By Bobbi Sheahan I appreciate the opportunity to return to D.S.
Walker’s site as a guest blogger! Today, I’m back to talk about
Sensory Processing Disorder, which was formerly called Sensory
Integration Dysfunction. Our senses are what we humans use to
perceive. In addition to our five senses of taste, touch, smell,
hearing and vision, people also perceive temperature, balance,
acceleration, proprioception/kinesthesis (where one’s body is in
space), and pain. When any of these “senses” are calibrated
differently from the norm, it is considered a sensory
difference. These differences can rise to the level of sensory
dysfunction, which can be dangerous. For example, my child
seemed, for years on end, to have no sense of smell and
perception of pain. Before having my daughter, I’d never thought
of pain as a good thing, but it is actually an extremely good
thing; pain is a useful signal that tells us to stop doing
something. I recently had the privilege of speaking with Marla
Roth-Fisch, author of Sensitive Sam a