Sensory Integration is the ability to take in, sort out, process and make use of information from the world about us. It allows us to make appropriate adaptive response to meet the demands of the environment. Information from one’s own body and the world is gathered from the 7 senses:

• Touch (tactile sense)
• Movement (vestibular sense)
• Body Position (proprioception)
• Sight (vision)
• Sound (auditory)
• Smell (olfactory sense)
• Taste (gustatory sense)

This sensory information goes to the brain where it is organised and interpreted. Consequently an adaptive plan of action can be carried out in response e.g. you touch a hot object and you immediately withdraw your hand.

In order for the higher levels of the brain (cerebral cortex) to work effectively, the lower levels (brain stem) must sort out the information accurately. This processing of sensory information is called sensory integration.