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Sensory Processing Concepts
Dunn, W. (2001). The sensations of everyday life: theoretical, conceptual and pragmatic considerations. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 55(6), p. 608-620. In occupational therapy, the Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship is the highest academic honor one can receive. In 2001, Dr. Dunn was the Slagle lecturer, and chose as her topic: The sensations of everyday life: theoretical, conceptual and pragmatic considerations. This paper summarizes the work on sensory processing concepts to date, drawing on interdisciplinary literature to illustrate the impact of sensory processing in people’s lives. Dr. Dunn also proposes relationships between sensory processing and temperament characteristics described in the psychology and development literature. This paper is a good scholarly resources for background about the development of sensory processing concepts. |
Dunn, W. (1997). The impact of sensory processing abilities on the lives of young children: a conceptual model. Infants & Young Children, 9(4), p. 23-35. In this article, Dr. Dunn first proposes Dunn’s model of sensory processing. She outlines the concepts of neurological thresholds and self regulation and how they interact to create 4 basic patterns of sensory processing: Sensation seeking, Sensation avoiding, Sensory sensitivity, and Low registration. She presents data supporting these ideas and relates them to the Regulatory Disorders diagnosis from the Zero to Three diagnostic classification system for infants and toddlers. |
Dunn, W. & Price, L. (in preparation). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Infant/ Toddler Sensory Profile. A key step in validating concepts is to conduct a confirmatory factor
analysis. This paper will report on the findings of a confirmatory factor
analysis using the Infant/ Toddler Sensory Profile data. Preliminary work
indicates that the concepts in Dunn’s model are supported. |
Linking Temperament , Brain imaging, and Sensory Processing
Studies of Temperament and Sensory Processing
In her Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship (Dunn, 2001) , Dunn hypothesized that there is a relationship between one’s temperament and one’s pattern of sensory processing. She based this hypothesis on findings from studies in neuroscience, temperament and personality and sensory processing across the life span. Studies have shown that people with different temperament and personality traits also exhibit different physiological responses. Other researchers have linked neurophysiological responses with different patterns of sensory processing. The similarities in the patterns linking temperament and sensory processing independently to nervous system responses suggests that there may also be a relationship between temperament and sensory processing itself. Specifically, she hypothesizes that patterns of sensory processing reflect the nervous system’s thresholds and that one’s temperament may be the manifestation of both nervous system operations and sensory processing patterns. These hypotheses reflect complex relationships, and so will require a series of studies to text the relationships.
We are beginning to study relationships between sensory processing and temperament in several age groups, the contribution of nervous system responsiveness to each of these concepts, and the overall contribution of each construct to each other.
Daniels, D. (2003). The Relationships between Sensory Processing and Temperament in Young Children. Doctoral Dissertation. In preparation as a journal article. Deb Daniels PhD CCC conducted the first study of the relationship between sensory processing and temperament as her doctoral dissertation in the interdisciplinary Therapeutic Science degree program sponsored by the Department of Occupational Therapy Education at the University of Kansas Medical Center. In her study, 159 families completed the Infant Toddler Sensory Profile [ www.sensoryprofile.com ] and the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire,[ www.uoregon.edu/~maryroth/ ] along with demographic information about their family. The typically developing children in the study were 18-36 months of age. Before reading the findings, if you need to know about the patterns of
sensory processing, link to Introduction to sensory processing concepts
http://classes.kumc.edu/sah/sensory_processing/learning_opportunities/concepts/sp_concepts_main.htm
We obtained several interesting findings: • Sensation Seeking pattern of sensory processing is related to the temperament factor of Surgency • Sensation Avoiding pattern of sensory processing is most strongly related to the temperament factor of Negative Affectivity, with smaller relationships between Sensory Sensitivity and Low Registration and Negative Affectivity • Sensory Sensitivity pattern of sensory processing is most strongly related to the temperament factor of Effortful Control, with smaller relationships between Sensation Avoiding and Low Registration and Effortful Control |
Dunn, W. & Lewine, J. (in preparation). Relationships among brain imaging, sensory processing and temperament. We are launching a set of studies to test the relationships among sensory processing, temperament and brain activity. First, we will be collaborating with a middle school to identify students with extreme scores in sensory processing, and then we will conduct a MEG (brain imaging based on electromagnetic fields) on these students. We hypothesize that their patterns of brain activity will be consistent with their patterns of sensory processing and types of temperament. This figure illustrates our hypothesized relationships:
Secondly, we are proposing to test adolescents who have Asperger syndrome and hypothesize that their sensory processing patterns, temperament and brain imaging patterns will also be consistent with the above model. We believe this data will help us understand individual differences in Asperger syndrome. |
| McIntosh, D., Miller, L., Shyu, V., & Hagerman, R. (1999). Sensory
modulation disruption, electrodermal responses and functional behaviors.
Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 41, 608-615. In this study, the researchers found that children with sensory-modulation disruptions (SMD) had atypical physiological responses to sensation, and that such responses would predict parent-reported behavioral responses to sensation. They tested nineteen children with clinically identified disruptions, aged 3 to 9 years and 19 age- and sex-matched healthy (control) children were examined. Four children with SMD did not show electrodermal responses (EDR) to stimulation; all control children responded. Excluding non-responders, children with SMD showed more and larger EDR than control children. Participants with disruptions habituated more slowly to repeated stimulation, as measured by the number of responses to stimuli and proportion of stimuli that evoked responses. Children with atypical EDR had more parent-reported abnormal behavioral responses to sensation. Children with clinically identified SMD respond physiologically differently to sensory stimuli than typically developing children; these differences have ramifications for functional behavior. |
