Understanding Key Terms: A Guide for Families

At our clinic, we work with young people on a wide range of skills that support their everyday lives at home, in the classroom, and in the community. Some of these skills relate to how they move their bodies, how they process information from their senses, and how they manage their emotions and energy.

This post breaks down some of the key terms we often use in therapy. Our goal is to help families better understand how these areas connect, what we’re working on during sessions, and how this supports your young person’s development.

Sensory integration is how our brain organises all the information it gets from our senses so we can use it to understand and interact with the world around us. It helps us feel safe, move smoothly, and learn new things. (Based on Ayres, 2011).

You may already know the five common senses, but there are actually eight that we focus on in occupational therapy:

• Sight (Visual): What we see: colours, shapes, movement.
• Sound (Auditory): What we hear: voices, music, background noise.
• Touch (Tactile): What we feel on our skin: textures, temperature, pressure.
• Taste (Gustatory): What we experience when eating or drinking.
• Smell (Olfactory): How we perceive odours in our environment.
• Movement (Vestibular): Our sense of balance and motion, coming from the inner ear.
• Body Position (Proprioception): Our sense of where our body parts are and how much pressure or force we’re using.
• Internal Body Awareness (Interoception): Awareness of internal signals like hunger, needing the toilet, or feeling hot or cold.

Sensory perception is the brain’s ability to take in information from the environment through our senses and make sense of it, like figuring out what something is (spatial information) and where it is (temporal information). In other words, it’s the meaning our brain gives to what we feel, see, hear, or move through.

Sensory discrimination is the skill of noticing the differences between what our senses pick up and organising those details. It helps us tell one texture from another, know if a sound is near or far, and understand the timing and place of things happening around us.

Sensory modulation is how the nervous system automatically adjusts how much sensory information we notice, like a volume dial or a filter running in the background. Sometimes, the dial turns up to help us become more aware of things (like hearing our name in a noisy classroom). Other times, it turns down so we don’t get overwhelmed by things we don’t need to focus on (like the hum of the lights or a tag in our shirt).

For some young people, this volume dial doesn’t work as it needs to - it may get stuck too high or too low, or jump around. This can make it hard to stay calm, focused, or comfortable, and can affect how they manage their internal states and respond to the world around them.

Reactivity is about how strongly someone’s body and brain notice and respond to sensory input. Everyone is different. What feels just right for one person might feel irritating, overwhelming, or barely noticeable to someone else.

• Some people are over-reactive (hypersensitive), noticing everything—even small noises or light touches can feel "too much."
• Others are under-reactive (hyposensitive), needing more input to notice things—like bumping into things or not hearing instructions.
• Many people are a mix of both, depending on the situation or the type of sensory input.

Understanding each young person’s unique sensory reactivity helps us support them in regulating their arousal levels, staying engaged, and feeling more settled throughout the day.

This diagram provides a helpful way to explain how a young person's ability to learn, focus, and manage daily tasks builds on foundational skills from the bottom up. It's often used in occupational therapy to show how important early sensory and motor development is for higher-level thinking and behaviour.

If a young person is having difficulty with learning, focus, emotional regulation, or behaviour, we look at this whole pyramid, not just the top. Challenges at school or home often start with unmet sensory or motor needs.

Therapy often begins by building a strong foundation in the lower levels (especially sensory and motor systems), so young people can feel calm, confident, and capable as they grow.

• Praxis: Praxis is the brain’s ability to plan and carry out new or unfamiliar movements. It helps a young person figure out what they want their body to do, how to do it, and then make changes if things don’t go to plan. For example, getting dressed in a new outfit, learning a dance move, or figuring out how to build something with blocks all use praxis. It’s how ideas turn into actions.
• Motor Planning: A key skill within praxis. The ability to think about and carry out a new or unfamiliar movement. It’s how a young person figures out what their body needs to do—like climbing a play structure or trying a new pencil grip—and makes adjustments as needed.
• Vestibular Processing: How the body uses information from the inner ear to understand movement, balance, and where the head is in space. This helps with staying upright, feeling steady, and knowing where your body is when moving.
• Bilateral Motor Coordination: Using both sides of the body together in a smooth and coordinated way—like cutting with scissors, catching a ball, or holding paper with one hand while writing with the other.
• Postural Control: The ability to keep the body stable and upright while sitting, standing, or moving. Good postural control helps young people sit at the desk without slouching or wobbling, and supports attention and hand use.
• Visual Motor Integration: How well the eyes and hands work together to do tasks like drawing, copying shapes, catching a ball, or writing on a line. It’s about turning what you see into what your hands do.