Touch: Often the Missing Ingredient

By Julia Grover-Barrey OTR/L
Founder of In-Tuned®

One of the most neglected sensory organs is our skin…it’s also the largest sense organ.

For some children with sensory processing challenges, not having enough input to their skin is the problem, but we don’t always address the root cause, so the resultant “issues” persist.

“Issues”: always touching or picking at themselves or other things, poor gauging (too much, too little) of pressure with their heads, hands and feet, rapid mood changes (from gregarious, to angry to sad in less than 10 seconds), poor self-regulation, poor frustration tolerance, often “elbowing” the other kids in the lunch line, creating disturbances requiring intervention, shrugging off attempts to touch or navigate them.

It’s hard to say why some kids need to have their neurotactile systems worked on more than others, but they do.

Not enough skin on skin contact as babies perhaps, insufficient tummy time so not enough working into gravitational forces, lack of free movement from too much time spent in devices meant to restrain????

We won’t know the cause for each and every child, but the bigger question is what to do about it right now.

Touch is the answer. Without doing the hands-on work required the child’s “issues”, whatever that looks like, will persist.

So: give deep pressure to the head, chest, arms, hands, tummy, back, legs and feet; do muscle education using strain counter strain, place and hold techniques…there are many ways; get them doing repetitive segmental rolling on the floor with their arms held above their heads; get them jumping in different motor patterns;  show them how to give input to their own bodies; learn how to touch if you are not comfortable doing this or arrange work with someone who knows how to do this for the child.

Touch deeply, touch often, touch with intention.

Julia