There are five traditional senses that are generally taught: auditory (hearing), visual (sight), tactile (touch), olfactory (smell), and gustatory (taste). However, there are several more sensory systems that are critical for our bodies to learn about the environment around us and to stay regulated. These include: proprioception, vestibular, and interoception. First up: proprioception.
What is proprioception?
Proprioception is our body's ability to sense where it is in space, received from information from the muscles and joints of our body. This information is sent through pressure receptors into the spinal cord and up to the brain.
When a child struggles with proprioception, you will often see poor balance, poor posture, decreased coordination, and a difficulty grading movements (in an elementary school child, this could look like pushing too hard on the pencil while writing and thus breaking pencils often). In a child with one or more of the above challenges, you will often see proprioceptive seeking behaviors to help compensate. This can look like a child that is constantly wanting to receive pressure: by hiding in small spaces, tip-toe walking (flexing the calf muscles is a quick and easy way to get a lot of this information to the brain), crawling all over furniture, or cuddling up to a loved one.
How do we engage proprioception in play?
The foundational goal of therapeutic activities would be to provide proprioceptive input to these deep pressure receptors so that information is given to the brain to organize the body's movement and sense of itself in space. What we often do in therapy is engage the proprioceptive system through what are called "heavy work" activities. This refers to pushing/pulling tasks, crawling/climbing tasks, and any task that provides compression and pressure to the muscles and joints of the body. Here are some examples of activities that will engage the proprioceptive system (and are opportunities for play!):
· Climbing and crawling through obstacle courses (can use tunnels and couch cushions) or at the park
· Animal walks (bear walk, crab crawl, etc.)
· Joint compressions and/or body squeezes
· Carry groceries or assisting in laundry and other chores (helping to push and pull heavy objects or boxes)
· Wall push-ups
· Scooping and pouring sand at the beach or park
· Yoga poses (there are fun toddler yoga poses that can be found online)
· There are endless activities to engage this sensory system, hit the "contact" button on the home page if you are interested in more ideas!
Calming Effects of Proprioception:
Proprioceptive input is generally calming and regulating for the nervous system (for some individuals with low registration, it can be alerting, but this is less common). When anxious or stressed, adults tend to seek out massages, yoga, stress balls, exercise, etc., which all engage this sensory system and allow the individual to become grounded and focused. You can imagine that a child that has irregularities in this system often has a hard time staying calm and maintaining attention (and cannot always communicate what is going on inside!), which can impact play, social engagement, and academic skills.
The proprioceptive system is often talked about closely alongside the vestibular system, which is known to be more "alerting" to the body. In the next part of this hidden regulators series, we will discuss the vestibular system and the similarities and differences of these two systems, as well as how they are both harnessed within therapy sessions for maximum effect.
*Photo by Hudson Roseboom on Unsplash
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