Description
Lifespan sensory integration learning for health and care practice
Sensory Integration, Ageing & Dementia
Explore the science and practical reasoning that can support comfort, communication, participation and wellbeing in later life.
As people age, changes in sensory integration and processing can influence how they experience environments, relationships, care routines and everyday activities. For people living with dementia, those changes may be more difficult to communicate and may be expressed through distress, withdrawal or changes in participation.
This webinar offers an accessible introduction for allied health and care professionals who want to understand sensory experience more thoughtfully and respond in more person-centred ways.
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Start and revisit
Learn at your own pace and return when the content becomes useful in practice.
Sensory experience remains part of everyday life throughout ageing
Sensory integration does not stop in childhood. Hearing, vision, touch, movement, body awareness, balance, interoception, taste and smell continue to shape how people understand what is happening and participate in daily life.
Ageing, dementia, pain, medication, fatigue, illness, changes in mobility and unfamiliar care environments may all alter the sensory demands of an ordinary activity.
- A care interaction may feel very different when touch is unexpected or difficult to interpret.
- Busy sound, visual clutter or unfamiliar routines may increase effort and reduce availability for communication.
- Familiar music, movement, objects, occupations and relationships may support connection, identity and participation.
- What appears to be behaviour may also be communication about discomfort, uncertainty, overload or an unmet need.
Connect sensory integration with participation in later life
The webinar introduces key ideas and practical questions that can support more responsive, individualized care.
Sensory integration and ageing
Consider how sensory systems, the brain and body may change with age, health and lived experience.
Making sense of experience
Explore how dementia may affect recognition, interpretation, communication and participation within sensory environments.
Occupation and participation
Link sensory experience with eating, washing, dressing, moving, resting, relationships, hobbies and community life.
What the setting is asking
Notice sound, lighting, temperature, clutter, pace, predictability, movement opportunities and access to familiar cues.
Care that is done with, not to
Consider consent, trust, communication, choice, timing, proximity and the relational context of sensory support.
Thoughtful sensory-informed support
Begin to consider simple sensory-informed questions and proportionate adjustments connected with the person’s priorities, comfort and participation.
By the end of this one-hour webinar, participants will have been introduced to
This is an awareness-level introduction designed to support curiosity, observation and further learning rather than teach comprehensive sensory assessment or intervention.
- how sensory integration and processing may relate to comfort, communication, wellbeing and participation in later life
- some ways sensory changes may become visible within everyday care, activities and environments, including for people living with dementia
- how health, pain, fatigue, mobility, medication, sensory loss and context may influence what is being observed
- simple person-centred questions and sensory-informed adjustments that may be considered within the participant’s own role and scope
- the limits of introductory learning and when occupational therapy, medical or other specialist assessment, advice or further education may be helpful
Look at the whole experience, not the person in isolation
A PEAR TREE™ informed way of thinking helps hold the person, environment, activity and relational response together.
For professionals supporting older adults in health, care and community life
A starting point for reflection and further learning
This one-hour webinar offers an introductory sensory-informed lens for observation and reflection. It does not teach comprehensive sensory assessment or intervention, provide a dementia qualification, or replace individualized occupational therapy, medical, neurological, hearing, vision or mental health assessment.
New or changing distress, confusion, withdrawal or participation should be considered alongside pain, infection, delirium, medication, fatigue, sensory loss, mobility, communication and other health needs.
Any sensory support should be wanted, proportionate, reviewed with the person and connected with meaningful participation rather than used simply to make somebody quieter or easier to manage.
Related lifespan learning and resources
Older adults and sensory integration
Read the research update linking sensory processing, executive function and everyday participation.
Open the research page →Sensory integration with adults
Explore assessment, intervention, research and learning beyond childhood.
Explore adult resources →Communities of Practice
Continue learning through shared reflection and practice-focused community.
Explore the community →Start the webinar when you are ready
Purchase once, open the webinar in My Learning and return to it as your questions and practice continue to develop.
