Using National Sensory Awareness Month to Build Your Practice

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Hello everybody, Dr. B and Elizabeth here to bring you some October Prep for Sensory Awareness Month. Yes, October is National Sensory Awareness Month, and who better than the chiropractic profession to be out there explaining what sensory processing dysregulation is, what it looks like, and how chiropractic can help.

Elizabeth is going to take a little bit of a nap. ChiroSecure, thank you for giving us this time and this ability to spread the word on family and pediatric chiropractic to the world. So Elizabeth, nap time for you, and we’re going to party like it’s 1999 or 2024, whichever came first, or came, ever came last, actually, since we are in 2024.

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Okay, anyway so I’m going to use this little graphic to start with, and I’m going to maybe ruffle some feathers at first, but calm down. I’ll explain. I’ll explain. Okay. So here you go. The old safety pin diagram in a little different perspective. Okay. So we’re looking at sensory input in. And proper motor input out.

So here’s the deal as chiropractors, we always talk about audio, right? Above, down, inside, out. Yes. That’s phenomenally important. Because in the world of sensory processing, of neural development, in neuropsych, in pretty much every realm of optimal health, they talk about the top down effect or attentional or appraisal effect.

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Coming from the higher areas of the brain, being able to pay attention to the status of the body to understand and interpret what the body needs to self regulate. Okay, get that? So above, down, inside, out for us chiropractors means, refers to the power of the chiropractic adjustment. affecting the innate intelligence and the brain to regulate the rest of the body and all other aspects of healthcare or wellness care or wellbeing.

including neurodevelopment, neuropsychiatry, mental health, you name it. Top down effect means that the brain can pay attention. It’s attentional. It’s intentional to regulate the status of the body. But that also means that there needs to be bottom up input into the brain. Okay. So a lot of individuals in the chiropractic world get A little messy when we talk about outside, in, and bottom, up.

In this context, we’re not talking about mechanisms of healing, okay? We’re still talking about the innate, above, down, inside, out ability to heal. But where does the information come from for the brain to know the status of the body and how and what, when, where it needs to do to be optimal in optimal health.

That is where outside in bottom up comes into play. So this is this is the my version of the current model. ChiroPractic. Okay, top down, bottom up. Because all that sensory information come from the outside in and bottom up, the body to the brain, is how the brain appraises the status of the body.

That is what we need to explain, especially to our parents of little fiddle farts that are struggling with sensory processing disorder. And again, this is the perfect time to get this little message because October is National Sensory Awareness Month. So what does that look like in context of your little fiddle farts?

It means that sensory input in needs to be received properly. If there’s a vertebral subluxation, a couple specific sensory fields or sensory systems that can be dysregulated. So the information coming in and being received can’t be perceived properly. And two biggies for us as chiropractors to consider are the vestibular sense, The sense of where the head is in space in the proprioceptive sense, the sense of where the body is in space.

And if the brain doesn’t receive the information, first of all, because there’s a vertebral subluxation, there’s a disconnect. between the sensory input from the body to the brain, and two, it doesn’t perceive it properly, then there’s dysregulated output. And what can that look like? It can be, I don’t know the status of my body, so I’m going to try to Hoard in some sensory input so I can better regulate the status of my body.

And that might mean in the classroom, I am kicking the chair of the kiddo in front of me. I am very aggressive. I’m what we call a pull, punch, push kiddo, because that brings in proprioceptive input so that the brain can try to receive that information properly and perceive it properly to respond properly.

Obviously, kicking the chair of the kiddo in front of you. Being a pull, punch, push kiddo not knowing how much force to use for writing and you’re breaking pencils and crayons all the time wanting to jump on beds and trampolines and those kinds of things. That is not, that is maladaptive expressive behavior of a kiddo that’s trying to regulate that proprioceptive input.

If we’re lacking proper reception. or perception of vestibular input. That might be the kiddo that’s constantly squirming around in their chairs and they’re rolling around, they’re spinning around and they’re getting up out of their chairs and they’re walking around the classroom. In your offices, they’re sitting on your exam stools and spinning around.

Lots of times at night, the autistic kiddos and the ADHD kiddos, they pace back and forth. Okay. They’re trying to upregulate that vestibular input with movement and in order for their brain to properly receive and perceive vestibular input. Pour input in, pour motor output out. Input equals output.

So if you can take your safety pin cycle diagrams, get an actual safety pin, Reach out to me and I’ll give you access to the updated version of Above, Down, Inside, Out, Outside, In, Bottom, Up. By the way, in the world of neurodevelopment, of mental health, especially neuropsychiatry, their entire methodology there, there revolves around top down control and bottom up input.

You have to have both of those in working properly in order to have optimal health and neuroadaptability. So using your safety pin graphic and updating it for current times to your parents and explaining that if Johnny has vertebral subluxations. Some of the sensory input, okay, particularly the vestibular and proprioceptive, try to do this backwards in a camera, but particularly vestibular and proprioceptive that comes from the inner core that’s inside of me.

If that is not coming in and being received, are perceived appropriately, little Johnny is going to try to adapt to that deficit. And what that can look like is trouble with learning attention and behavior. They don’t know where their body is in space. And so they’re trying to guess that means they might not be able to understand where their arm is or where their hand and fingers are in relationship to the arm and shoulder and to the head.

And so it’s difficult for them to hold a pen or pencil and write. It’s difficult for them, for their eyes, the little muscles around the eyes to get the messages to be able to track properly. for reading and writing. It’s difficult for the body, for the arms and the legs to know where they are in space to work together to catch a ball.

And they might not be good at sports or interaction. They might not want to be on the playground. They might be clumsy. That’s what sensory deficit is. And what we know from the adult chiropractic studies is that when we do an adjustment and remove interference. because of vertebral subluxations, disconnecting that information from the body from down below, going up.

When we remove that interference, the brain now has a better status of where the body is in space, how to move through space, and how to perform these tasks. So that is where me, mom, dad can potentially help little Johnny perform better, be more comfortable in his body, be better with learning attention and behavior.

Because his brain and body are not so disconnected and dysregulated. So hopefully that helps you practice a little bit your lingo before October arrives. Practice your safety pin cycle input from the outside world and from bottom up into the brain. Sensory input leads to proper motor output over here, okay?

And we have to have a connection from the top down and bottom up for that properly to occur. All right, that’s your little lesson for today and hopefully you enjoyed that. Start practicing. Practice in the mirror. Practice with a safety pin. All right, and be ready to rock it in October for National Sensory Awareness Month.

Until then, me and Elizabeth wish you a great wrap up summer into fall, and we will see you next month. And ChiroSecure, you’re amazing for giving us this opportunity. Educate and enlighten the world.

Today’s pediatrics show, To the Children, was brought to you by ChiroSecure.