MORE THAN FIVE ?
Our senses provide us with information about the world. Many scientists say we actually have nine senses - sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, pain, balance, thirst, and hunger. Hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell are known as our external senses. They provide information about the outside world. Pain, balance, thirst, and hunger are considered to be our internal senses. They provide information about the body and its needs. For example, the sense of hunger shows that the body needs food.
Hearing, sight and sometimes smell are also known as the distance senses. They provide us with information that is away from us. Without the distance senses, the world is only as far as our fingertips. To get the needed information, every sense must be used to its fullest capacity.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has done a lot of research on the senses. They have published a series of articles on the internet about the senses and how the brain interprets what the senses bring in. In one of the sections entitled, “It's All in the Brain, Illusions Reveal the Brain's Assumptions” it says:
“We can recognize a friend instantly—full-face, in profile, or even by the back of his head. We can distinguish millions of shades of color, as well as 10,000 smells. We can feel a feather as it brushes our skin, hear the faint rustle of a leaf. It all seems so effortless: we open our eyes or ears and let the world stream in.
Yet anything we see, hear, feel, smell, or taste requires billions of nerve cells to flash urgent messages along cross-linked pathways and feedback loops in our brains, performing intricate calculations that scientists have only begun to decipher.
"You can think of sensory systems as little scientists that generate hypotheses about the world," says Anthony Movshon, an HHMI investigator at New York University . Where did that sound come from? What color is this, really? The brain makes an educated guess, based on the information at hand and on some simple assumptions.”
The process of receiving input through the sensory channels, decoding it in the brain and sending output is a complicated process.
We receive information through the following sensory channels: tactile, proprioceptive, visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and vestibular.
Skin
Tactile is the information received by touch, pressure, pain and temperature.
Proprioceptive in information about the relative positions of parts of the body. This information comes through sensations arising in the muscles, joints, ligaments, and receptors associated with the bones.
Visual is information received through the eyes. (see links below for more information about the eyes) .
Auditory is information received through the ears. (see links belov for more information about the ears).
Tongue
Olfactory and gustatory are closely tied. Olfactory is information received through the nose. Gustatory is information received through the tongue and lips.
Olfactory System
Inner Ear - Vestibular
Vestibular is information received through receptors in the inner ear that enables us to detect motion, especially acceleration and deceleration. It is closely tied to the visual system which provides information to the vestibule located in the inner ear.
The ability to organize and process all this sensory information is called sensory integration. Sensory integration dysfunction is when there are problems processing the information and coordinating the input from all the senses.
It is important to learn all you can about your child's sensory impairments. Share information received from doctors with the educational team. Learn what adaptations are needed to help your child receive input. Talk to vision, hearing and sensory integration specialists.
“Eye Disease Simulations” - from the National Eye Institute website.
“How Vision Works” From the How Stuff Works Website
“How Hearing Works” From the How Stuff Works Website
“Hearing Loss” - from the University of Washington website
“Seeing, Hearing and Smelling the World” - from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute website
“Sensory Integrative Dysfunction in Young Children” - From the See/Hear Newsletter
“Sensory Integration Road Rules for Interveners” - A list of things that can be done with children. When Sue Birkenshaw gave permission for this to be included, she indicated that parents can do all the things on the list. Rules # 5 and # 9 are especially important.
“The Importance of Touch in Parent-Infant Bonding ” - From the Texas Schools for the Blind and Visually Impaired Website.
“Neurological Visual Impairment” - From the See/Hear Newsletter
Fact sheets from California Deafblind Services
“Visual Adaptations”
”Light Sensitivity”
“Tolerating Touch”
“Appropriate Touch”
“Otitis Media”
“Neurological Visual Impairment”
DISH stands for Deafblind Intervention Strategies for the Home,
click here for the intro and index page