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Sensory Processing

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What is Sensory Processing and How It Relates to ADHD

Sensory processing (SP) refers to the way the brain receives, interprets, and responds to sensory information—such as sights, sounds, textures, tastes, smells, movement, and body awareness. For most people, this system works automatically, helping them navigate their environment smoothly. However, individuals with ADHD often experience differences in sensory processing. This can mean being hypersensitive (overwhelmed by loud noises, bright lights, or certain textures), hyposensitive (constantly seeking stimulation like movement or touch), or fluctuating between both extremes. These sensory differences can impact focus, behavior, emotional regulation, and comfort in everyday situations.

In ADHD, challenges with attention and impulse control can be closely tied to sensory experiences. For example, a distracting sound might make it hard to stay on task, or a craving for movement might lead to fidgeting or restlessness. On the flip side, some people with ADHD may “tune out” sensory input entirely, appearing inattentive or withdrawn. Understanding the sensory side of ADHD can be a key piece in supporting focus, reducing overwhelm, and creating a more supportive environment at home, school, or work.

Why Include Sensory Processing in Your Evaluation?

Including sensory processing in an ADHD evaluation can provide a more complete picture of an individual’s strengths and challenges. Since sensory issues often overlap with ADHD symptoms—such as distractibility, restlessness, or emotional reactivity—assessing sensory processing can help distinguish whether behaviors stem from sensory sensitivities, attention difficulties, or a combination of both. This insight can guide more tailored strategies and interventions, such as sensory-friendly environments, occupational therapy, or specific coping tools that support regulation and focus. By understanding how sensory input affects attention and behavior, individuals, families, and professionals can create more effective support plans that address the whole person, not just the ADHD diagnosis.

Pioneering occupational therapist and neuroscientist A. Jean Ayres, PhD, likened SPD to a neurological “traffic jam” that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the signals needed to interpret sensory information correctly. A person with SPD finds it difficult to process and act upon information received through the senses, which creates challenges in performing countless everyday tasks.

Signs of SPD include:

• difficulty planning and organizing
• carrying out self care skills and activities of daily living
• completing school work or job tasks
• avoiding activities
• frequent distress or agitation
• fear of trying new things.

If the disorder is not treated effectively, behavioral problems, anxiety, depression, school failure and other issues may result.

Sensory Processing Disorder can affect people in only one sense–for example, just touch or just sight or just movement–or in multiple senses. Sensations can be experienced as too much or too little for someone with SPD. For example, one person with SPD may over-respond to sensation and find clothing, physical contact, light, sound, food, or other sensory input to be unbearable. Another might under-respond, and show little or no reaction to stimulation, even pain or extreme hot and cold. If sensory processing of the muscles and joints are impaired, posture and motor skills can be affected. Some children may exhibit an appetite for sensation that is in perpetual overdrive. It is these kids that can sometimes be misdiagnosed as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER AND ADHD

When you examine their symptoms side by side, there are some striking similarities between ADHD and SPD as well as several differences. The two conditions don’t necessarily go hand in hand, but they often do. Children with ADHD and SPD display some of the following issues and behaviors: hyperactivity, lack of focus, fidgeting, and impulsivity. A hyperactive child with either ADHD or SPD might run and skip through the halls on the way from one class to another. A child struggling to focus on a reading assignment might have ADHD or SPD. Excessive fidgeting by repeatedly touching a toy or moving about in one’s seat reflects both SPD and ADHD. The effects of SPD and ADHD cause learning difficulties, create challenges with peer relationships and reduce a child or adult’s ability to comply and complete activities.

Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, a well-known researcher who has studied Sensory Processing Disorder, noted some fundamental differences in the behaviors observed with ADHD vs. SPD children.

Dr. Miller found that ADHD children display the following:

  • Cannot stop impulsive behavior regardless of sensory input
  • Crave novelty and activity that is not necessarily related to specific sensations
  • Do not become more organized after receiving sensory input
  • Have difficulty waiting or taking turns
  • Wait or take turns better with cognitive rather than sensory input
  • Tend to talk all the time, impulsively interrupting, have trouble waiting for a turn in any conversation

For some children with SPD, sensory input can often feel like an assault coming from all directions. A child might have difficulty listening in class because they are disturbed by the tag in the back of their shirt, can’t sit still because of the line in their sock, and are distracted from the noise of kids in the hallway.

For others, outside stimuli are dulled, as if a shade has been pulled over the environment, muting sights, sounds, and touch. These children seek extra stimulation to arouse themselves, much like one might need a cold shower to wake-up after a sleepless night. These are the kids who love to spin and swing upside down. Most children with SPD display elements of both extremes, suffering from sensory overload at some times, seeking stimulation at others. It’s not difficult to see how these symptoms, distractibility, fidgeting, the need for intense activity, and problems with social interactions, could seem like ADHD.

Because Sensory Processing Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder overlap, parents, teachers and medical professionals may mistake one condition for the other. In cases when ADHD and SPD do coexist, it is important to distinguish one from the other because their treatments are different.

This is why the ADHD Center for Success recognizes the importance of evaluating Sensory Processing in the context of an ADHD evaluation.

In addition to our comprehensive ADHD evaluation, the ADHD Center for Success utilizes the internationally recognized Sensory Profile developed by Winnie Dunn in 1999. The Sensory Profile has several forms. In children, the assessment is done by parent report, and in Adolescents/Adults, through self-report. It is a measure of the person’s responses to sensory events in daily life, and is used to assess a person’s sensory related difficulties, and better understand the complexities of their sensory processing. The Sensory Profile gathers critical information relating to home, school, or work that can assist in designing strategies for managing daily life. Individuals can choose whether to include the Sensory Profile as part of their assessment.