Sensory Processing Difficulties

Sensory Processing is our nervous system taking in information from all of our eight senses and determining how safe or comfortable we feel at any given time.  We all have individual differences in our sensory processing – determining how spicy we like our food or the volume we choose to listen to music for example.  But for many neurodivergent people,  sensory information is processed very differently and this can impact their sense of safety and comfort more quickly or more slowly than usual, sometimes leading to quite extreme over or under responses.  For example,  the smell of a particular food might make someone physically sick, loud noises may be uncomfortable to the point of pain or someone may not be aware that they have injured themselves.  We would refer to these more significant experiences as Sensory Processing Difficulties.

Sensory Processing Difficulties can contribute to a state of anxiety in neurodivergent people and sensory strategies can be key in supporting  well-being and emotional regulation.

Our Neurodevelopmental Conditions Learning Programme and our Autism Learning Programme as well as several of our workshops have a focus on sensory processing as we believe that this can be the key to improving many aspects of children’s lives, including sleep, eating & toileting, anxiety and behaviour.  

Further and more specific support can be requested via your local occupational therapy services.  We work in partnership with the OT services in Liverpool to deliver Sensory Processing Training and Eating Difficulties Training.  Other areas will have their own offer via Occupational Therapy.