The logic behind the Sensory Profile is that it can give us insight into our responses to everyday sensory inputs, within our comfort zone. Our personal profile will indicate in which way the brain may under or over-respond to sensory information, giving us the opportunity to choose enjoyable activities that change our level of alertness, and bring about greater emotional well-being and focus.
Modulation to achieve a ‘Just right’ level of alertness.
In explaining behaviour patterns to both children and adults, a simple analogy of ‘How does Your Engine Run®” looks at 3 levels of engine speed that determine how we respond* :
• When our engines run on high, too much input sends us into overload or ‘overdrive’;
• When our engine speed is Just Right, this allows us optimal focus and level of alertness to complete tasks;
• When our engine speed is low, we are prevented from an appropriate ‘get up and go’ reaction needed to get things done.
The success, in understanding our own engine speed, lies in our taking action to restore our body to the ‘just right’ level of alertness. In many cases we respond within certain patterns and do things out of ‘habit’, which gives us clues as to what sensations we find soothing and what inputs we find unsettling.
If our ‘engines are running on high’ after a busy day, we may seek soothing input by listening to favourite CD music on the way home, make a hot chocolate drink, or head for the support of a favourite upholstered chair to enjoy the deep pressure of this ‘cocoon’ – all of this before starting on the next tricky phase of fetching children, homework, cooking and synching-up with everyone else’s needs. In this way you might use specific activities to dampen your alertness levels and provide calm sensations that restore a sense of balance.
If our ‘engines are running low’, we may seek to increase sensation inputs from the monotony of the day, by grabbing running shoes and jogging, or by adding spice to foods, or turning up background music while working. These activities can be used to lift your level of alertness to where we may function best. But, be aware that this increased intensity may alert one person, but for another person who responds differently, this may just be too much to cope with!
The key to finding your own balance is in becoming aware of your own individual response to different types of sensations.
Looking at those special activities that give you a sense of wellbeing, will give you an idea of which sensory system you use to modulate your level of alertness:
• Do you use gardening, painting, pottery, piano playing, knitting, sewing, electronics and soldering? These may indicate that you use deep touch as a sensory system to regulate your sensory balance. If this is your pattern, you can increase experiences of touch to over-ride times of stress.
• Do you enjoy art, photography, video work, floristry, reading, or interior design and the use of colour in your daily routines? These could indicate that your visual sensory system plays an important role in regulating your sense of wellbeing.
• Do you favour chewing gum (or pencils!), sucking or crunching ice, drinking ice-cold water or sucking popsicles, and enjoy these oral sensations? Taste – sweet, sour or spicy foods; texture, temperature and crunchy pressure are modulators of your alertness. Looking at when you use these will give you an indicator of whether you use taste and oral sensation to alert or calm you.
• Is listening to music part of your must-have activities? Do you enjoy going to movies or concerts, and always play your car sound system. The intensity and volume of sound gives you an idea of whether you use auditory sensation (classical) to calm you, or raise your level of alertness (live concerts, with increased beat, volume, instrumental contrasts).
• Do you enjoy fragrances of coffee aroma or perfumes to change your level of alertness in your daily routines? The sense of smell is a very powerful sensory system.
• Is exercise an essential part of your daily programme? Perhaps you need that game of squash, gym class and karate workout to ‘centre’ you for the day.
Resisted movement against body weight, such as in rhythmic, linear movement in spinning, jogging, swimming, and canoeing, causes the body position sensory system to respond – This has a very strong modulating and calming effect.
• But perhaps you prefer the fast-paced, stop-start movements of aerobics, amusement park rides, modern dancing and gymnastics. The vestibular sensory system responds to acceleration and head movement, such as your head moving from upright to upside-down position, and this type of input is alerting or to some even alarming.
The activities we choose make up a type of ‘sensory diet’ to reach an optimum level of alertness. If you analyse those special activities that you enjoy, you’ll find they give you the appropriate level of intensity to attend to those things that are relevant. Basically, a sensory diet relates to our individual sensory pattern and helps us choose specific activities to calm or alert as the situation may require.
We live in an increasingly demanding world, both in pace and intensity, which means that, at times it is necessary to both over-ride or avoid inputs, and more particularly to create calming activities on a sensory level to modulate behavior. With your individual Sensory Profile of low thresholds or high thresholds, and awareness of whether to choose more of, or less of, specific sensations to reach the appropriate level of focus, the Sensory Profile becomes a subconscious framework to manage your own optimal response in everyday life.
*Reference to ‘How does your Engine Run’®: Williams & Shellenberger, 1996: http://www.alertprogram.com)
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