Proprioceptive

The Proprioceptive Sensory System (the “internal” sense of awareness we have for our bodies)

Proprioception is the sense of body awareness. Information is passed from our muscles and joints to our spinal cord and brain so that we have a subconscious awareness of where our body is in space. As such, proprioception provides us with an internal map of our bodies. It tells us how our limbs are working and how much force to use when lifting, squeezing, or pushing.

Difficulties with proprioception

When a child’s proprioceptive system is not functioning effectively, they may need to seek out additional input to their muscles and joints so they can regulate their behaviour and stay in control. If a child’s sense of body awareness is not well developed, they can appear clumsy.

Hypersensitivity:

Children who have difficulties with processing proprioceptive information and are hypersensitive are often classed as ‘sensory seeking’. These children are often very active, having difficulty being still. Often children who are oversensitive will excessively climb and have little sense of danger. They may appear lacking in co-ordination skills and bump into things easily. They often move their whole body to look at something. Children can have difficulty with fine motor skills.

General Tips for hypersensitivity

• Provide regular short bursts of gross motor play throughout the day.
• Ideally provide ‘open doors’ access to the outdoor area so that children have the space and freedom to move around as they need it.
• Provide opportunities to climb on appropriate outdoor equipment when the child climbs on furniture. Reinforce the message about ‘No climbing’ indoors.
• Provide frequent movement breaks between focused activities.
• Taking the child’s socks and shoes off and placing a cushion under their feet when they are sitting, will help them to feel grounded and calm.
• Provide lots of fun fine motor activities.

Hyposensitivity

Children who have under-sensitive proprioceptive skills appear to have a lack of processing information and can be quite sedate. They seem to prefer low key activities and can be reluctant to play and prefer to stand by and watch others. They can stand too close to others because they cannot measure their proximity to other people and judge personal space. These children will sometimes spin, rock, fall or bump into things to seek out stimulation to the proprioceptive system. They often have difficulty negotiating around obstacles and may bump into people. Children may also have difficulty with planning how to get into and out of play equipment.

General tips for hyposensitivity:

• Provide the child with a safe haven, such as a pop up tent, to go to if the setting is becoming too much to cope with but encourage short periods of time with a small group to begin to desensitise the child to play activities.
• Allow the child to play with low key activities alongside a busier group for short periods.
• Allow the child to be a spectator of more active play, with no pressure to join in but offer invitations to play when they feel ready.
• Place the occasional obstacle in the child’s way. Support the child in recognising this item and learning how to move safely around this.
• Try sitting the child on a beanbag. As the bean bag wraps around the child’s body, it provides proprioceptive feedback
• Teach the child how to use an ‘arm’s-length rule’ to judge personal space. This means standing an arm’s length away from other people.

Activities to try

• Bouncing on a trampoline is a good way of providing extra body awareness (proprioceptive) input. Alternatives include bouncing on a space hopper or playing ‘jumping beans’ games. The child may need you to hold their hands and jump up and down on the spot with them.
• Provide lots of opportunities to practice ball games. Use a balloon or beach ball to start with as this is easier for a young child to catch. Try target throwing, drawing a target on the wall or on a pavement with chalk. Vary the distance the child stands away from the target, so they learn to use different amounts of force.
• For older children teach them how to play ‘wheelbarrows’ as this is good for developing upper limb strength, which in turn helps to develop an awareness of force and pressure. Alternatively, lie the child over a gym ball and get them to ‘walk’ with their hands on the floor in front.
• Walking is a good regulating activity as it provides a rhythmical and predictable sensory input. Walking up hill increases resistance and so provides a stronger proprioceptive input.
• Provide lots of opportunities for dancing and moving to music.
• Yoga is a good way of supporting children with proprioceptive difficulties to develop body awareness. CosmicKids Yoga have a series of online videos to help introduce yoga to young children through story and rhyme.
• (www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga)
• Any activities that involve pulling, pushing, or carrying heavy objects provide regulating proprioceptive inputs.
• Some ideas include digging in wet sand and soil, kneading dough, pushing a wheelbarrow, sweeping up using a child- sized long handled broom and joining in the actions to the ‘Row, row your boat’ song with a partner. Lycra bands are also useful for playing pulling and pushing games.
• Devise obstacle courses for the child to navigate around. Include tunnels and blankets to crawl under as well as obstacles to climb over.
• Provide a series of different textured surfaces for the child to walk across with bare feet e.g. bubble wrap, sand, grass, carpet squares, feathers etc.
• Use different textures on the child’s feet such as paint brushes, loofahs, soft cloths etc. Let the child apply the texture themselves to enable them to tolerate it better.
• Finger rhymes and songs will help the child develop hand and finger awareness.
• Bubble blowing, blowing feathers across the floor or using a straw to play blow football with cotton wool balls are all good ways for a child to develop proprioception of their oral motor skills.