**4. Proprioceptive dysfunction**


Proprioception is the unconscious awareness of the body in space or at resting position. The somatosensory system plays a major role in the sensory integration.

Proprioception helps us to move. When proprioception is affected the child finds it difficult to perform the normal movement. The child finds it difficult to walk, clumsier, slower and must give more effort to perform the normal

Any deficit or problem in the proprioception will lead to sensory integration

Due to lack of awareness about the neurological deficit, the parents will not be able to identify the problems or the difficulties faced by the children. They will not be able to analyze the learning and the behavioral problems are due to the sensory

Sometimes lack of opportunities to play and explore and sometimes lack of interaction with the environment can also lead to these types of sensory seeking or

• The motor execution depends on somatosensory feedback.

• Important for body balance and praxis

movement [15].

• Hereditary factors

• Chemical factors

sensory deficit in children.

• Developmental disabilities

dysfunction. Causes,

**Figure 5.** *For parents.*

*Proprioception*

issue.

**82**

• Important for reticular activating system.

• Important for the development of muscle tone.

The deficit associated with proprioceptive system. The under reactivity to typical sensory stimuli:


Both over responsivity and under responsivity. Both extremes may occur in the same children [2].


#### **4.1 Sensory diet**

"The daily total of sensorimotor experience needed by a person to adaptively interact with the environment".

Sensory diet is for the self-regulation. The importance of the proprioceptive system in to give a person with information on how far to reach, how much pressure, where we are in space, to learn about body schema. It involves movement, compression and stretching at a joint**.**

Ayres conceptualized SPD as a disorder of body scheme in which children misperceive their immediate space and their surrounding space. She believed that therapy based on a "sensory integration approach" would normalize the spatial perceptions from multiple sensory systems and contribute to successful participation in daily life activities [17, 18].
