There is a wide range of technical terminology flying around with regards to childhood development. It can be a real minefield for parents, teachers and anyone working with children/young people. Here is a list of common terms that you might come across:
Sensory processing disorder (SPD) a condition which occurs when a person has difficulty ‘making sense’ of the information they receive through their sensory system about the world around them.
Sensory integration is the organisation of sensory information for on-going use. Sensory experiences include touch, movement, body awareness, sound, sight, taste and smell. Sensory information needs to be registered and regulated to allow for smooth sensory integration.
Tactile (touch) Processing
Processing tactile information tells us about the world that is in contact with us, such as our clothes, pens, and other tools we work with and even how we are positioned on a chair or when we bump into things. Good tactile processing is important for gross and fine motor skills as well as for modulation.
vestibular/Proprioceptive (Movement, Body force & gravity) Processing
The vestibular (balance and centre in our ear) and proprioceptive (body) systems tell us about how our body is in relation to the space around us, such as whether we are upright, moving, bending etc. The proprioceptive system also gives us information about how much force we are using with our body and how heavy or hard objects are.
Auditory Processing
Auditory processing refers to the our ability to “make sense of what we hear”. These abilities include the ability to analyse (break up), synthesise (blend) and discriminate between different sounds which are essential for reading and spelling. Sound information also tells us about the world outside us and helps us develop understanding of location and space. The auditory system is an important defence system and processing sound information is also very important for communication and language development.
Visual Processing
Processing visual information is essential in understanding the world around us and developing concepts. Visual processing allows us to interact with the outside world. Visual perception is the ability to interpret information received by the visual system and to recognise, recall and make sense of what we see. It helps us to do things such as reading, writing and many everyday tasks such as doing puzzles, find objects on a crowded desk, discriminate between similar objects, etc.
Oral (taste & smell) processing
Processing information from our taste and smell systems, together with our tactile (touch) systems in our mouth tells us about food (or other objects) we put into our mouth, and this is important for nutrition.
Interoception is our awareness of the sensory experience from within our body and our body states (the basic functions/physical conditions of the body). This includes awareness of hunger, thirst, the need for the toilet, tension in our muscles, our heart rate, our breathing rate, our experience of social touch, etc. These experiences help us to recognise our body’s states and emotional feelings and to choose an appropriate response (e.g. put on a jumper when it is cold or get something to eat when we are hungry). Because they help us understand how we are feeling, they are the building blocks for our awareness of other people’s feelings and therefore important for the development of empathy and social skills.
Executive functioning refers to our goal-oriented decision making. This includes skills such as planning, organising, regulating our focus/attention and energy towards a task, keeping and using information in our working memory and inhibiting behaviours.
Self-regulation is the ability to regulate our level of alertness, referred to as “arousal”. This level fluctuates throughout the day, from tired and bored, to excited and anxious, but tends to stay around a level that facilitates our functioning in our everyday tasks. This regulation allows us to focus and maintain our attention on relevant information.
Developmental coordination disorder (DCD), or dyspraxia, is difficulty planning new or unfamiliar motor movements. Praxis is the process of planning movements. The process of walking or running is not (after the first few years of life) planned, we do these things automatically, but learning to ride a bicycle or learning to drive a car all require planning. It is comprised of many steps. First, we have to picture in our minds what it is we want to do (e.g. ride a bicycle), then plan how we are going to do it (move first the right leg in a forward circular pattern, then the left leg), then we do it. This process can sometimes get a little confusing for some children/young people or adults, who can have difficulty with any of these areas, and this results in DCD/dyspraxia.
Postural control is the ability to maintain the body’s alignment while upright in space. This ability is dependent on several components, including reflexes, muscle tone, bilateral integration & the sensory systems.
Muscle tone is the tone (or tension) in the muscle when that muscle is not under conscious control. Normal muscle tone allows us to stand/sit upright without falling, and prepares us for action.
Reflexes are the body’s natural way of preparing us for learning and protecting us from harm, for example putting your arm out to catch yourself when you fall. Reflexes appear and disappear at different times in the maturation of the nervous system and are therefore important indicators of the development of that nervous system.
Many reflexes are present at birth and are later integrated into normal movement. Others develop slightly later on in infancy or childhood and some remain throughout life.
Bilateral Integration is the ability to use the two sides of the body together in a coordinated manner. Since the left side of the brain controls the movement of the right side of the body, and the right side of the brain controls the movement of the left side of the body, the two sides of the brain need to work and move together in order to manage tasks that rely on both sides of the body. These tasks include cutting, skipping along, riding a bicycle, opening bottles, fastening buttons, eating with a knife and fork, etc.
There are several types of bilateral movements, and they develop in a particular sequence. Firstly, is the ability to use the two sides of the body together doing exactly the same task, e.g. holding a bottle with two hands. Next, the child learns to use 1 hand to stabilize (usually the non-dominant hand) while the other hand is functional, e.g. holding the page still with the left hand while colouring with the right hand. Then the child learns to use each side functionally, at the same time, e.g. pedaling a bicycle.
The ability to maintain an upright posture under varying conditions. Although the most obvious activities which require balance are things like walking, jumping and riding a bicycle, almost all activities that we do require our ability to maintain our body position in space. For example, while sitting at a desk, we need to stretch to the far corner of the desk for our pencil without falling over, or we need to stand in a line outside a classroom while peers are bumping and pushing us without falling over.
Good balance depends on many factors, the most obvious is the vestibular apparatus in our ears. It also depends on the appropriate development of reflexes, such as equilibrium reactions, good muscle tone and good motor planning.
Gross motor skills are motor skills that involve large body movements. They include walking, running, jumping, hopping, climbing, ball skills, etc. Motor skills rely on many factors, including muscle tone, balance, reflex integration, coordination, motor planning, etc.
Fine motor skills are motor skills that involve fine or small body movements. They include threading, doing buttons, writing, colouring, cutting, crafts, etc. They rely on many factors, including muscle tone, reflex integration and motor planning.
Motor planning is the ability to plan and organise unfamiliar motor movements or sequences. This skill is particularly important for learning new tasks, but also for doing tasks or movements in a different way than one is used to.
Ocular pursuits are the eye’s ability to follow/track objects as they move. Dissociation (of the head and eye movements) allows the eyes to move to follow objects while the head remains still. It is important for following text across a page and copying work off an overhead or blackboard. It is also important for ball skills and hand-eye coordination.
Visual-motor integration is the ability to ‘link’ what the eyes see to what the body does. Although not a purely ‘perceptual’ task, it relies on both motor and perceptual skills. This skill is an integral part of writing and drawing, as well as many daily tasks such as tying shoelaces.
Visual perception is the ability to interpret or understand information received by the visual system (the eyes) and to recognize, recall and make sense of what we see. Poor visual perception skills will impact on reading, writing and many everyday tasks such as doing puzzles, finding objects on a crowded desk, discriminating between similar objects, etc.
Form Constancy: Recognizing a shape as the same shape regardless of its size or colour.
Colour Constancy: Recognizing a colour to be the same colour regardless of intensity or hue.
Figure Ground: The ability to identify a specific figure among a crowded background.
Position in Space: The orientation of object in space (i.e. is the object facing up or lying on its side) This is essential for identifying the difference between b & p, etc.
Spatial Relations: Understanding the position of 2 or more objects in relationship to each other (i.e. is one on the right or above the other. Are they touching or slightly apart etc). This is important for reading, drawing, geometry, etc.
Visual Discrimination: Identifying detail/differences between items.
Visual Closure: Identifying an object even though not all of it is visible.
Visual Memory (& Visual Sequential memory): Recalling visual information.
This is the understanding of an object’s position in space in relation to oneself. This is important for the discrimination of letters and numbers for reading and writing.
Body concept is the understanding of the body and its structure, i.e. that we have a left arm and right arm, 10 fingers, etc. This is essential for developing the ability to interpret the information received from the sensory systems in relation to the body and thereby to learn to use that body in a coordinated manner. Self-concept is the understanding of who we are as a person, our characteristics and our strengths and challenges.