New day, new session. This time we are discussing Sensation: Tactile-Vestibular-Proprioceptive. All three of these systems work together and an dependent on each other. Sensation is how our bodies react to stimulous, perception is what we do with that feeling. When someone gets scared, the involuntary jump is sensation, looking around to see what happened is perception.
There are two tactile systems that work in balance to process information. The first is discriminative, which allows us to determine when, where and what is touching us. It measures temperature, pressure and vibration. The protective system is fight or flight. It tells us when were in danger. Our skin is the largest sense organ, considered discriminative. The protective system is connected to the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). Creates emotional sensations.
We’ve got a nice list of brain chemicals that influence behavior here. Serotonin (ahhhhh), dopamine (yahoo!), adrenaline (Yikes!) and cortisol ( Uh Oh).
Basically, if a child has an overdeveloped sense of tactile stimulation or an underdeveloped one, there can be problems. A child with an overdeveloped sense may avoid touching, become irritable, cranky or try to stay away from situations where they may become overwhelmed in a tactile way. Those with an underdeveloped sense tend to want to wrestle a lot, they always have their hands on other kids, rubbing them along the walls, and basically they constantly seek out stimulation.
Because of this, they have a list of activities that provide tactile experiences for kids in the classroom. Such as hiding toys in a sand table and having the kids try to find them. I like this one, if you’re studying the letter “B”, to create an oversized “B” out of yarn, string, sand, buttons, cotton, etc…. Then students can trace the letter again and again but receive different tactile sensations.
To be honest, I’m pretty tired this morning, so some of this information is just washing right over me. But I can definitely see where this is tying in to the greater picture. We’re still just getting background right now. Learning about the different systems in the body and how they can influence the child, especially if they are under or over developed. Then, the program itself is addressing these issues through a series of activities that develop these systems to a significantly higher level. The idea is that if this is done, the ramifications can be felt for years.
Looks like this session is wrapping up. Once again, I’m dwelling on just how huge a difference it makes when material is presented well versus when it isn’t. There’s no question, Powerpoint can really get in the way of a good presentation sometimes. This was a good one. Yesterday was not. Perhaps she didn’t normally present yesterday’s content and was put on the spot or perhaps problems with the presentation were throwing her off.. Who knows? It really impresses upon me the need to ensure that students know how to present material well. You could have the greatest material in the world, but if you can’t share it with people in an effective way, then it’s essentially useless. It’s about more than just catchy slides.