Working with Sensory Dysfunction held by Peter Imray held on Tuesday 31st March 2026

The theory around Sensory Integration relates directly to action research conducted by Jean Ayres (1920-1988) in recognising the often severe effects of sensory dysfunction and dysregulation, and is likely to apply to many learners with profound, complex and severe learning disabilities, especially if they have additional autism. There is no way that we can absolutely KNOW whether a learner can successfully integrate their 7 senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, proprioception and vestibular) in the way that neuro-typical learners generally can, but we can ASSUME that those with PMLD, CLD and SLD will possibly/probably have difficulties, and work from there.

The work of Jean Ayres has led to many OTs being specifically trained in Sensory Dysfunction (sometimes known as Sensory Processing Disorder) and schools should look to their OT(s) for support in such assessment, but it should be possible for experienced members of staff (be they teacher or TA) to relate specific behaviours to possible sensory dysfunction(s) if you don’t have an OT available for consultation.

The essential point around Sensory Integration lies in understanding that we can help learners in two clear ways which centre around the eternal truth of dealing with a problem. That is, when faced with a problem of any description, change what can be changed but if you can’t, find ways of living with it. If we adopt these two ‘solutions’ we can see that they fit quite well into the broad type of sensitivity generally experienced by learners who suffer from sensory dysfunction(s), namely

(i) hyposensitivity and

(ii) hypersensitivity.

This webinar will seek to deconstruct the issues and provide practical solutions to sensory dysfunction problems for all those with learning disabilities.

Available to view until 1st July 2026