SENSORY MOTOR INTEGRATION DISORDER IN CHILDREN

Sensory-Motor Integration Therapy

Helping Children Connect Movement, Senses, and Learning

At Functional Focus, we are here to support your child’s sensory-motor development through individualized, play-based occupational therapy. Whether your child has been diagnosed with a sensory-motor integration disorder or you’re simply noticing signs of delay, we’re here to help every step of the way.

What Are Sensory-Motor Skills?

Sensory-motor skills involve the brain’s ability to process input from the senses, like sight, touch, balance, and movement—and use that information to guide the body’s actions. These skills allow children to perform everyday activities like brushing their teeth, writing, or climbing at the playground.

We rely on sensory-motor skills constantly, from sitting upright at a desk to responding quickly when a bike speeds past us. If a child has difficulty interpreting sensory input or coordinating movement, they may experience challenges in their day-to-day routines.

What Is a Sensory-Motor Integration Disorder?

Sensory-motor integration disorder occurs when the brain struggles to organize and respond to sensory signals effectively. This can interfere with balance, coordination, fine motor skills, and body awareness. Children may appear clumsy, avoid certain textures, or become easily overwhelmed by sensory input.

This type of dysfunction is often associated with:

• Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)
• Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Signs Your Child May Have Sensory-Motor Difficulties

If your child is experiencing a sensory-motor integration challenge, you might notice:

• Difficulty with walking, crawling, or sitting upright
• Challenges using toys or catching and throwing objects
• Struggles with dressing, brushing teeth, or other self-care tasks
• Frustration with writing, coloring, or drawing
• Avoidance of certain textures or movements
• Difficulty participating in sports or physical play
• Trouble staying focused, calm, or coordinated

It’s natural to feel concerned or overwhelmed when your child is facing these challenges. The good news is, there’s help—and progress is absolutely possible.

How Occupational Therapist Can Help

At Functional Focus, our skilled paediatric occupational therapists are experienced in working with children who have sensory-motor integration challenges. We use evidence-based strategies and playful, child-centred techniques to support your child’s development in meaningful ways.

During your first session your child will receive a thorough evaluation to better understand how their brain processes sensory input and how this impacts their ability to move, respond, and participate in daily activities. As part of the assessment, your therapist may evaluate:

At Functional Focus, one of the key areas your occupational therapist will explore is how your child receives, interprets, and responds to sensory input from their environment. This includes how they react to everyday sensations such as touch, movement, sound, sight, and body awareness (also known as proprioception).

Here’s a closer look at the different areas of sensory processing that may be assessed:

• Tactile Processing
  The therapist will observe how your child responds to various textures and types of touch. Some children may be overly sensitive—avoiding certain fabrics, messy play, or unexpected touch—while others may seem under-responsive, constantly seeking tactile input or not noticing touch at all.
• Vestibular Processing (Balance and Movement)
  Your child’s reactions to movement-based activities—like spinning, swinging, or walking on uneven surfaces—can reveal how their vestibular system is working. Children with challenges in this area may feel unsteady, become dizzy easily, or avoid movement altogether.
• Proprioceptive Processing (Body Awareness)
  This involves the ability to sense where the body is in space and how much force to use during movement. The OT may observe how your child navigates physical space, climbs, jumps, or grips objects. Difficulties here can show up as clumsiness, crashing into things, or struggling with tasks that require coordination.
• Auditory and Visual Processing
  The therapist may also assess how your child responds to sights and sounds—like bright lights, moving objects, loud noises, or background sounds. Children with sensory processing differences might be easily overwhelmed or, conversely, show little reaction to these types of input.

Motor planning, also known as praxis, is the ability to think about, plan, and carry out physical movements. For children with sensory-motor integration difficulties, this process can be challenging, often resulting in dyspraxia(difficulty with motor planning). At Functional Focus, occupational therapists assess a child’s motor planning abilities through engaging, hands-on activities designed to evaluate how well they move through tasks.

Here’s how we explore this important skill:

• Imitation and Copying
  The therapist may ask your child to imitate simple actions—like clapping, jumping, or tapping their foot—or copy movement patterns such as hopping or skipping. These tasks help evaluate how easily your child can observe and replicate physical actions.
• Novel Tasks
  Introducing new or unfamiliar activities helps the OT see how your child approaches something they haven’t done before. This could include using unfamiliar toys, tools, or movement games that require problem-solving and movement coordination.
• Sequencing Movements
  The therapist will also look at how well your child can organize and complete a series of actions in the right order. Examples might include stringing beads, completing a puzzle, or following a multi-step instruction like “pick up the ball, throw it, then sit down.”

The OT assesses muscle tone and strength, as these factors influence a child’s ability to control movement. Children with sensory motor integration disorders may exhibit low muscle tone (hypotonia) or high muscle tone (hypertonia), which can affect movement and posture.

• Hypotonia: The OT evaluates whether the child appears floppy, tires easily, or has difficulty maintaining upright posture.
• Hypertonia: The OT looks for signs of excessive muscle tightness, rigidity, or difficulty in fluid movement.

Visual-motor integration refers to the ability to coordinate what the eyes see with how the hands and body respond, a vital skill for many everyday activities. At Functional Focus, our occupational therapists assess this coordination to understand how well your child uses their vision to guide motor actions.

As part of the evaluation, the OT may observe your child completing tasks such as:

• Drawing, tracing, or copying shapes and patterns
• Catching, throwing, or hitting a moving object
• Solving puzzles, connecting dots, or navigating mazes that require precise eye-hand coordination

Difficulties with visual-motor integration can affect handwriting, sports, self-care tasks, and overall academic performance. Identifying and addressing these challenges early can make a big difference in your child’s confidence and success.

Children with sensory-motor integration difficulties often display unique behavioral responses to sensory input. During assessment, the occupational therapist carefully observes how your child reacts to various sensory experiences in order to better understand their needs.

These responses may include:

• Sensory Seeking Behaviors
  Some children actively seek out intense sensory input. This might look like crashing into furniture, spinning frequently, jumping excessively, or enjoying strong hugs and heavy lifting. These behaviors help them feel more grounded and regulated.
• Sensory Avoidance
  Other children may become overwhelmed by certain sensations and try to avoid them. They may resist touching certain textures, cover their ears around loud noises, or become distressed during movement activities like swinging or climbing.
• Emotional Regulation
  The OT also observes how your child manages emotions and behavior when faced with sensory challenges. Children may become frustrated, anxious, or emotionally dysregulated when overwhelmed by certain sensory input, which can impact their ability to engage in play, learning, and social interactions.

At Functional Focus, we look closely at how your child’s sensory processing may be impacting their ability to move and coordinate their body. This includes assessing both fine motor and gross motor skills – two key areas that play a big role in your child’s independence, learning, and play.

• Fine Motor Skills
  The occupational therapist will observe your child’s ability to complete tasks that involve small, precise hand and finger movements. This might include grasping objects, using tools like scissors, manipulating beads or buttons, and writing or drawing with control.
• Gross Motor Skills
  Larger body movements are also evaluated to assess coordination, strength, and balance. This may involve running, jumping, climbing, balancing, or navigating playground equipment. The therapist may also look at how your child catches, throws, or kicks a ball.

Postural control and balance are essential for maintaining stability and proper alignment during movement. At Functional Focus, the occupational therapist evaluates your child’s core strength, stability, and ability to balance through a variety of activities, including:

• Sitting upright in a chair without slouching or leaning
• Standing on one foot or balancing on equipment like a stability ball or balance beam
• Engaging in dynamic balance activities, such as walking on uneven surfaces or hopping

Bilateral coordination is the ability to use both sides of the body together in a coordinated manner. The occupational therapist evaluates your child’s ability to perform tasks that require the use of both hands or both sides of the body, such as:

• Catching or throwing a ball with both hands
• Cutting with scissors, where one hand holds the paper and the other cuts
• Climbing or completing activities that involve cross-lateral movements, such as crawling, where the opposite hand and leg move together

The occupational therapist evaluates how sensory and motor challenges impact your child’s ability to carry out everyday tasks, including:

• Dressing (e.g., zipping, buttoning, tying shoelaces)
• Feeding (e.g., holding utensils, drinking from a cup without spilling)
• Grooming (e.g., brushing teeth or hair)

The occupational therapist observes how your child adapts to new sensory and motor challenges, including:

• How the child responds to different sensory inputs (e.g., touch, sound, movement)
• The child’s ability to adjust their body movements based on feedback from their environment, such as stepping over obstacles or catching themselves when losing balance

What to Expect After the Evaluation

After the evaluation, your occupational therapist will meet with you to discuss the findings, answer any questions, and explain what therapy might involve if it’s recommended.

At Functional Focus, our occupational therapists create individualized treatment plans that often combine various therapies, strategies, and activities. The goal is to improve your child’s daily functioning, emotional regulation, and overall quality of life. Your child’s personalized treatment plan will focus on addressing specific sensory and motor challenges, improving sensory processing, and enhancing motor coordination.

Parental Involvement in Therapy

You may be asked to actively participate in your child’s therapy sessions. Our occupational therapists provide parents and caregivers with the knowledge and tools needed to support your child’s sensory-motor needs at home and in everyday situations.

• Sensory Diet at Home: We teach caregivers how to incorporate sensory activities into the daily routine to help support self-regulation.
• Behavioural Strategies: Parents will receive guidance on how to manage meltdowns, transitions, or sensory overloads.
• Collaborative Goal Setting: We work together with parents to set realistic, achievable goals based on your child’s strengths and areas for improvement.

Examples of Activities in Your Child’s Treatment Plan:

A customized set of sensory activities designed to help the child regulate their sensory system throughout the day. These activities may include:

• Swinging or spinning to provide vestibular input
• Jumping on a trampoline or engaging in heavy lifting for proprioceptive input
• Playing with various textures to stimulate tactile input
• Participating in visual stimulation games, such as catching bubbles or tracking moving objects

Activities that engage the core muscles (abdominals and back) to enhance overall stability, such as:

• Plank exercises or yoga poses to strengthen the core
• Rolling on an exercise ball or holding balance positions for improved stability
• Wheelbarrow walking or crab walking to build upper body strength

Activities that require coordination of the hands and fingers, such as:

• Cutting with scissors to improve fine motor skills
• Stringing beads or placing small objects into containers to enhance hand-eye coordination
• Practicing handwriting or drawing to boost visual-motor integration
• Building with blocks or Lego sets to refine dexterity and manipulation skills

Promoting movement through activities like obstacle courses, balancing on a stability ball, or using balance beams to enhance vestibular processing.

Establishing consistent routines to help the child anticipate sensory inputs and transitions, which can reduce anxiety and prevent meltdowns.

Offering sensory breaks, fidget tools, or a quiet space for the child to use during school.

These tools can enhance balance, coordination, and body awareness, supporting children in developing the skills they need to participate fully in daily activities. Examples of adaptive equipment for sensory-motor integration include:

• Balance boards or stability balls to improve core strength, balance, and coordination
• Weighted vests or blankets to provide calming proprioceptive input and improve focus and self-regulation
• Therapeutic swings to provide vestibular input and enhance body awareness and coordination
• Fidget tools to help children self-regulate and maintain focus while also engaging in sensory processing
• Noise-canceling headphones to reduce overwhelming auditory stimuli, helping children stay calm and focused in noisy environments
• Wobble cushion to support focus

Using adaptive equipment for sensory-motor integration can enhance a child’s ability to engage in a variety of activities with greater ease and confidence, supporting their overall development and daily functioning.

Deep pressure activities involve applying firm, consistent pressure to the body, which can help calm the nervous system and improve body awareness. These activities, such as squeezing a stress ball, using weighted blankets, or giving a firm hug, can provide a sense of comfort and security for children who are seeking sensory input or struggling with anxiety. They can also enhance focus, promote relaxation, and support emotional regulation.

Tactile play involves exploring different textures and surfaces to stimulate the sense of touch. Activities like playing with playdough, finger painting, or exploring sensory bins filled with rice, beans, or sand help children develop their fine motor skills, sensory awareness, and creativity. Tactile play can be both soothing and engaging, offering children a fun way to explore the world around them while supporting sensory processing and emotional regulation.

Bilateral coordination tasks involve using both sides of the body together in a coordinated manner. Activities that require this skill include:

• Jumping jacks to engage both arms and legs in a coordinated movement
• Throwing and catching with two hands to develop hand-eye coordination
• Playing on playground equipment like monkey bars or ladders to build upper body strength and coordination
• Clapping, tying shoes, or playing catch to strengthen symmetry and balance between both sides of the body

These tasks help improve motor skills and are essential for tasks like writing, dressing, and participating in sports, while boosting confidence in physical abilities.

Postural-focused activities aim to strengthen core muscles and improve stability, which are essential for maintaining proper posture during everyday tasks. Activities that focus on building posture and balance include:

• Sitting on a stability ball to engage core muscles
• Performing yoga poses or plank exercises to improve strength and alignment
• Balancing on one foot or using a balance beam to challenge stability
• Crawling or performing animal walks (like bear crawls) to enhance coordination and posture control

These exercises help children develop better body awareness and improve their ability to sit, stand, and move with ease, supporting overall physical development and confidence.

Multistep tasks involve completing a series of actions in a specific order to achieve a goal. These activities help children develop important skills such as planning, organization, and memory. Examples of multistep tasks include:

• Following a recipe to prepare a snack, involving actions like measuring, mixing, and cooking
• Cleaning up toys, which may involve picking up items, sorting them, and putting them in the correct place
• Completing a puzzle, where the child needs to plan and place pieces in the right sequence
• Dressing themselves, which requires following steps like putting on socks, shoes, and a shirt in the correct order

Engaging in multistep tasks helps children build problem-solving skills, increase independence, and improve their ability to follow instructions in both structured and everyday activities.

Calming strategies help children regulate their emotions and reduce stress or anxiety. These techniques can be especially helpful during moments of overwhelm or frustration. Examples of calming strategies include:

• Deep breathing exercises, such as blowing bubbles or using a breathing ball
• Progressive muscle relaxation, where the child tenses and then relaxes each muscle group
• Listening to calming music or nature sounds to create a soothing environment
• Using a weighted blanket or engaging in deep pressure activities for a sense of security
• Guided visualizations or mindfulness exercises to help focus and calm the mind

Incorporating these strategies into daily routines can help children develop self-regulation skills, improve emotional control, and promote relaxation in challenging situations.

Emotional regulation strategies help children manage and express their emotions in healthy ways. These strategies are important for handling big feelings like frustration, anger, or anxiety. Examples of emotional regulation strategies include:

• Creating a calm-down space where the child can go to relax when feeling overwhelmed
• Using a feelings chart to help children identify and express their emotions
• Cognitive reframing to encourage positive thinking and help children reframe negative thoughts
• Mindfulness activities like guided breathing or sensory grounding exercises to stay present and calm
• Setting up a “cool-down” routine, such as taking a break or using fidget tools to help self-regulate

These strategies provide children with the tools to manage their emotions, build resilience, and improve their ability to cope with everyday challenges in a constructive way.