age experiencing challenges from a sensory integration disorder.
Sensory-informed approaches may be considered for adults when sensory responses affect daily routines, occupational performance, emotional regulation, rehabilitation, or participation. For older adults, sensory processing may be influenced by changes in hearing, vision, balance, cognition, neurological health, mobility, and the care environment. A qualified professional can determine whether a sensory integration approach is clinically appropriate for a particular person and goal.
Does Sensory Integration Therapy Work?
Sensory integration therapy can be very beneficial for residents of a skilled nursing facility. It can improve a person’s independence and make functioning on a daily basis better. The UNLC’s Repository for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity did a study in 2024 that found that a sensory room in a skilled nursing facility improved confidence and emotional regulation (Pagan).
Another study from the National Library of Medicine found consistent positive outcomes with the use of sensory therapy and sensory diets for older adults experiencing symptoms of cognitive decline. Sensory integration therapy was found to improve cognitive function, emotional well-being, and quality of life (Lanza, Crawford). It can effectively improve a person’s sensory processing abilities when guided by a professional occupational therapist who can design a personalized treatment plan.
How Occupational Therapy Helps with Sensory Integration Issues
Occupational therapy helps with sensory integration issues by focusing on practical goals that improve a person’s quality of life. It focuses on tackling sensory issues that affect meaningful daily activities, like dressing, eating, moving safely, or participating in rehabilitation. Based on an individualized assessment, a therapist may reduce noise during a task, adjust lighting or seating, introduce certain textures gradually, or use guided movement and resistance activities to support body awareness. The therapist monitors the person’s response and adjusts each strategy to support comfort, safety, and functional goals.
How to Do Sensory Integration Therapy at Home
Occupational therapy for sensory integration disorder can sometimes include doing sensory supportive activities at home. These daily sensory activities are sometimes called a sensory diet. They can include exercises like stretching, daily walks, breathing exercises, or simple tasks like folding laundry.
Sensory therapy done at home should be under the guidance of your therapist. They will evaluate any homework they give you for fall risk, pain, skin integrity, medical precautions, cognition, communication, and the safety of the environment. Families should consult the treating sensory therapist before introducing any new movement, pressure, balance activities, temperature-based strategies, or specialized equipment.
What Should Families Ask About Sensory Integration Therapy?
Before any therapy treatment, it can be helpful to get answers to a few questions first. Families and residents can ask the following questions when considering SIT therapy at a skilled nursing center like Dublin Post Acute:
- What sensory concerns did you identify?
- How are they affecting daily life?
- How were these concerns evaluated?
- Who will provide the therapy?
- What will therapy involve?
- What goals will you work toward?
- How will you measure progress?
- How will you keep the person safe and comfortable?
- What can family members do to help?
- Will insurance cover the SIT?
The Importance of Individualized Care in Sensory Integration Therapy
Each individual has their own personal needs when it comes to therapy of any kind. A quiet environment may help one person concentrate but feel distracting to someone else. Some movements may work for some while another needs a modified movement.
Sensory integration therapy at Dublin Post Acute helps residents through their rehabilitation and recovery journey. It can be a great way to add additional support to a residents personalized therapy program. The occupational therapists at our Dublin, OH skilled nursing center take great care to customize every treatment plan to the resident they’re working with to make sure sensory therapy exercises are the right fit for you.
Contact or visit our skilled nursing care center to learn more about our Sensory Integration Therapy services.
Sources:
- Pagan, Marisa, “A Sensory Room Protocol for SNF Staff to Improve Confidence with Emotional Regulation in Adults with Cognitive Challenges: Through an Occupational Therapy Perspective” (2024). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 5060. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/37650885