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More Than Five Senses
Touch, vestibular input, and proprioception are especially important for body awareness, balance, movement, and self-regulation.
What Does Sensory Processing Difficulty Mean?
It describes a mismatch in how a child receives, interprets, or responds to sensory input. The key question is not whether a behavior is unusual, but whether it repeatedly affects daily routines, learning, play, sleep, eating, movement, or relationships.
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Opposite Patterns Can Coexist
A child may avoid touch, seek intense movement, and miss body signals at the same time.
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Function Matters
Look for patterns that affect dressing, grooming, eating, school participation, peer play, sleep, and family outings.
Important: this site is not a diagnostic tool. Sensory processing concerns can overlap with autism, ADHD, developmental coordination disorder, anxiety, hearing or vision concerns, and other developmental conditions. If concerns are significant, consult a pediatrician, developmental specialist, rehabilitation clinic, or occupational therapist.
Touch, Vestibular, and Proprioceptive Systems
Parents often notice sensory differences through these three body-based systems. Each system may show over-responsiveness, under-responsiveness, or sensory seeking.
T
Touch
Touch helps children notice pain, temperature, texture, pressure, and body boundaries.
Over-responsive
- Strongly resists hair washing, nail cutting, tooth brushing, tags, seams, or light touch.
- Becomes upset in crowded lines or when peers brush against them.
Under-responsive or Seeking
- Does not notice dirt, minor injuries, or temperature changes.
- Seeks deep hugs, squeezing, blankets, chewing, or touching many textures.
V
Vestibular
The vestibular system tells the brain about balance, speed, direction, and movement.
Over-responsive
- Avoids swings, slides, heights, elevators, escalators, or feet-off-ground play.
- May become dizzy, frozen, upset, or dysregulated after movement.
Under-responsive or Seeking
- Craves spinning, jumping, climbing, hanging upside down, or running fast.
- May struggle to stop and need adult help to slow down safely.
P
Proprioception
Proprioception comes from muscles and joints. It supports posture, force control, coordination, and body mapping.
Common Signs
- Bumps into people or furniture, spills items, or uses too much or too little force.
- Has difficulty with handwriting pressure, buttons, zippers, scissors, bike riding, or ball games.
Seeking
- Likes heavy work, pushing, pulling, climbing, crashing into cushions, or tight spaces.
Sensory Observation Assistant
A fixed workflow that helps parents organize concerns, choose next steps, and create a copyable observation note.
Go Deeper
Use the detailed signs page to compare real-life patterns, or complete the questionnaire to organize concerns by domain.
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Common Signs Guide
Detailed examples of over-responsiveness, under-responsiveness, and sensory seeking across touch, movement, body awareness, sound, vision, eating, and daily function.
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Parent Questionnaire
A 36-item non-diagnostic questionnaire with domain scores, guidance, and a consultation checklist.
References
Content is aligned with pediatric and occupational therapy education sources and keeps assessment boundaries clear.