Proprioception: Taking a Deep Dive into the Sixth Sense!

Proprioception refers to the body’s ability to sense its location, movements, and actions.  It knows where our arms, legs, and trunk are at any given moment! Proprioception is the sense that allows us to touch our nose with our eyes closed, or walk up a flight of stairs without having to look at each step. In addition to the 5 common senses, this sense has receptors primarily in the muscles and joints. Proprioceptive input is often referred to as heavy work and our sixth sense! By receiving information from muscles and joints, the brain can identify where the body is in space which is important for awareness and adapting to the environment. 

For children, developing a strong sense of proprioception is crucial for their physical development and motor learning. It allows them to control their body’s movements, from simple tasks like grabbing a toy or a spoon, to more complex actions like climbing a playground ladder or riding a bike. If a child’s proprioceptive system is not functioning adequately, they may seem clumsy, may exert too much or too little force, may seek out intense physical experiences, or may seem uncomfortable with certain textures or movements. 

For example, in a game of tag, children need proprioception to gauge how hard to run, when to stop or change direction, and how to avoid stumbling or falling over. In addition, when learning to write, proprioception helps them understand how to hold the pencil and apply the right amount of pressure on paper. It’s important to note that like other senses, proprioception can vary in sensitivity from child to child. 

Some children might avoid proprioceptive input, while others might seek out more proprioceptive input. In both cases, activities specifically designed to stimulate or calm the proprioceptive system can be beneficial. It is essential to identify with your child what tasks may be alerting or calming to your child.  A child may calm down after jumping on the trampoline but another child may become more energetic by jumping.  The following sections focus on general methods to increase proprioceptive input and specific activities to calm or alert your child.  

Methods to Increase Proprioceptive Input

1. Carrying and Lifting: Let your child carry books, groceries, or a backpack filled with safe, heavy items. Gardening, like carrying a watering can, or chores, such as taking out the trash, can also be beneficial.
2. Pushing or Dragging: Kids can push or pull weighted items, like pushing a grocery cart or laundry basket, pulling a wagon filled with rocks or toys, or playing with push and pull toys.
3. Jumping and Climbing: Playing on playground equipment, like swings, seesaws, climbing frames, trampolines, or trapeze bars encourages children to use their muscles and joints. In addition jumping and crashing is also beneficial.
4. Resistance Activities: Crawling through a tunnel, lifting a weighted ball, playing tug of war, or even wrestling safely with a sibling or parent provides proprioceptive feedback.
5. Squeezing Toys: Materials like therapy putty, squeeze balls, and fidget toys can provide quick and easy proprioceptive input.
6. Oral Motor: Chewing gum, crunchy snacks, gummy candy, or sensory chewies can be beneficial for providing increased input
7. Crafts and Art: Kneading dough, using a hole punch, coloring with crayons, or using scissors all provide different degrees of resistance.
8. Sports: Activities like swimming, gymnastics, martial arts, or soccer, where the body interacts strongly with its surroundings, can provide good proprioceptive input.
9. Balance Activities: Balancing or weight shifting activities, such as balancing on a balance board or an exercise ball, can be beneficial.

Calming Activities 

Calming proprioceptive activities help regulate the nervous system and can be highly beneficial, especially for children who may be overstimulated, anxious, or have trouble focusing. Here are some calming proprioceptive activities:

1. Deep Pressure: This can be provided through tight hugs, swaddling in a blanket, using weighted blankets or weighted vests, sitting under a pile of pillows or cushions, or providing firm but gentle massage.
2. Slow, Resisted Activities: Slow, rhythmical, and resistance-based actions have a calming effect. Examples include pushing against a wall, slowly lifting and carrying heavy objects, gardening tasks like digging, raking, or doing resistance-based exercises like planks or yoga poses.
3. Chewing and Sucking: For some children, certain oral actions have a calming effect. Using chewy or crunchy snack foods, drinking from a straw, or chewing on a safe and appropriate chewable toy can help.
4. Rhythmic, Predictable Movement: Activities like rocking in a rocking chair, rhythmic swinging, or slowly bouncing on a therapy ball can be calming.
5. Deep Breathing: Although this is not strictly proprioceptive, deep, slow, and controlled breathing can be a powerful calming technique, especially when combined with some of the above strategies.

Alerting Activities 

Proprioceptive activities can also be used for an opposite effect – to stimulate and alert the senses, particularly in children who may have low energy, low mood, or difficulties with attention and focus. Here are some alerting proprioceptive activities:

1. Jumping and Bouncing: This can include jumping on a trampoline, crashing, hopping on one foot, jumping jacks, skipping, or using a hoppity ball.
2. Pushing and Pulling: Pushing a heavily loaded cart, playing tug of war, or doing wheelbarrow walks can increase alertness.
3. Chewing and Sucking: Chewing gum or crunchy food, biting a sensory chewy, or sucking on sour candy can be alerting.
4. High-Intensity Physical Exercises: This could include running, climbing, swinging on monkey bars, tossing a weighted ball, animal walks (ie. bear crawl, frog jump, galloping etc.), or playing high-intensity sports like soccer or basketball.
5. Sudden Changes in Position: Any quick changes of position such as quickly standing up after sitting or lying down can be alerting.

Remember that the time, duration, and intensity of these activities can vary based on the child’s individual needs.  Consult with an occupational therapy practitioner or pediatrician when assessing if these activities are appropriate for your child.  These are only a few of many activities that increase proprioceptive input to help your child calm down, get more energy, or to become more alert in order to be more in control of their body.