Impact of sensory deprivation on children's ability to pay attention

							Impact of sensory deprivation on children's ability to pay attention

For a child to learn and accomplish she needs the ability to pay attention. This may
tempt you as a parent to repeat to your child the agc old mantra of, “Sit still and pay
attention!" But, neurologically. this is impossible to achieve. Throughout the day our
attention goes through slumps and peaks. The brain regulates our arousal levels
which directly affects our ability to pay attention. What happens is that the brain
takes in the stimulation it receives via our five senses, and the movement provided
by our sense of balance and body position.

So the reason children never seem to sit still is that their maturing brains need high
doses of this sensorimotor input, to stay alert. The mature adult brain does too, but
in much smaller doses. For this reason when you find your concentration fading you
may find it sufficient to tap your foot or twirl your hair to improve it, while your child may
need to rock back and forth on her chair like shes riding the rodeo, to obtain the same
enhancement.

So when it comes to paying attention it’s just about impossible to expect your child to
sit still and it becomes a choice to either sit still or pay attention. To discover the
impact of sensory deprivation on your ability to pay attention try this exercise: while
you continue reading this article, sit dead still. Don’t fidget with your clothes, hair, or
any object. Keep your feet where they are. Stop chewing or drinking. Don’t make any
sounds or movements, not even to adjust your posture. Freeze. Monitor how difficult
this becomes and how unnatural this feels.

We all need help from our senses to remain alert. For most of us this is an
unconscious process. At the end of a day, when we are all wound up as a result of
the accumulation factor of sensory stimulation, we are in a state of over-arousal. We
need to be in the under-aroused drowsy state to sleep. We find ways to reduce our
arousal. For example, provides the pen‘ect auditory sensation to reduce your arousal, or
you may find the visual and tactile systems work wonders for you as you enjoy a
candlelit bubble bath.

Two other states of arousal feed our activities of practical life. You may experience a
state of over-arousal when you watch the “Bokke" play their hearts out. You‘ll notice
this as you tend to jump about, clap or shout out. On the other hand, a calm-alert state
of arousal helps us perform most of our daily tasks and is pivotal to learning. Let‘s take
a look at a typical example of self regulation in your child's life. lt‘s dinner time and
your child comes bouncing into the kitchen.

She is overexcited and a bit agitated. You expect her to sit still or at least remain
seated at the dinner table. To achieve this her brain needs to reduce her level of
arousal by means of ‘top—down’ or ‘bottom-up inhibition’. Top-down inhibition
engages the top part of her brain, known as the cortex, to inhibit her arousal level
through self talk. She tells herself that she must keep her bottom on her chair
otherwise she‘ll be in big trouble and upset mom.
This method helps but is often not sustainable or easy for young children. The
second method at her disposal, is ‘bottom-up inhibition‘, where the brain receives input
from the body via the lower you may put on some relaxing music, which part of the
brain, known as the cerebellum.