The individual’s active attempts to regulate behavior, emotion, and physiology to maintain homeostasis.

Pertaining to the brain-behavior process of taking in sensory messages and reacting with a physical response.

Avoidance to sensations.

The multisensory experiences that one normally seeks on a daily basis to satisfy one's sensory appetite; a planned and scheduled activity program that an occupational therapist develops to help a person become more self-regulated.

Leads to perception and refers to the person’s ability to distinguish between different stimuli and to perceptually organize the temporal and spatial qualities of stimuli.

The inefficient neurological processing of information received through the senses, causing problems with learning, development, and behavior.

A technique of occupational therapy, which provides playful, meaningful activities that enhance an individual's sensory intake and lead to more adaptive functioning in daily life.

Refers to the management of incoming sensory information by both the peripheral and central nervous system. Sensory integration is a component of sensory processing.

Enables the person to notice or attend to stimuli.

Intensity of sensation. The adjustment of neural messages that convey information about the intensity, frequency, duration, complexity and novelty of sensory stimuli. Arousal level may be too low or too high if sensory modulation is not working well. If it is working well, sensory modulation allows a person to notice relevant stimuli and filter out unimportant stimuli.

Refers to under-sensitivity of a sensory system. A child may seek input to muscles and joints (crashing, stomping,etc.), touch pressure to the skin (deep hugs) or movement (running, jumping, swinging) to the extent of interrupting daily routine.

Sensory hyperresponsivity: Refers to over-sensitivity of a sensory system or “defensiveness”. A child may avoid or over-react to input, such as wet or grainy textures, swings, tipping head back in space, visually stimulating environments or loud noises.

The ability to organize sensory information from a variety of sensory systems for functional use. Provides critical information for planning of action and is the process in which a neuron, or cluster of neurons, receives input from more than one sensory system, so that its activity reflects multiple sensory inputs. Through sensory integration, the many parts of the nervous system work together so that a person can interact with the environment effectively and experience appropriate satisfaction.

Effective interaction and communication with others, necessary for developing and keeping friendships.

A specialist trained to evaluate and treat people who have voice, speech, language, and swallowing disorders that affect their ability to communicate.

Speech Therapy is intended to improve a child's ability to communicate. Treatment may focus on improving various aspects of communication such as articulation skills, language skills, fluency, and resonance/vocal quality. In addition to communication skills, a speech therapist, also known as a speech-language pathologist, can evaluate and treat oral motor function, feeding skills, and swallowing disorders.

A birth defect of the spine, usually at the lower end. Usually the spinal cord protrudes out of the defect and the nerves are malformed, causing paralysis of the legs and associated disabilities.

An isolated ability that one develops with much effort, but that one cannot generalize for other purposes.

Sensation of being able to identify objects through the sense of touch (without looking) by shape, weight, or size.

Therapy technique to increase the child's wanting or ability to do something; to provide the child with sensory or movement experiences.

Something that activates a sensory receptor and produces a response.

The disruption in the smooth flow or expression of speech

Lying on the back.

Referring to the sense of touch.

A disorder in which a child interprets tactile stimulation or kinds of touch in an unusual manner, such as complaining that a light touch hurts, that a firm touch tickles. The child might try to avoid hugging, hand holding, different textures of food, etc.

The awareness of touching or of being touch by something; the ability to distinguish differences in touch sensations.

Also known commonly as "wry neck." It is a deformity of the neck in which the head tilts toward one shoulder and is simultaneously the chin rotates toward the opposite shoulder.

A neurological disorder characterized by multiple repeated tics, such as vocal sounds or muscular jerks.

Referring to one's movements based on the perception of visual information.

The ability to perceive and interpret what the eyes see.

A specific technique in which a particular device is used to help the brain learn to reinterpret sensory input so that it is not offensive to the system. This is accomplished with a timed regimen of pressure touch followed immediately by quick compressions and a daily routine of moving, using muscles and joint to push, pull, lift, carry, tug, etc. This protocol must be followed as taught and must be supervised by a therapist who has been trained in this area.

The sensory system that responds to the position of the head in relation to gravity and accelerated or decelerated movement. It informs the body in which direction it is moving and how fast it is moving.

Often a focus of occupational therapists as writing encompasses a wide range of skills, including fine motor coordination, fine motor strength, visual-motor, visual-perception, sensory processing. Writing skills affect a child’s ability to communicate and to operate independently in the education system