Sensory Processing Challenges

Sensory processing challenges reflect how the brain filters input. We map vestibular, visual, auditory, touch, and reflex patterns, clear inflammatory load, and retrain the system through play.

What you may be noticing

Your child covers their ears at the hand dryer, refuses certain textures, gags on new foods, hates haircuts, or melts down in busy places. Or they crash into furniture, spin, chew everything, and seem to need constant movement. Some children do both. Mealtimes may stretch on as the list of accepted foods shrinks. You may notice the same patterns in yourself: overwhelm in crowds, sensitivity to light and sound, or a constant need to move.

Why it is rarely one thing

Sensory processing is the ability of the brain to receive, filter, and organize information from the senses, then respond in proportion. The brainstem and thalamus act as gatekeepers, a function called sensory gating. When gating is less efficient, some signals arrive too loud and others too quiet.

This is not a behavior problem. It is a nervous system doing its best with an imperfect filter, and often a system that is already working in protection mode. A brain on high alert reads ordinary input as a possible threat.

In my practice I view the filter through two lenses at once. The first is neurological: the vestibular system, proprioception, the eyes, hearing, the cerebellum, and retained primitive reflexes. The second is biochemical: gut health, nutrient status, sleep, and the total load of inflammation and environmental exposures a young nervous system carries. That second lens is a working clinical hypothesis built on established links between inflammation and brain function, and it guides what we address first. Structure matters too: tongue and lip ties and fascial tension can change oral awareness, feeding, and the signals the mouth sends to the brain.

Sensory challenges often travel with ADHD, autism, anxiety, and developmental delays, and they also appear on their own, in children and in adults.

Patterns we look for

• Vestibular processing: under-responsive seekers or over-responsive avoiders.
• Proprioceptive input and body awareness.
• Retained primitive reflexes, especially the Moro and tonic labyrinthine reflexes.
• Auditory and visual sensitivity, eye movement control, and sensory gating.
• Oral sensory patterns: oral aversion, low oral awareness, texture and taste aversions, ties, and fascial tension.
• Cerebellar and brainstem integration.
• Autonomic balance, since overload triggers the stress response.
• Gut health, microbiome balance, and inflammation.
• Nutrients the developing brain relies on: iron, magnesium, zinc, and omega-3 fats.
• Environmental exposures at home, and screen load.
• Sleep quality.

How I evaluate it

The exam begins with rapport and play. I observe posture and gait, then cranial nerves, eye fixation and tracking, tone, reflexes, coordination, balance, and primitive reflexes, always adapted to the comfort of your child. A detailed history follows the whole timeline: pregnancy, birth, feeding, antibiotics, infections, and exposures at home.

Functional labs are added when the history points to nutrient, gut, or toxic contributors. I coordinate with occupational, feeding, and speech therapists on your team.

How we address it

1. Calm the system first: identify triggers, create predictable rhythms, and use deep pressure and proprioceptive input to signal safety.
2. Lower the load on the nervous system by supporting the gut, nutrition, sleep, and a cleaner home environment.
3. Open gentle drainage pathways, such as regular bowel movements and movement, before any deeper detox work.
4. Expand the menu gradually with texture and flavor strategies that still deliver protein, healthy fats, and colorful vegetables.
5. Integrate primitive reflexes and retrain vestibular, proprioceptive, visual, and auditory processing through brain-based rehabilitation designed as play.
6. Keep home routines short and parent-led, about ten minutes morning and evening, so they fit real family life.
7. Expand tolerance step by step so the world feels manageable and interesting.

Our brain is the master system at any age. When the filter is supported from both directions, the world becomes more comfortable to explore.

Book your Comprehensive Functional Medicine Eval/Neurological Exam today to discover what the contributing root causes are that are underlying your health concerns.