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What is Sensory Processing Disorder?


The senses take in sensory information, but the brain doesn’t process them correctly. A person who is ultra-sensitive to environmental input (see, smell, hear, taste, touch, movement, balance, body position) can feel overloaded, anxious, tense, or scared. A feeling of the “fight or flight” response can set in.

The SPD Foundation writes, “Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD, formerly known as "sensory integration dysfunction") is a condition that exists when sensory signals don't get organized into appropriate responses. Pioneering occupational therapist and neuroscientist A. Jean Ayres, PhD, likened SPD to a neurological "traffic jam" that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the information needed to interpret sensory information correctly.” 

Both children and adults can have SPD. Today, it is primarily children who are treated by an occupational therapist specializing in sensory integration therapy. More adults are learning about SPD and recognizing that they may have had this their entire lives and have adapted in ways that can both help or hinder their lives.

Eileen Parker, the owner of Cozy Calm, has sensory processing disorder, and here are ways she has adapted:
  • Avoiding situations such as a state fair or amusement parks
  • At family gatherings, wandering off to a quiet place for a while to rest from the sensory input
  • Doing balancing exercises
  • Taking Tae Kwon Do to improve body position awareness
  • Closing windows in the summer when the neighbors are using leaf blowers
  • Muting commercials and looking away from the fast-moving images
  • Wearing clothes that are soft
  • Cutting labels out of clothing
  • At meetings, sitting at the head of the conference table so the sound and movement is coming from one direction
  • Doing grocery shopping and other errands only early in the morning when the stores are quiet
  • Never shopping on Black Friday
  • Exercising
  • Using her weighted blanket to calm sensory overload and to get to sleep
  • Going to sensory integration therapy
  • Seeking inputs such as scented candles or perfume
  • Listening to music in surround sound or with headphones

This list is only a few of the adaptation or avoidance techniques that a child or adult may do because each person reacts differently.

For personal insight into sensory processing, read Eileen Parker’s personal blog.

The Cozy Calm weighted blanket is often recommended by occupational therapists as a treatment for SPD because they help to calm the nervous system from sensory overload.