Proprioception

Proprioception is a wonderful sense that we all have, and you may not have heard of it. It is one of our internal senses and it is the body’s own ability to senses its’ own movement and location of space. It tells our body how much ‘force’ to use. It senses effort of movement, direction as well as force. E.g when lifting a glass of water if we use too much force we will throw it over our shoulder, too little and it will slip through our hand and smash the glass. Most of us instinctively know just the right amount of force to use to lift the water to our mouths.

Proprioception tends to be worse in children than in adults. Why? Well one reason is that as an adult your limbs have been, on the whole, the same length, size and relatively the same weight for a long time. Any changes are gradual. For children they are growing all the time. Just as soon as they get to grips with how tall they are, how long their legs are and how long their wingspan it is seems to have changed again. For children with a neuromotor immaturity this proprioception seems to be worse again. These are the children who appear to be extremely clumsy. They repeatedly walk into doorframes, despite not having a visual issue. It is more they can’t remember how wide their body is so they often walk into things. They are constantly spilling, constantly dropping and constantly making accidental messes. These children appear to fall over for no reason or constantly trip over their own feet. They have clumsy movements and usually poor posture.

These children may also tend to be overly rough with other children. They may use ‘too much’ force when handling other children and end up pushing them or squeezing them too tight. They usually enjoy very tight hugs and squeezes since their body requires more force to give them feedback. On the opposite end of the spectrum, these children may be entirely too oversensitive to force. They may be oversensitive to pain and may hate to be touched at all. Some children with proprioceptive differences may hate certain fabrics and textures of their clothing.

If you think your child is struggling with proprioception you can enlist the help of a qualified INPP practitioner. Get in touvh. Reflex integration usually helps to resolve some of these issues. In the meantime you can play the ‘sloth game.’ Slow movements help to aid proprioception, as does moving with eyes closed. Have your child spend ten minutes every day in ‘sloth mode’. Have them move extremely slowly, even better if you can also include some slow movements with eyes closed (make sure your child is in a seated or lying position for eyes closed movements). You don’t want to increase the risk of accidents!