Sensory Processing Integration South Africa

 Sensory Processing Disorder means that a child understands and evaluates information from the senses in a different way. It is a neurological disorder that affects all seven senses: proprioception, vestibular, hearing, vision, physical, auditory, and gustatory. Every child usually has few senses that are more affected than others. Just to clarify, Sensory Processing South Africa Disorder is not a dysfunction at the site of sense, for example, burst eardrum causing hearing loss. Instead, it is a disturbance in the processing of information in the nervous system as it reaches the brain.

Some children are affected by the gustatory and tactile senses, which has a big impact on eating. Certain compositions or tastes can be very uncomfortable/difficult for their brain to process. However, there are different ways to manage this so your child can still eat a variety of textures and tastes.

Suggestions:

Give the child an ice block before trying new food, as the ice will paralyze the mouth from the different tastes.

Allow the child to play with the food using his/her fingers, as this will help the child feel more comfortable with the texture before it goes in his/her mouth.

Grind the food so it'll be smooth to eat without large lumpy bits. This means there is less information for the brain to process.

Get the child involved in the preparation of the food. This will make the child feel more comfortable with the food and excited to try something new because he/she made it.

Create a system of trying new foods. Try not to introduce too many types of new tastes and textures all at once. It may be helpful to write it on a calendar for each week/month trying one type of new food.

Use positive reinforcement such as a star chart, and praise the child when he/she tries something new.