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Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID, also called sensory processing disorder) is a neurological disorder causing difficulties with processing information from the five classic senses (vision, auditory, touch, olfaction, and taste), the sense of movement (vestibular system), and/or the positional sense (proprioception).
For those with SID, sensory information is sensed normally, but perceived abnormally. This is not the same as blindness or deafness, because, unlike those disorders, sensory information is received by people with SID. The difficulty is that information is processed by the brain in an unusual way that may cause distress or confusion.
SID is not necessarily related to autism or autism spectrum disorders (ASD). SID is its own diagnosis, but it can also be linked to other neurological conditions, including ASDs, attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, Developmental Dyspraxia, Tourette syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and speech delays, among many others.
Diagnosis is increasing by developmental pediatricians, pediatric neurologists, and child psychologists. While it has not yet been included in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as a discrete diagnosis, Regulatory-Sensory Processing Disorder is an accepted diagnosis in Stanley Greenspan’s Diagnostic Manual for Infancy and Early Childhood and the Zero to Three’s Diagnostic Classification.
There is no known cure; however, there are many treatments available.
The meaning of Sensory Integration Disorder falls under the DSM-IV criteria for Asperger syndrome. [1].
Sensory integration is the ability to take in information through the senses of touch, movement, smell, taste, vision, and hearing, and to combine the resulting perceptions with prior information, memories, and knowledge already stored in the brain, in order to derive coherent meaning from processing the stimuli.
The mid-brain and brain stem regions of the central nervous system are early centers in the processing pathway for sensory integration. These brain regions are involved in processes including coordination, attention, arousal, and autonomic function. After sensory information passes through these centers, it is then routed to brain regions responsible for emotions, memory, and higher level cognitive functions.
There are now three types of Sensory Processing Dysfunction, as classified by Stanley I. Greenspan as supported by the research of Lucy J. Miller, Ph.D., OTR. These new terms are meant to increase understanding between Occupational Therapists and other professionals who frequently encounter SID and physicians and other health professionals who approach sensory integration dysfunction from a more neurobiological vantage.
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