Mary Kostka, a senior therapist at Ohana OT, explains why some children are hypersensitive to sensory input. Retained primitive reflexes and proprioception issues are two causes that affect how kids process touch, sound, and movement. She describes a natural therapy program and offers free consultations.
Hi, I'm Mary Koska, I'm one of the senior therapists here at Ohana OT. And 1 in 20 kids have hypersensitivities that are not in the typical range. It's hard to get them to go out in public, go to a movie, go shopping. Even taking them to a park is hard. They're sensitive to sounds, to unexpected touch, to you can't get their hair cut or cut their nails, brush their teeth. Even brushing teeth is really hard. They just experience these sensations not in a normal way, but in a painful way. And there's a lot of different reasons that this can be happening. And one of them is actually primitive reflexes. So we're familiar with, most people are familiar with like grasping reflex or rooting reflex or stepping. They're just natural pre programmed things in our nervous system to help us either protect us or get us moving. And some of these reflexes, if they're retained and they don't go into the background in the normal developmental process, they kind of wreak havoc and create problems. And a real common one is the moro reflex. So that's the one when the baby gets stimulated by movement or light or touch anything and they just, they kind of freak out and their arms go out and then they curl back up. So when that one's retained, it's in a more subtle sense. But the body's just overreactive to stimuli. The kids are just very tense and jumpy to every little thing. There's another one that's actually in the inner ear that when it kicks in, and that's when the moro is integrated, it protects us from loud sounds. And so a lot of kids actually don't have that developed yet. And so the sounds are really just too loud for them. And another reason that I see a lot of times that kids are hypersensitive is the sensation that's in their muscles and their joints, which is called proprioception. It gives us a sense of position when we're not looking. Like I can close my eyes and I know my fingers up, I know it's down, I know what my body's doing. That sensation actually has a very calming effect on our entire nervous system. It helps regulate all the other sensations. And so a lot of the kids that we see, that is an underdeveloped sense that we have to help them with. And so they tend to oftentimes be kind of clumsy as well. So we have a program here at Ohana that is all natural and it's safe. And the kids have fun. They love it. And we, for a limited time, are opening up some free consultation spots so you can click on the link and set up a free consultation and we can see if our program is the right fit for your child. If we can help. And we'll be talking to you soon. Thanks, bye.
