Behaviour & learning Difficulties in Children
If your child has a behaviour pattern that you are concerned about or is struggling with an aspect of learning in school then this article will shed some light on what is going on
As children's health is one of our clinic's main focus we have seen a huge variety of behaviour and learning issues. This can vary from kids with mild little behaviour issues or trouble concentrating & staying on task in school through to aspergers, autism and all of the other labels that we give children that are classed as being on the 'spectrum'. Sensory processing is a topic that is only recently getting attention, but its important for every living being on this planet, and if you understand what it is then it will give you a great understanding of how & why we behave the way we do. More importantly you will then understand what is often going on for children in terms of their behaviour and learning.
Sensory Processing
Even animals get overwhelmed & need a time out!
Sensory processing happens for all children, so what we are discussing here will explain most of the trouble & difficulties children may experience with behaviour & learning. If this sensory processing becomes such an issue for your child that they can not function well in school or at home then often this child will receive a label, ADD, ADHD, ODD, OCD, Asperpgers, Austism etc. However, sensory processing also can underpin what is going on for children with anxiety, depression or who are extremely shy or who simply struggle in certain circumstances, Whether this is a 'blow up' in the supermarket, a dislike of crowds or any other behaviour that appears inconsistent or inappropriate to an adult. The following explanation of children's behaviour comes from the latest developments in the U.S and has been borne out by the day to day findings of the vanguard of osteopathic doctors who specialize in treating children.
Sensory Processing - how it works
We have five senses (hearing, sight, touch, smell & taste) and we use these senses to gather information about our world, we send this information to the brain where it is processed and the brain then tells us what action we should take in response. This is the basic building block of all human behaviour, stimulus & reaction. The fire burns your hand you remove your hand. The step on is then learnt behaviour - the fire burnt my hand I know not to go close to or touch the fire. It then starts to get more complicated & we start to gather information from the environment & process it over a period of time - now we are onto the stage of understanding that fire is red, so red can mean danger - hence stops signs are red not green etc etc. But fortunately we don't need to go deep to that kind of processing we just need to understand the concept of stimulus and response.
What is a Sensory Processing Disorder
A sensory processing difficulty or disorder is simply the name given to an inappropriate response to a stimuli. Now we come to the word 'spectrum' because one persons inappropriate is another persons norm. Hence the idea of a range of responses where the ends of this range or spectrum is considered not to be normal. This explanation works well when considering sensory processing because if you or I consider ourselves to be 'normal' then if we have mild versions of sensory processing difficulties (& I will go on to give examples of how we all do) it enables us to much more easily understand how greater sensory difficulties work & how these could cause emotional and behavioural issues. 
Here's some examples of how so called 'normal' people have sensory processing difficulties, I am hoping you have one or more of these so the point is illustrated if you don't then you can probably think of something similar that would irritate you. Sound - that squeaky chalk sound on a blackbird, or the feedback from a microphone. Low electrical hums & similar noises that distract you. Classics are the hum of a fridge or air conditioning when you are staying in a hotel room. Sight - an example of this is if you are irritated by little things not being in order. So you just can't leave that painting slightly askew, or you are particular about how things are ordered. Touch - Labels on clothing that irritate, or for me any kind of polar neck or clothing that is tight around my neck. Touch - the texture of certain foods (the mouth is extremely sensitive)- for me its ay grizzle or fat on meat - just can't stomach that feel in my mouth Smell - Its less significant to give specific examples as everybody has such different & unique smell receptors (& that's because we like other animals rely on scent so the smell we give out (pheremones) accounts for most of the initial decision on whether we like somebody or not - hence the growth of the perfume industry). But I drift from the point - if you can't walk through the perfume area of a department store or it gives you a headache when you do then you have sensory processing difficulty in the realm of smell. Taste - any reasonably bland food that most people like that you can't stand (for me its celery - everybody says it bland - I just don't agree it is seriously yuck. And like a thousand different other people I can spot my unique food nemesis no matter how small a quantity of it even if you hide it in a curry, stew or casserole.) The Balance Mechanism in the body is sometimes referred to as a sixth sense & this is also an area that can have sensory difficulties - for example frequent car sickness or dislike of playground swings etc So you can see from these simple examples can if we are unable to process a stimulus easily then we have a response that is almost hard wired into us that we can not over ride. So imagine what happens for children whose brains are still developing and they are confronted by stimulus that they can't process. Now if go further & think about children who have had a difficult birth, or other difficulties with health and development, diet and gut issues, emotional trauma or stress etc then it easy to see they may have major problems processing stimuli. To the extent that they can not function well in school or at home.
Inappropriate Responses to Stimuli
So if a child encounters a stimuli that they can not process well how will they respond. It's usually in one of 2 ways, fight or flight. This fight, flight response is hard wired into humans and animals, its the fear response, which in a dog maybe them barking & snarling or in a startled bird flying away. In children we will see 1) Fight - tantrums, shouting, crying, refusal to do something, 2) Withdrawal - stopping of movement and hunkering down, avoidence of eye contact, refusing to speak or answer, refusal to do or go somewhere (by peaceful means as opposed to defiance seen in flight response)
Auditory Processing Disorder
A special mention needs to be made for Auditory Processing, of the 5 senses this can often cause the most issues. This is because it is one of the hardest senses to control. Smell, touch,taste and even sight are easier to control (note the child that avoids eye contact or looks down or away when asked a question). Except when we are asleep or in bed sound is continually bombarding us. Inappropriate response to sound stimuli is called Auditory Processing Disorder. (APD). So how would a child control or down regulate sound if they had APD, well the easiest way is too make their own sound, by talking loudly, shouting or making noise with toys etc. This is less stressful for them because they are creating the noise, so they are in control of it. It's also because they will make a noise at a frequency that they can cope with, don't forget there is a huge range of frequencies that we can hear. Your child maybe oversensitve to some and undersenstive to others. This is true of all the senses, we can undersensitive as well as of oversensitive It's a complex picture isn't it. Well it should be - humans are complex. However, although the picture is complex in its interaction when it comes to its application with children it straightforward - its just stimuli and response and its your job to work out which stimuli are the issue. unfortunately straightforward doesn't neccesarily mean its not draining and frustrating especially if you find your child is over or under sensitive to a huge range of 'normal' stimuli which unfortunately some 'spectrum' children are. Lets explore further these issues a bit further.
Sensory Processing & Schooling
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a great way to understand what is going on for children as it is especially relevant for schooling if you have problems processing sound then you will struggle in school, 
you may be extremely bright, and most kids with sensory processing problems are, but you will find it hard to concentrate & stay task orientated. Often these children can remember & classify every dinosaur that ever lived or every single star wars character or whatever else takes their interest, If you engage them in this topic they can talk to you about it & concentrate. This goes for a wide range of severity, I have treated autistic children who would monologue about dinosaurs, so it wasn't a true conversation at all but equally I have treated children diagnosed with Aspergers or Attention Deficit, who when engaged on their topic will lie on the treatment bench in the clinic for 30 minutes straight whilst staying focused and engaging in a true 2 way conversation that any university student would be proud of. Yet school will report them as unable to concentrate and what's more they are disruptive & are stopping others from learning. They fidget, they can't sit still & they may shout out or interrupt. Do these children have what they have been labelled with often I don't think they do I think they have sensory processing difficulties.
Behaviour From a Child's Perspective
So what's going on, why good in one instance & not in the other? As parents, and as teacher's we will often label inconsistent behaviour as 'bad' behaviour. If you can do something sometines but then not at others then this must have been a choice by the child, so we often seek to discipline the child in order to correct their behaviour. This works if a child isn't suffering from a sensory processing problem, and we see this in good parenting all over the world, but it won't work for a child with a SPD, & here's why? For you the behaviour is inconsistent, but for the child it isn't. They are simply responding to stimuli, its just that you haven't recognised the stimuli that they are responding to. Now this isn't a guilt trip, don't shut down on me here, it is not about poor parenting or lack of empathy etc You haven't recognised the stimuli because you won't respond the same way to those stimuli, so until you have read this article you didn't even know you were looking for something so how could you possibly have found it Let's go back to that original list where I had celery, now if you like celery you just don't get why I don't like it. But its not a big deal so you let it go. Now if the celery made me lose it and start throwing furniture around you would think I'm weird, try to avoid me & definitely you wouldn't give me celery! Now lets replace me with your child (so avoidance won't work) and lets replace celery with some stimuli, or combination of stimuli that you haven't identified - voila we have a sensory processing problem. When that set of stimuli occur, WAM - flare up - child loses it and they respond inappropriately. either with an explosion or withdrawal (that is fight or flight). Now if you do not know what those stimuli are then you think your child either has a condition or is willful/naughty (that is they are mad or bad). But this simply isn't the case they are actually being very logical and just responding to stimuli. This is why every single parenting technique doesn't work if that stimuli is present. They work for other kids why don't they work for yours? It's simply because their brain is responding to the stimuli and this is a stronger incentive than anything you can do. Let's put it this way can you think of a parenting technique that will get your child to put their hand in a fire? and if they are so young they didn't know to not put it in can you think of a parenting technique that would make them do it a second time? The only way you would be able to this is with physical violence. Well that's what we are struggling with stimuli - response, and for some of these children stimuli that you and I find normal they find as stressful and as painful as putting their hand in a fire, and we don't even notice the stimuli as a threat bacause for us it isn't. Of course most children don't have this problem to that degree but the stimuli is still enough to make them behave inappropriately. How inappropriately is measured medically by how 'far along the spectrum' they are
Sensory Processing Difficulties - What Can Help
Help falls into 3 main categories:
- Knowledge is power
- Manual or Hands on Therapies
- Learning Systems
Each one of these topics deserves its own article, in summary
Knowledge is Power If you have read this article then you are already helping your child, as you are now better equipped to understand them. Use the information from this article to explain to them how their brain is working, in a calm moment of course! The age & severity of the processing issues & of course your relationship with your child will all influence how successfully you will be heard. If your relationship has been strained (and this is common is your child has been experiencing these problems) then perhaps you will not get a fair hearing. If so actions speak louder than words & an implementation of a policy that reduces the problem stimuli will work better. There will always be situations where this isn't possible, but even small changes will reap huge benefits. I will give you one simple example to get you thinking of others. If you or your partner asks your child to look at you or to stop fidgeting when you are talking to them, then you can easily reduce a child's stimuli by stopping this. Often we view this as a child being disrespectful - its more likely that they are trying to reduce their visual stimuli in order to give more processing power to the auditory. The fidgeting or movement is a common way to burn off stress hormones & to trigger the creation of hormones that help us think. (Think of the detective in the movies pacing up & down trying to solve the crime). So we think we are helping them stay focused on what we are saying but we are actually doing the opposite. It's the same in school sit still & look at me is the last thing we want to say. So if your child won't sit still at school, just get them a cushion with lots of little bumpy dimples on it (sorry can't remember the proper name for these pillows - just google search them) then a small fidget in their seat will help them concentrate better. Sounds crazy but we've tried this with lots of young kids & it works!
Manual or Hands On Therapies These include physio, chiropractic, osteopathy and occupational therapy. Each is a topic in itself. I will also mention cranial osteopathy and cranio sacral therapy as this often can be accepted by children with sensory processing when other treatments aren't, there is no scientific proof as to why however it is probably because it is very gentle it means that the sensory load that a treatment can put in a child is less.
Learning Systems These fall into 2 broad categories visual based systems (using computers) and auditory based system (using sound systems) Auditory based systems seem to be more effective, this is possibly because we are already so overloaded with visual input (computers. ipads, tv etc). One Auditory package out there & the one with a lot of research backing it up is the Integrated Listening System (ILS) this was developed in the US but it is also available here in Australia. See http://www.integratedlistening.com.au/ for more information.
Author: Dr Jonathan Evans (Registered Osteopath Tweed Heads & Gold Coast). Dr Evans is an osteopath who works in the field of children's health and in particular in the treatment of learning difficulties & behavioural problems.
Please note that along with all other Doctors in Australia osteopaths are regulated and governed by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). As such with regard to any non musculoskeletal conditions that are listed on this website it is it is a regulatory requirement that we inform you that our osteopaths treat the aspects of those conditions relevant to their practice of osteopathy (e.g. with a focus on the musculoskeletal system). In addition the role of this treatment can not be overstated in that every patient that we treat is a unique individual and as a result each patient's treatment outcome will vary and will be influenced by that patient's unique presentation.