Review
Tactile over-responsive in a child will be notified if there is an inappropriate response when the environment touches: yanking or shivering. It may manifest as avoidance of tactile sensations in general, as well as in sports and other activities. Parents need to notice if a change in eating habits has emerged: a child may refuse food because its texture or appearance is distasteful (Asmika et al., 2018). Tactile under-responsivity manifests the opposite symptoms: the child may not even notice what is being touched and may not appreciate the action (Jamiol-Milc et al., 2021). The child excessively touches others or touches materials and objects without specific purpose or awareness. The educator needs to notice if the child is hurting other children.
Tactile sensory craving is a characteristic of the child with excessive motor and tactile movement for cognition and information retrieval. In this case, the child may use biting and grabbing other children and siblings in order to gain information about tactile sensations, but the child will never feel satisfied. The desire for information is rapid, and actions are taken instantly but not processed. As a consequence, the child does not remember or record the data.
Impact on Learning
The child’s sensory system is quite fragile, and adverse factors can lead to the gradual emergence of disorders. At preschool age, the inability to play is a prevalent symptom of sensory integration disorders. The child does not feel his body and does not know how to control it, and their motor coordination suffers. Children can lose their balance, stumble, and drop objects more often than their peers (Kranowitz, 2005). He cannot fit in because he is clumsy, and other children are less happy with him. In elementary school, the child tries to concentrate but struggles to do so, and it takes all of his or her energy, making him or her very tired (Nielsen et al., 2021). As the child becomes tired, he becomes distracted by extraneous sounds and actions, his brain becomes overexcited, and he may start jumping around the classroom because his brain is out of control.
References
Asmika, A., Oktafiani, L., Kusworini, K., Sujuti, H., & Andarini, S. (2018). Autistic children are more responsive to tactile sensory stimulus.Iranian Journal of Child Neurology, 12(4), 37–44. Web.
Jamiol-Milc, D., Bloch, M., Liput, M., Stachowska, L., & Skonieczna-Zydecka, K. (2021). Tactile processing and quality of sleep in autism spectrum disorders. Brain Sciences, 11(3).
Kranowitz, C. S. (2005). How to tell of your child has a problem with the tactile sense. In The Out-of-Sync Chikd: Recognizing and coping with sensory processing disorder. Penguin Randon (pp. 80-109).
Nielsen, A. N., Brandt, Ã…., & la Cour, K. (2021). Exploration of sensory processing difficulties among children attending primary school in Denmark. Occupational Therapy International, 8893345.