Difficulties with continence can be due to lack of body awareness.
When we have good body awareness, the interoceptive, vestibular and proprioceptive systems are working well.
The vestibular system provides us with our sense of balance and head position.
The proprioceptive system provides us with a sense of how our body is positioned and a sense of how much pressure we are using.
The interoceptive system provides us with the awareness of internal feelings including, but not limited to
Hunger
Internal temperature-feeling hot or cold
Pain
The feeling of fullness such as when eating or when the bladder is full.
When the systems are not working well, we may over eat, have decreased motivation to eat, be less willing to dress for the weather and have difficulty with continence.
Therapy can help get the right input needed to improve these systems. Often the input needed is the ones that are avoided, so the systems often do not improve on their own.
For more information about sensory integration and reflex integration, check us out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557947101668
Thanks,
Mary
Moving Parts Therapy LLC
Why does my child have trouble keeping hands to self? A sensory explanation.
Difficulty with keeping hands to self can be due to proprioception challenges.
Proprioception is the sensation in the joints that provides body awareness. Pressure between our joints tells us how much force to use for tasks.
Challenges in the proprioceptive system can lead to a lack of understanding regarding how much pressure is being used when touching others as well as how much pressure is felt when touched by others. This can lead to social difficulties with peers.
Challenges in the proprioceptive system can lead to excessive jumping, crashing, and pushing, hitting, hugging etc. in an effort to increase input to reach the threshold needed to feel “just right”.
When functioning well, the proprioceptive system allows for touching others with appropriate force. There is no excessive need to jump, crash or bump into things or hit people to increase body awareness.
The function of this system can be improved with sensory integration therapies.
Check out our services at movingpartstherapy.com
Updated: Jan 15
Happy New Year! Can you believe it’s 2025 already? The past years have flown by!
With staff training completed, I now have the great therapists I have always wanted for our families. As a result, I have more time to spend making Moving Parts the OT practice I have always dreamed of - a place for kids who have no diagnosis but have Sensory Processing Challenges.
It’s also allowed me to get on top of some of the tasks that have been on my list of things to do for months which has felt so good. One of those tasks was to chat with previous clients to hear where they are now months, or even years, after our work together.
And you know what…I’ve been blown away by what’s been happening in their families. Like Andrew– an 8 year old we worked with back in 2021.
When we first started working with Andrew he was struggling with behaviors at school that were getting in the way of his education. He was hitting his peers and was unable to sit still and focus.
But he did not qualify for an IEP at school and did not have a medical diagnosis that explained his behaviors.
When his mother came to us, she was beside herself with worry for his future at school, both academically and socially. After an evaluation by us, it turned out that Andrew was struggling with Sensory Processing Disorder,
He was a very smart boy who was having unwanted behaviors because his sensory system was not working well.
We worked with Andrew to integrate his vestibular and proprioceptive systems as well as to integrate his primitive reflexes which also improved his sensory processing.
The outcome when we finished our time together was amazing. He was able to sit still and focus. He was no longer hitting his peers. School was going well.
I spoke with his mother recently and she told me that he continues to do well. She shared how glad she is to have found Moving Parts Therapy for Andrew.
Knowing that there are many kids without a diagnosis that struggle with sensory processing, I am wondering…
Do you know a child that might need some help like Andrew?
It is our mission to provide sensory integrative therapy for these children because they may not be able to get services elsewhere due to not having a diagnosis. Their behaviors are often attributed only to lack of discipline rather than a sensory problem because there is no diagnosis to explain it.
We want to help more children find success like Andrew has found.
If you do know a child that you think we’d be a good fit for, I’d love it if you could put us in contact either via email movingpartstherapy.com or over the phone if that’s better for them.
If you have an interest in learning more about what we may be able to do to help you, let me know when you’re free so we can arrange some time to talk.
Mary