Description
This six-lecture series provides an in-depth exploration of sensory integration reasoning, moving from the sensory-motor foundations of movement and praxis to sensory reactivity, arousal, stress, and regulation.
The first part of the series focuses on movement and praxis. Participants explore how proprioceptive, vestibular and visual systems support posture, body awareness, spatial orientation, gaze stability, motor planning and coordinated movement. The series then examines the cerebellum, basal ganglia, cortex and motor pathways, helping participants understand how movement is learned, refined, adapted and expressed through skilled action.
The second part of the series focuses on sensory reactivity and modulation. Participants examine how tactile, vestibular, auditory and olfactory processing can influence comfort, attention, arousal, emotional responses, behaviour, sleep, social interaction and participation. The series also explores the reticular formation, limbic structures, stress response systems and interoception, supporting a more integrated understanding of regulation and internal body awareness.
Across all six workshops, participants are supported to move beyond broad descriptions such as “clumsy”, “sensory seeking”, “overreactive”, “poorly regulated” or “dyspraxic”. Instead, the series supports more precise clinical reasoning about how different sensory and neural systems may contribute to movement, praxis, arousal, emotional regulation and participation.
Through focused teaching, neuroscience explanation, clinical discussion and video-based examples, this series helps therapists connect sensory integration theory with real clinical presentations. It supports more thoughtful assessment, more purposeful intervention planning, clearer communication with families and teams, and a deeper understanding of how sensory experiences shape daily life across development and adulthood.
- Sensory Contributions to Movement and Praxis: Proprioception, Vestibular Processing and Postural Control
Explores how proprioceptive and vestibular systems support posture, movement, body awareness, spatial orientation and praxis. - Vision, the Cerebellum and Sensory Motor Integration in Praxis
Examines the role of vision and the cerebellum in postural control, sensory motor integration, timing, sequencing, prediction, motor learning and adaptive movement. - From Sensory Input to Praxis: Motor Learning, Basal Ganglia, Motor Pathways and Clinical Reasoning
Brings sensory and motor systems together to explore motor learning, basal ganglia function, motor pathways, ideation, planning, execution and clinical reasoning. - Sensory Reactivity and Modulation: Touch, Vestibular Processing and Regulation
Explores tactile and vestibular reactivity, protective sensory processing, C fibre touch, gravitational insecurity, intolerance to movement, sensory distress and regulation. - Sound, Smell and Arousal: Auditory Processing, Olfaction and the Reticular Formation
Examines auditory and olfactory processing, sound sensitivity, smell, arousal, sleep, attention, emotional responses and the role of the reticular formation in regulation. - Limbic Links, Stress and Interoception in Sensory Reactivity
Brings together sensory reactivity, limbic processing, stress physiology and interoception, with attention to internal body awareness, emotional regulation, mental health and participation.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of this series, participants will be able to:
- describe how proprioceptive, vestibular, visual, tactile, auditory and olfactory systems contribute to movement, praxis, arousal and regulation
- explain how sensory systems interact with cerebellar, basal ganglia, cortical, reticular, limbic and interoceptive systems
- identify clinical signs that may suggest sensory motor, modulation, postural, praxis or regulation-related challenges
- differentiate between key components of praxis, including ideation, planning and execution
- recognise how sensory input, feedback, feedforward, repetition, variation and active movement support motor learning
- explain how sensory reactivity may influence arousal, anxiety, avoidance, emotional regulation, sleep and participation
- consider the clinical challenges of distinguishing hyperreactivity, hyporeactivity, poor registration and discrimination differences
- describe the role of interoception in internal body awareness, emotional experience, self-regulation, wellbeing and sense of self
- use clinical observation and video examples to generate more precise sensory integration hypotheses
- reflect on how sensory integration reasoning can strengthen assessment, intervention planning, therapeutic interaction and communication with clients, families and teams
Participants will learn through focused teaching, neuroscience explanation, clinical discussion and video observation, connect sensory systems with movement, praxis, reactivity and regulation, apply the concepts to real clinical examples, reflect on assessment and intervention reasoning, and take the learning back into practice through more integrated sensory integration thinking.
