Occupational therapy promotes health and wellbeing by supporting participation in meaningful occupations that people want, need, or are expected to do (WFOT, 2025). An Occupational Therapist (OT) works in deferent settings including both adult and children, even for geriatric clients. Occupational Therapy is practiced in a wide range of public, private and voluntary sectors such as- rehabilitation centers, hospitals, special school, national & international NGO, geriatric settings and so on.
Sensory Integration Therapy
We combine our senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, balance and the sense of our body in space) in order to make sense of our environment. However, some autistic children and young people may have difficulty filtering sensory information, and it can become overwhelming, uncomfortable and/or painful.
On the flip side, some autistic people actively seek sensory sensations to calm themselves, relieve anxiety and often just for pleasure and relaxation. Experiencing sensory stimuli differently from the neurotypical population is known as sensory processing differences.
many autistic children, or those with sensory processing differences, often have co-occurring difficulties with posture, coordination and motor planning.
When we lack the “filters” to screen out irrelevant information, this can cause sensory overload and lead to a meltdown. Each sensory input builds and builds without being filtered out appropriately. As one student said to me, “I cannot keep reading because my eyes are full up at the moment”.
When a person is experiencing sensory overload, it can be incorrectly perceived as distressed behaviour. Sensory overload may also result in a withdrawal or complete shutdown. Making sure a student with sensory processing differences has the right sensory opportunities and environmental adaptations throughout their day, will remove barriers to learning and go some way to improve their wellbeing.
Occupational therapists are key. Providing advice and interventions to target each sense, helps the child’s nervous system become more organised and regulated. This can reduce the child’s anxiety and exhaustion, and improve their attention and performance.
