By Erin Jester
Stefanie Bodison, O.T.D., Ph.D., OTR/L, an assistant professor in the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions Department of Occupational Therapy, has long studied sensory integration, the brain’s ability to process information from its senses.
As director of the Sensory Development Lab, she uses neuroimaging techniques such as MRI to better understand typical and atypical development of sensory integration and evaluate the impact of treatments.
“We are very interested in looking at specific areas in the brain that process sensory data and how that might change with intervention,” she said.
In a new five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health, Bodison will research the efficacy of interventions designed to improve sensory processing in children who were exposed to alcohol before birth.
Prenatal alcohol exposure interferes with development of the brain and other physiological functions, causing physical, behavioral and cognitive differences that can include difficulty with self-regulation, adaptive behavior and sensory processing.
In addition to the five commonly known senses — touch, taste, sound, smell and sight —the vestibular, or movement sense, and proprioception, the subconscious sense of body awareness, also give the brain important sensory information.
“Together with touch, our ability to really understand our body in a three-dimensional world and how we relate our bodies to other people and other objects requires these three sensory systems to work well individually and together,” Bodison said.
The proposed interventions in the study have been proven effective in children with autism spectrum disorder who experience similar difficulties, although the intervention method will be tailored to the specific needs of children with prenatal alcohol exposure.
Research shows that children with prenatal alcohol exposure often experience difficulty regulating emotions like anger and frustration, or responses to their environment and people around them. Some research also suggests it can affect motor skills, making it harder to participate in activities that require coordination, like team sports, which can lead to further frustration and isolation.
Often, Bodison said, children with sensory processing disorders are excluded from activities or penalized at school for behaviors like speaking out of turn or being physically disruptive.
“We’re hoping to improve children’s ability to participate in a variety of school-related tasks and peer activities more easily, without experiencing frustration that might take them away from the activity or cause negative experiences for them,” Bodison said.
Study interventions will target those challenges in a play-based setting, delivered by Breanna Howell, O.T.D., OTR/L, a clinical assistant professor of occupational therapy and one of the research interventionists in Bodison’s lab.
She described sensory integration like a road, with information flowing both ways. Certain sensory experiences cause some brains to act differently, creating what amounts to a traffic jam in the nervous system.
“Everybody finds ways to help their nervous system be in that optimal band,” Howell said, like tapping a pencil or jiggling a leg. “Some kids just don’t have the same tools, or can’t use them in the same way, so they need a little extra help to get going and be kids.”