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The OTR’s Essential Role

SENSORY ASSESMENT & CONSULTATION for Neurodivergents

Why take the Sensory Assessment?

OTRs teach neurodivergent individuals specific strategies and provide tools to manage their sensory responses. This includes promoting self-advocacy skills so the person can recognize and communicate their own needs.

Sensory assessment is far more than a simple test; it is a collaborative exploration into how an individual perceives and processes the world through their senses. OTRs recognize that sensory differences in neurodivergent people are not deficits to be “fixed”; but rather unique variations that need to be understood and accommodated. A comprehensive assessment helps to identify a person's sensory preferences and challenges, which can include:

  • Sensory sensitivity (hypersensitivity): Being overwhelmed by certain stimuli, such as loud noises, bright lights, or specific textures.

  • Sensory seeking (hyposensitivity): Needing more intense sensory input, such as movement, pressure, or strong flavors, to feel regulated.

  • Sensory registration challenges: Difficulty noticing or responding to sensory input, which may affect body awareness (proprioception) or balance (vestibular sense).

  • Interception challenges: Trouble interpreting internal body signals, such as hunger, thirst, or pain.

The consultation process: From assessment to empowerment

Once an OTR has conducted a sensory assessment, they move into the consultation phase. The goal is to provide practical, person-centered solutions that empower the individual to navigate their daily life more successfully.

Education and collaboration

A critical part of the consultation is educating families, educators, and employers about the individual's unique sensory profile. This fosters a more inclusive and understanding environment. OTRs can help others understand that behaviors stemming from sensory differences are not intentional or “bad”; but rather a natural response to overwhelming or under-stimulating input.

Our sensory assessment is a two-session process that includes a sensory assessment and a follow-up sensory recommendations profile.

Two photos of children in a therapy or play environment with their therapists. In the first, a young girl is balancing on a purple balance cone with a woman guiding her. The second shows a boy jumping on a trampoline with a man holding his hand, in a room with colorful therapy equipment.