It is commonly believed that we as humans have 5 senses. These are known as the basic senses and include visual, auditory, touch, taste, and smell. The ‘hidden’ senses include vestibular, proprioception, and interoception. Vestibular is our sense of balance and knowing how to move or position our body so that we can balance. Proprioception refers to our body awareness and its position in space, for example, if you were to close your eye and hold your arm up without physically seeing it you would be able to feel how high it is raised and where it is in relation to the rest of your body. The final of the lesser known senses is interoception which is knowing the internal state of our body, this includes sensing when we need the bathroom, are too hot or cold, or are hungry or thirsty.

These senses are very important to know as an educator particularly in an inclusive education environment. Students learn best in inclusive classrooms that consider everyone’s needs, including students’ sensory preferences. Of course, it’s difficult to cater to every preference, but there are adjustments you can make to keep sensory stimuli at a level that allows your students to feel comfortable, focussed, and safe. Observe and get to know your students and their sensory preferences so you can create a more effective learning environment in whatever space you’re in.

Students may be:

– Hypersensitive: they experience overwhelmingly more sensory input that others, e.g., lights may seem too bright or noises too loud. This can result in sensory avoidance behaviour (trying to get away from this sensory input)

– Hyposensitive: they are much less responsive to particular sensations and need more of that sensory stimulus to recognise the sensation and/or feel comfortable, e.g., dislike quiet spaces and prefer listening to music to concentrate. This can result in sensory seeking behaviour (trying to get more sensory input from the environment).

Kaeley Pitt