Is your kid a Sensory Seeker or an Avoider?
Starting school marks a new phase in a child’s life. This important phase continues for the entire childhood and teenage years. The beginning defines many things about the child’s personality. Beansprouts Pre-school, Sector 50, Gurgaon, handles children with a lot of love and care and ensures that the children blossom in their formative years.
Educators at Beansprouts handle your tots with a lot of care as this is their first experience of coming to a formal environment, outside of home. The first day at school is marked with expressive faces and emotions.. Happy, scared , anxious, skeptical, crying, yelling – we switness everything and our educators are well equipped to manage the young ones with affection and patience. With time children settle down and love their peer group. But there are some children who continue to remain anxious and hypersensitive. They tend to cringe with a loud noise, noise which could be normal for other kids.
Children displaying these symptoms typically fall into two types, a sensory seeker or a sensory avoider.
Sensory Avoider (hypersensitive)
A sensory avoiding child is one who struggles with processing environmental stimuli and becomes overwhelmed. This results in the child being overly sensitive to their environment. A sensory avoider child processes sensory input at an intense level compared to others. He gets easily distracted by normal background noises.
Children who are sensory avoiders usually appear awkward or clumsy, don’t want any physical contact, are sensitive to bright lights , taste and loud noises.
Sensory Seeker (hyposensitive)
A child who is a sensory seeker feels under-stimulated by his or her environment. This under-sensitivity to sensory input leads a child to seek out more sensory stimulation. This child doesn’t sit still, comes too close to others, runs or walks and bangs into things, has no rest but keeps moving, talks a lot.
Many sensory seekers appear clumsy or loud which may lead to the belief that the children have “behavior issues.” Even though a child may need more sensory input, labeling a child as having behavioral issues is often incorrect. Instead, the behavior is the result of the child seeking sensory input.
Not every child fits neatly into the categories of a sensory seeker and sensory avoider. It is possible for a child to display both the symptoms.
In order to help a child self-regulate, it’s important to know what his/her reactions are to sensory input when overwhelmed and the specific sensory triggers that cause distress.
To best help a child with sensory processing disorder, it’s important to know his/her sensory cause. It’s also important for parents to know the level of reaction a child has to each cause. Once we are able to understand how well or how bad his/her reaction is to the situation , we can help lessen the distress.
It is also considered that the children react differently in a new environment so they should be dealt with care and concern when they first venture into the school. We should be understanding, patient and caring. Whenever we find the child showing signs of hypersensitivity or hypo sensitivity we should redirect the child to another activity, use tactile objects, divert their attention, devise sensory seeking activities and help the child channelise energy.
Parents must monitor and help the child. The parents must be supporting their child’s occupational or physical therapy goals with practice.
Our senses tell us a great deal about the world around us — from how it smells and sounds to how we can be safe.
If the child has a hard time gathering and interpreting those sensory inputs, they may show signs of sensory issues. These may include difficulty with balance and coordination, screaming, being aggressive when wanting attention, or jumping up and down frequently.
We need to understand and be patient because the symptoms might disappear or reduce with passage of time and with the right sensory inputs.
It is important to highlight that parents should consult an occupational therapist or a Doctor if these symptoms are severe in any child.