This article provides helpful information for children that struggle
with tactile defensiveness. Affiliate links are included for your
convenience.
The
word tactile refers to our sense of touch and to the information our body gets
from our skin. Our sense of touch is important for helping us understand our
own body, our surroundings and environment. Touch is also the link between
people. Through touch comes bonding and relationships. Tactile sensations are
sent between mother and child as soon as the infant is born, especially when
the baby is feeding.
To better understand your
child’s tactile system and how it relates to learning, here are a few things to
consider:- Some of the tactile receptors are close to the surface of the skin and others are deep.
- Light Touch sends a signal message to the brain, which usually means, “Pay attention!” This is a useful sensation to create awareness while increasing your child’s focus on what is going on around them.
- Touch Pressure sensation occurs when someone firmly touches your skin. Most people find comfort in touch pressure input (massages, deep pressure therapy, foam rollers).
- Highly sensitive areas on the body including the fingertips, tongue and lips can have as many as 100 pressure receptors in one cubic centimeter.
- Less sensitive areas, like your back, have as few as 10 pressure receptors in a cubic centimeter.
Most
of the time the tactile sense works properly. It sends the information needed
to process physical touch and the emotions behind the sensation through
pathways in the brain. However, sometimes things get a little mixed up. For
most of us, we would react negatively to some tactile sensations such as a bug
crawling up our neck or spider web brushing against our face.
For
some children, many benign and non-threatening touches cause these same
negative reactions. In these cases, the child may have a neurological disorder
called tactile defensiveness. Tactile defensiveness is a neural
disorder that is frequently seen in children with some learning disabilities.
This disorder causes a child to overreact to touch sensations, and does not
hinder learning, but the behavioral reactions and discomfort associated with
tactile defensiveness interfere with the learning process. This is evident
especially in the classroom and those that care for, and are around the child
most often. This type of disorder in the tactile system also affects the
emotional region of the brain and causes the child to become easily upset. Many
times they struggle with emotional grounding issues and are in constant fight
or flight mode.
In
the classroom, if your child is bothered by the texture of their clothes, the
touch of their desk, or if they are constantly chewing and sucking on their
pencils and erasers, it could cause them to be disruptive in class and it often
prevents them from listening and paying attention. Your child’s body is
reacting to tactile defensiveness and tactile hyposensitivity where their brain
is telling them they can’t attend or function until the brain and the body is
calmed down.
Tactile Defensiveness
Tactile defensiveness is the propensity for a child to react excessively to touch sensations
that others ignore or have little reaction to.
In
the book, Out-Of-Sync Child, Carol Kranowitz depicts the following, “The
ability to process tactile sensations effectively is very important, not only
for visual perception, motor planning, and body awareness, but also for academic
learning, emotional security, and social skills. The children’s (who have
tactile dysfunction) touch systems do not function smoothly, making it
difficult for them to modulate, discriminate, coordinate, or organize touch
sensations adaptively.”
The
theory behind tactile defensiveness is
that your child’s light touch receptors on the skin are overly sensitive. When
their receptors are activated, they trigger a “fight or flight” response. This emotional, physiological response
causes your child to view certain types of touch as threatening. As a result,
your child can have the “flight” reaction, “get away from me right now!”
Sometimes, that little bit of lace on their dress, a tag in their shirt, or
long sleeves on their sweaters are just an unwanted stimulus that is irritating
your child to the point where they cannot think or concentrate on anything
else.
Contrary
to popular belief that tactile defensive children do not want to be touched at
all, many like deep pressure touch. These types of children love the feel of
heavy lap pads or weighted blankets, and they also like to place objects on top
of their body when they are relaxing or ready to sleep.
Tactile Hyposensitivity
In
contrast to tactile defensiveness, there are many children who are under
responsive to touch sensations. These kids have a hyposensitivity to tactile
sensory input. The receptors are under responsive and sometimes fire at lower
rates. The children that have under responsive sensory systems fall into two categories,
which are distinctly different in nature, but stem from the same problem.
The
two categories are as follows:
- “Sensory-seeking” behavior: You may notice your child bumping and crashing into everything and everyone. These sensory-seekers crave touch sensations and look for the opportunities everywhere.
- “Live in their own world” behavior: Your child may often be absorbed in their own surroundings and imagination. They also fail to notice other sensory information that would be alarming to others (for example, the stove it too hot, the bath water is too warm, the candle will burn your skin).
Tactile Dysfunction
If
your child struggles with tactile issues, they may develop some characteristics
of Tactile Dysfunction. Here is what you may notice in your child if they have
difficulty in these areas.
A
child who is over responsive to tactile stimuli may experience the following:
- Difficulty wearing clothing made of itchy or rough fabric
- Dislikes tags on shirts and other clothing garments
- Instantly goes into the “fight-or-flight” response with non-threatening touches
- Does not like to be involved with messy activities such as painting, gardening, or cooking
- Avoids big crowds
- Unexpected hugs, kisses or touches are usually unwanted
- Can be a picky eater due to texture on the tongue and lips
- Has issues with food temperature (too hot or too cold)
- Prefers strong hugs or cuddles
- Very ticklish
- Becomes anxious on windy days
A child who is under responsive
to tactile stimuli may experience the following:
- Difficulty noticing some touch sensations
- Doesn’t notice when hands, face, or feet get wet or dirty
- May not notice extremes in temperature resulting in dressing inappropriately for the weather
- Touching people and objects constantly
- Tends to invade others space
- Sloppy eater
- Doesn’t realize when they drop something
- Poor body awareness
- Has trouble noticing different tastes and textures of food
To
gain an appreciation of what these kids go through, we need to understand your
child’s experience. In A. Jean Ayres book, Sensory Integration and the Child, she expounds on what your child
may feel and how they interpret tactile information differently from other
people. More often, the tactile defensive child is not completely conscious of
what he or she is feeling with a touch, other than they know the other person
is making them feel uncomfortable. Poor tactile processing occurs in the brain
stem or sometimes in the subconscious areas of the cerebral cortex. The child
does not realize he is reacting harshly to external stimuli.
A
child with good self-control is more apt to find a socially acceptable excuse
for avoiding the situation. When the child needs to escape, they may say, “I
have to go to the bathroom,” or “I need a drink of water.” In these
circumstances, we must understand and be watchful when we notice signs of them
becoming irritable or miserable because it could lead to behavior that creates
a negative environment for other people (hitting, punching, fighting or being
rowdy). This type of behavior is a defense mechanism for the child, which can
be helped with sensory integration and movement to calm the body.
Exercises to Help Tactile Dysfunction
As
you monitor your child’s development, if you notice your child has issues with
their sensory, auditory, vestibular, or visual systems, which prevent them from
fully developing, they will need exercises to help their learning behavior,
attention and focus, and fidgeting in the classroom. Without these exercises,
you may continue to notice delays in your child’s learning or side effects that
can cause toe walking, W-sitting, bedwetting, poor balance and coordination, underdeveloped vestibular and
proprioceptive systems, and trouble with motor planning. If your child struggles
with any number of these issues, it could be an indication that the nervous
system is underdeveloped.
To try more activities that
can help your child with tactile issues and sensory integration, join the video
membership club now to get started with all the exercises we do at our center. Thete are three new options available:
- Pick and choosewhich series works best for you for one price.
- Sign-up for our monthly membership to gain access to each new series on a monthly basis.
- Register for our annual membership to gain access to all the videos we release for the whole year.
Depending on what option
works best for you, each series is typically only $1 per video. Each video
series allows you to track your progress and reach certain goals you set with your
child. To join, click here.
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