The Vestibular System

The vestibular system, located in the inner ear, is the primary sensory sense for balance, spacial orientation and coordinating movements with the eyeballs. It detects acceleration of the head in a straight or angular plain, allowing the brain to maintain stable vision, and posture. It is essential for us to balance.

The Vestibular system is involved in the collection of, and fine tuning of ALL sensory information - light, sound, motion, speed, gravitational pull, energy, air pressure, temperature etc. It controls and fine tunes vision, hearing, balance, sense of motion, altitude, sense of smell, time, direction and anxiety levels.

Emotional sense of security is partially based on physical stability, which is why we often see anxiety issues/ emotional issues in children who struggle with balance or ‘clumsy’ children. With children who struggle with their vestibular system we often have frequent night waking and vivid dreams. This can include night terrors. This may have a knock on effect, in that children may not want to go to sleep, and lack of sleep in itself can perpetuate sleep issues.

The vestibular system controls how students sit upright, stay alert and focused, track words while reading, and understand where their body is in space. Given that these are all essential for classroom learning, children who struggle with their vestibular system will frequently struggle with a variety of issues in a school environment.

Some children with vestibular issues avoid movement activities like playground swings, others frequently bump into desks or seem to have “floppy” posture and tire easily. While others constantly move about or seek more movement, for example by rocking their in chairs or fidgeting. Those seeking more movement are often trying to regulate their nervous system so that they can engage in learning.

It can affect a student’s ability to sit still and pay attention, control pencil grip and writing posture, understand math concepts involving spatial relationships, and smoothly move their eyes from board to paper while copying work.

Children with vestibular issues are often found to have motion sickness and that can really limit their enjoyment of travel or their enjoyment of playground equipment.They may suffer from frequent bouts of nausea and dizziness. On the flip side, these children may be underresponsive to spinning and may appear to never get ‘dizzy.’

Due to the location of the vestibular system in the inner ear, ear infections can impact balance. If your child has suffers from frequent bouts of ear infections it is likely that their vestibular system is impacted. Tinnitus is also common in people who struggle with their vestibular system.

You might recognise clumsy movements, spacial awareness difficulties and/ or coordination difficulties in these children. They may struggle to learn how to read an analog clock.

If your child is displaying a variety of these issues mentioned above, it is highly likely that they are having to put in huge amounts of energy into just staying in an upright position all day. An INPP program can help to reduce these symptoms. Children who complete a program have usually made huge gains in balance, vestibular function and postural control. This then usually has a knock on effect of reducing some of the ‘vestibular related issues’ mentioned in this blog post. Get in touch today to learn more.