What Is Sensory Processing?

Last updated: 12 April 2026 · Chewel

Sensory processing is the way the brain receives, organises, and responds to information from the body and the environment. Most people learn about five senses — but there are at least eight. For some people, the process of organising and responding to sensory information works differently — they may be more sensitive to some inputs, less sensitive to others, and may find regulating their responses much harder than average.

The Five Senses — and the Other Three

Most of us are taught five senses in school: sight (vision), hearing (audition), smell (olfaction), taste (gustation), and touch (tactile). These are all external senses — they detect information from the environment around us.

But there are three more senses that detect information from within the body — and these are just as important for how we function:

• Proprioception: the sense of body position and movement — where your limbs are in space, how much pressure your muscles are exerting, the position of your joints
• Vestibular: the sense of balance and spatial orientation — provided by the inner ear, it detects head position and movement through space
• Interoception: the sense of what is happening inside the body — hunger, thirst, heart rate, temperature, breathing, emotional states

These three hidden senses are often the most important in sensory processing differences. Children who seek movement, need to chew, or struggle to identify their own emotional states often have differences in their proprioceptive, vestibular, or interoceptive processing. See: the eight senses — a full guide

What Does "Sensory Processing" Mean?

Sensory processing is not just about receiving signals — it is about what the brain does with them. For every sensory input, the brain must:

1. Detect the signal (sensory reception)
2. Filter it — deciding what is important and what to ignore (sensory modulation)
3. Interpret it — what does this signal mean? (sensory discrimination)
4. Respond to it — how should the body react? (motor and behavioural response)

This process happens constantly, automatically, and largely below the level of conscious awareness. In most people, it runs smoothly. In some people, one or more of these steps works differently — and this is what we call a sensory processing difference.

Hypersensitivity and Hyposensitivity

Sensory differences most commonly show up as either too much or too little sensitivity:

The same person may be hypersensitive in one channel (e.g., hearing) and hyposensitive in another (e.g., proprioception). This combination is common in autism and ADHD.

Proprioception — The Most Regulating Sense

Of all the sensory channels, proprioception is often described by occupational therapists as the most regulating. Proprioceptive input — deep pressure, heavy work, rhythmic movement, strong joint compression — tends to have a calming, organising effect on the nervous system across a wide range of arousal states. It can calm an over-aroused child and alert an under-aroused one.

The jaw is one of the richest sources of proprioceptive input in the body. This is why chewing is such an effective sensory regulation strategy — it provides strong, rhythmic proprioceptive input that the brain can use to modulate arousal.

See: what is proprioception?

When Sensory Processing Works Differently

Sensory processing differences are associated with:

• Autism spectrum conditions: sensory differences are a core feature of autism and are now included in the diagnostic criteria
• ADHD: sensory seeking and sensory sensitivity are common in ADHD, though they are not currently part of the formal criteria
• Sensory processing disorder (SPD): a term used when sensory processing difficulties are the primary presenting issue, without a diagnosis of autism or ADHD. See: sensory processing disorder explained
• High sensitivity (HSP): a trait (not a disorder) characterised by deeper sensory and emotional processing