Life for a child with impaired proprioception is not so easy. He’s a “space cadet” because he doesn’t know where his body is in space; there’s no internal body map to ground him. He’s not quite sure where any body part is at any given time unless he looks. Both moving and staying still take some conscious effort. Such kids may be physically clumsy or move slowly to compensate. Without proper proprioceptive input from his trunk and legs, your child might slide off a classroom chair, stumble on stairs, or fall when he runs. Poor proprioception in the fingers makes it difficult to manage fine motor manipulations needed to write well, button clothing, and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without shredding the bread. Without being able to gauge the weight of things (think: compression of the joints), your child drops pencils or uses so much force to pick up things that he hits himself in the face. Since proprioceptors detect the stretch and pull on muscles and joints, telling the brain just how much tension the muscles need, impaired proprioception robs the body of key information needed to maintain good muscle tone. Laura, a preschooler Lindsey worked with, was an active, affectionate child at home, but her hugs were way too strong. At mealtimes, she spilled her juice, and her plate flew across the table onto the floor when she attempted to scoop up food with her spoon. She had a complete meltdown at her friend’s birthday party when someone put a blindfold over her eyes to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey, and couldn’t calm down until her mother hugged and rocked her for a very long time. Laura wasn’t being rough or destructive it’s just that without the knowledge of how to apply the correct amount of force on things, she couldn’t fine tune her movements because she was not getting reliable sensory information from inside her body. When blindfolded, Laura had no way to monitor her body and its position in space. While Laura craved intense proprioceptive experiences, such as crashing into walls, banging toys, tumbling around in a pile of pillows, and general roughhousing to get stronger sensory messages, some children don’t seek it out and may try to avoid such input as much as possible. They’re the kids slumped over their desks like limp noodles while doing homework or who are usually “too tired” to play outside with the other children. Common Signs of Body Awareness Problems All children refine their body awareness as they mature. Compared to other children his age, does your child…
seem to move awkwardly or stiffly? seem to be physically weaker than other children? use too little or excessive force on things (for example, has trouble attaching clothing snaps, pop beads, and Legos, writes way too light or too dark with a pencil, breaks toys often)? push, hit, bite, or bang into other children although he isn’t an aggressive child? avoid or crave jumping, crashing, pushing, pulling, bouncing, and hanging? chew on clothing or objects more than other children do? always look at what he is doing (for example, he watches his feet when walking or running)?
