Safety Awareness and The Vestibular System
Does your child seem to fall more frequently than others? Take major climbing risks? Seem to fall on purpose? Seem disorganized or lost in space? Seem to never stop moving? Many children with sensory processing differences present with limited safety awareness, leading to stressful community outings. Taking your child to the park or playground can be a great summertime activity or can be something you tend to dread. This blogs talks about the importance of safety awareness and gives tips how to help you give proper input to help develop your child’s vestibular system.
During preschool occupational therapy/ physical therapy rotations, safety awareness with peers is a top priority and a skill that is worked towards daily. Some of our children who are at the highest risk of injury are those with an under-responsive vestibular system. Your vestibular system is responsible for telling the body how you are moving through space. An under-responsive vestibular system requires higher intensity input to register or understand that input. This means a child may look for that input in unsafe ways, such as purposefully falling from a high surface or having a delayed safety response that leaves them unable to catch themselves if balance is lost.
An under-responsive vestibular system can also impact the development of bilateral coordination skills, decreasing the body’s ability to work together for complex motor tasks. Delayed bilateral coordination and integration can delay fine motor skills, participation in meaningful activities, handedness, and overall development. So how do we help?


