Question
What is the connection between emotional regulation issues and sensory processing disorders?
Answer
Emotional regulation issues are very common in the children I see. They are very immature. Depending on what they are doing, there are only certain moods that are available to them because of their current body state. They cannot be happy and calm when their adrenaline and cortisol hormones are at their peak levels. When our sympathetic nervous system is on, there is no "off" button. It is a non-teachable moment when you have a child in this state of arousal, and it takes time for those hormones to resolve. On the contrary, the parasympathetic system focuses on "rest and digest", and has our feel-good hormones. When we are feeling good, it is harder for us to be angry. Make sure that their state matches.
Breathing is important to balance arousal levels. This is why when you are testing kids, breathing and rib cage and diaphragm movement are critical. Go ahead and do a W sit for me if you are able, and then try to take a deep breath. In addition, try to do the Valsalva maneuver, which is when you push to go to the bathroom. You cannot do this if you are hunched over with a posterior pelvic tilt.
With motor and emotional regulation issues, we may have an imbalance. How do we regulate? The sympathetic nervous system, which I did not know until I took a recent neurology course, is located in the thoracic cord. This is how basic these reflexes are. Even if you do not believe in reflex integration as there is not a ton of evidence, it is good to realize that these are basic reflexes. Parasympathetic reflexes are located in the sacral cord. I think that is interesting. When you look at interoception, that eighth sense, and sexual arousal, those are in the parasympathetic nervous system, but climax is located in the sympathetic nervous system. Even that takes quite an orchestration of our bodies.
