SID - Sensory Integration Disorder and Neurofeedback

Sensory Integration Disorder (SID) was discoveredwould be a fairly straightforward process for keeping
by Jean Ayres, Ph.D. about 40 years ago. Symptomsthings figured out. Someone with SID, however,
of SID in children are often misinterpreted asdoesn't experience it quite like this.
psychological problems or just plain bad behavior.When someone is dealing with SID, their brain is
Higher cognitive functions including things such asgetting mixed signals. At times, the red "wire "might
learning and behavior depend upon having normalbe visual information; at other times, it might be the
sensory integration.blue "wire" that is shuttling the visual data. Then,
As a psychologist, I am sad to say that when I wasthere may be times when the red "wire" is carrying
in graduate school, (1982 - 1987) that this disorderboth visual and auditory information. Can you see
wasn't talked about much. At this time I am oftenhow this might be very confusing for the brain to
involved with families who have a child with Sensoryinterpret?
Integration Disorder.This sounds like a rather complex challenge, does it
Imagine, if you will, that for each of your 5 senses,not? One could argue that it is, I suppose, but I've
there is a wire of a different color that leads thenever been one for building a "case" for difficulty.
information form that particular sense, into your brain.Instead, I prefer to gather evidence for possibility.
For example, for the information that comes in fromIn short, when neurofeedback is helpful for those
your eyes, or your visual senses, you might imagine awith SID, it's as though neurofeedback is able to
red wire; and blue one for hearing (auditory), etc.teach the brain to start recognizing the "wires"
Now, assuming that your brain was able to noticeaccurately and stop acting "color blind" when it comes
what color of "wire" the information was comingto incoming sensory information. And, why shouldn't
from, and knew that the red "wire" was informationeveryone's brain learn to clearly interpret sensory
from your eyes, and blue was from your ears, itinformation?