Education and language education and in Thailand

July 5-11, 2005

Sensory motivation

How fine-tuning the senses can help kids overcome obstacles
associated with learning difficulties

Story and pictures by NEIL STONEHAM

We all know kids who are lazy, stubborn, clumsy or just plain headstrong. Indeed, most of us probably had at least one of those traits when we were young too. But in some cases, traits like these can point to a deficiency that may seriously affect a child’s development.

In order for us to function effectively, we need to take in a huge amount of information through the senses (touch, movement, smell, taste and vision), put it all together with other information stored in our brain and then make a meaningful response. The experts call it “sensory integration”, and, if all is well, we can do amazing things like dress ourselves in the morning, organise our working day and cook dinner when we get home at night — and all without giving it a second thought.

But for a child with delayed development in one of the senses, some mundane activities like holding a pen or telling the time can become a frustrating chore. In pronounced cases, delayed development can lead to learning difficulties that, in turn, can affect self-esteem and behaviour.

Thankfully, however, the brain is a plastic and malleable organ that often responds positively to applied therapy, so most children with a sensory disorder can be helped. It takes time, of course, as well as patience and a great deal of parental support, but the results can certainly benefit the child.

The Special Child Centre in Bangkok is one organisation that provides such treatment for children with special educational and emotional needs. Each student is already integrated within the national or international system but attend after-school sessions with occupational therapists in order to improve on their weaknesses.

Assitant Professor Supaporn Chinchai, one of the consultants at the centre, explains that treatment used to help children with delayed development — known as the “sensory integration approach” — is quite complex and always tailored to meet the needs of the individual child.

“If, for example, the child needs to improve their walking balance, we stimulate the vestibular system [which governs movement],” she says. “Or if the child doesn’t have good posture or becomes easily tired when doing an activity, we need to stimulate the propreoceptive system [which dictates body positioning] with an activity that compresses the joints.”

Playing safe

The room used to apply sensory integration therapy is as removed from the sterile classroom environment as you could imagine. Swings, slides and trampolines take pride of place, as do ball pens and building blocks. So, how on earth does this improve a child’s ability to learn?

The answer, it seems, lies in the style of treatment used to develop the area of the brain most at risk.

“The problem in every system is that you have two poles of dysfunction — oversensitive and undersensitive,” explains Professor Chinchai. “The oversensitive vestibular system can see the child behave in a clumsy way because the brain is telling the child not to move so much. If the system is undersensitive, the brain tells the child to move more than usual because the vestibular system requires greater stimulation, so the child becomes hyperactive.

“For a child who has clumsy behaviour, we evaluate them in the area of gravitational insecurity. Then we have to desensitise the vestibular system by stimulating it.”

The activities begin at a simple level and become gradually more difficult as the child gains in confidence. For instance, the vestibular system can be stimulated by getting the child to roll around on the floor. Because the whole body is supported, they can do this without experiencing any fear, so the next stage might be to place the child on a swing with their feet touching the floor, systematically raising it a little higher until the child feels comfortable and safe in a way that previously they did not.

Although the treatment focuses largely on the physical elements, there is also a major psychological impact once progress is made.

“We often see that the student concentrates better at school, their emotional problems reduce and their behaviour improves,” says Professor Chinchai. “Also things like handwriting skills can improve and they do better in physical education as well.”

Indeed, the child’s self-esteem will be greatly enhanced as they are brought up to the level of their peers and begin to achieve in areas where beforehand they had been considered failures.

The parental role

The sensory integration approach is a long-term programme that depends on continuous implementation, as well as close parental involvement, for success. When a child is enrolled on a programme at the Special Child Centre, parents are encouraged to keep their children active at home as well as at school. To facilitate this, therapists keep parents up-to-date with their child’s development via reports and informal meetings.

One question parents ask a lot, according to manager Arpawee Wangtrakul, is how long it will be before they can see any difference in their child.

“There is no fixed period,” she says. “It all depends on the severity of the problem the child has, the age of the child and the frequency of the treatment. The younger children tend to show more progression than the older children because they have higher brain plasticity. But if your child comes two or three times per week, you can usually see the difference in three or four months.”

However, the Special Child Centre’s director, Dr Supin Chaisiripaibool, complains that identifying the needs of the child and then seeking the right treatment is often a difficult area for many parents.

“In Thailand, there is a problem that some parents of special children do not accept them,” she says. “They try to keep them at home and deny that they are a special child.”

There is also, it appears, an issue with the medical profession whereby some practitioners try the quick-fix approach — liberally prescribing medicine, such as the hyperactivity drug Ritalin, to treat only mild disorders.

“Psychiatrists often have good knowledge relating to special education,” says Dr Supin. “But, from another perspective, only one type of doctor can identify something like autism. In many cases they will not.

“In Thailand, people believe in doctors much more than therapists. We do not claim that we are better than them. In some areas they are better than us but, in the area of child development, doctors should not be afraid to ask the advice of someone else. If they just rely on self-belief or their limited experience, some children might not have a good chance to develop."

For those parents who do choose to take appropriate action, however, the “sensory integration” approach is clearly an option worth considering.

Sensory integration at a glance
Sensory integration theory was developed by occupational therapist A. Jean Ayres in the 1960s. In her book Sensory Integration and the Child, she notes that “good sensory processing enables all the impulses to flow easily and reach their destination quickly. Sensory integrative dysfunction is a sort of ‘traffic jam’ in the brain. Some bits of sensory information get ‘tied up in traffic,’ and certain parts of the brain do not get the sensory information they need to do their jobs.”

Over time, sensory integration therapy can enable those with a particular dysfunction to develop in their area of weakness. So, for example, a hyperactive child can become better controlled by regular stimulation of the vestibular system (the system that governs our sense of balance and coordinates movement).

Younger children are more receptive to this type of therapy than older children. However, older children are given more autonomy over their treatment, which helps improve their confidence.

If treatment is successful, a child will show an increased self-esteem and demonstrate a noticeably improved academic performance.

The Special Child Centre is one of a number of places in Thailand offering sensory integration therapy. You can contact them on 02-321-9170-1 or find out more information by logging on to www.specialchild.co.th.

AUSTRALIA DEGREE SCANDAL
Australian universities value fee-paying failures — academic
CANBERRA — Australian universities pressure academic staff to award degrees to foreign students who fail their studies because they fear losing their high fees, an academic union official said recently.

The institutions are becoming increasingly reliant on fee-paying foreign students as state funding declines and concerns deepen about academic standards, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) Four Corners public affairs programme reported.

Dr Stuart Rosewarne, a senior lecturer at the prestigious Sydney University and a state president of the National Tertiary Education Union — the professional association of lecturers — said foreign students were gaining degrees without earning them.

“Across the sector ... the union is receiving a lot of reports of staff being prevailed upon to pass students who don't meet course requirements; who don't meet degree requirements,” Rosewarne told the programme, a transcript of which was shown to The Associated Press.

;Rosewarne declined to give specific examples, saying he feared for the jobs of academic staff who had complained to the union.

The ABC said it had a sworn statement from an unidentified Sydney University staff member who claimed to have witnessed a Chinese student gain a post-graduate degree last year despite not passing the required examinations.

The student had appealed to the university on the grounds that she had paid for her degree and the university had ruled in her favour, the ABC claimed.

;Sydney University Vice Chancellor Professor Gavin Brown said he was not aware of the case. He said he would have reported it to the New South Wales state government corruption watchdog if he had heard of it.

“If one had a situation where somebody simply was getting a degree without having completed the requirements, then we would have something I'd be reporting to ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption),” Brown told the ABC.

The ICAC is investigating Newcastle University, north of Sydney, after 15 foreign students at its Malaysian campus were failed for plagiarising essays in 2003.

;Unbeknown to the lecturer who failed the students, Ian Firns, the university re-marked the essays and the students were passed.

Professor Nick Saunders, who has became the university's vice chancellor since the scandal, said its reputation had suffered.

“But I would emphasise that that was two years ago,” Saunders told the ABC. “A great deal has changed at the university in those two years.”

Australia has 38 universities but only two are ranked with the world's top 100. While foreign students pay full fees, Australian students pay only 20 percent of the cost of their courses. AP

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Last modified: July 4, 2005