Sensory processing disorder (SPD, formerly known as sensory integration dysfunction) is a condition in which multisensory input is not adequately processed in order to provide appropriate responses to the demands of the environment. Sensory processing disorder is present in many people with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Individuals with SPD may inadequately process visual, auditory, olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), tactile (touch), vestibular (balance), proprioception (body awareness), and interoception (internal body senses) sensory stimuli. Sensory integration was defined by occupational therapist Anna Jean Ayres in 1972 as "the neurological process that organizes sensation from ones own body and from the environment and makes it possible to use the body effectively within the environment". Sensory processing disorder has been characterized as the source of significant problems in organizing sensation coming from the body and the environment and is manifested by difficulties in the performance in one or more of the main areas of life: productivity, leisure and play or activities of daily living.Sources debate whether SPD is an independent disorder or represents the observed symptoms of various other, more well-established, disorders. SPD is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended in 2012 that pediatricians not use SPD as a stand-alone diagnosis. Signs and symptoms
Sensory integration difficulties or sensory processing disorder (SPD) are characterized by persistent challenges with neurological processing of sensory stimuli that interfere with a persons ability to participate in everyday life.
The AAP has plans to review its policy, though those efforts are still in the early stages.A 2015 review of research on Sensory Integration Therapy (SIT) concluded that SIT is "ineffective and that its theoretical underpinnings and assessment practices are unvalidated", that SIT techniques exist "outside the bounds of established evidence-based practice", and that SIT is "quite possibly a misuse of limited resources".Some sources point that sensory issues are an important concern, but not a diagnosis in themselves.Critics have noted that what proponents claim are symptoms of SPD are both broad and, in some cases, represent very common, and not necessarily abnormal or atypical, childhood characteristics. Where these traits become grounds for a diagnosis is generally in combination with other more specific symptoms or when the child gets old enough to explain that the reasons behind their behavior are specifically sensory. Manuals
SPD is in Stanley Greenspans Diagnostic Manual for Infancy and Early Childhood and as Regulation Disorders of Sensory Processing part of The Zero to Threes Diagnostic Classification. Is not recognized as a stand-alone diagnosis in the manuals ICD-10 or in the recently updated DSM-5, but unusual reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects is included as a possible but not necessary criterion for the diagnosis of autism. History
Sensory processing disorder as a specific form of atypical functioning was first described by occupational therapist Anna Jean Ayres (1920–1989).