This article is the third installment in our What’s Missing From the National Conversation About Children’s Health series, inspired by Dr. Rebecca Jackson’s foundational piece, What’s Missing From the National Conversation About Children’s Health. In that opening article, Dr. Jackson highlighted a critical truth: while national discussions about children’s health are gaining visibility, key pieces of the puzzle, especially those related to brain development, are still missing.
In our second article, we expanded on one of those missing pieces, the essential and science-backed role of movement in building a child’s brain. If you missed it, you can read Movement Matters: Reclaiming a Missing Piece in the Conversation on Children’s Health here. Movement is not just a physical outlet. It is a neurological driver of attention, mood, learning, and resilience.
Today, we continue the conversation by shifting to another foundational pillar that remains largely missing from the national dialogue: sensory integration.
Despite the increasing focus on nutrition, screen time, mental health, stress, sleep, and environmental factors, the conversation still often overlooks a critical truth:
A child’s sensory systems shape how their brain organizes, interprets, and responds to the world.
What a child eats matters.
How much they move matters.
How they sleep and manage stress matters.
However, everything depends on how the brain processes sensory input.
When a child becomes overwhelmed by noise, touch, bright lights, movement, crowds, or even their internal sensations, the issue is not simply behavioral. It is neurological. It reflects how efficiently the brain is able to integrate the constant flow of multisensory input that guides regulation, attention, and learning.
Yet sensory integration remains one of the least understood and most overlooked elements of child development.
This article explains why.
Sensory integration refers to the brain’s ability to receive, organize, and interpret information from all sensory systems. These systems include sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, balance, body awareness, and internal sensory states.
When these systems work together efficiently, a child can:
“Sensory dysregulation is not bad behavior. It is a sign the brain is working too hard to interpret the world.”
Children who struggle with sensory processing may appear:
Overwhelmed or easily upset
Fearful of new environments
Distracted or forgetful
Avoidant or withdrawn
Hyperactive or constantly moving
Sensitive to noise, touch, textures, or crowds
These behaviors reflect the brain’s difficulty prioritizing and integrating sensory information.
Sensory dysregulation is often rooted in immaturity or inefficiency in brain development. When sensory networks do not mature at the right pace or remain out of sync, the brain cannot accurately sort what is relevant and what is not.
This can lead to:
Cognitive fatigue
Heightened anxiety or irritability
Meltdowns from sensory overload
Difficulty switching tasks
Poor frustration tolerance
Easily triggered emotional outbursts
“The behaviors we see on the surface are signals of deeper gaps in brain development.”
Parents and teachers often see the behavior long before they understand the brain-related cause behind it.
The brain is constantly combining information from multiple sensory systems at the same time. This ability, called multisensory integration, is essential for:
Focus and sustained attention
Accurate perception
Emotional regulation
Social awareness
Reading and listening comprehension
Classroom learning
When multisensory systems are inefficient, a child may struggle to:
Filter out background noise
Follow directions
Stay seated
Maintain attention
Understand social cues
Tolerate busy or unpredictable environments
These challenges can mimic or worsen symptoms associated with ADHD, anxiety, reading difficulties, behavioral struggles, or poor academic performance.
The encouraging news is that sensory processing can improve through targeted activities that build endurance, accuracy, and efficiency in the brain.
These activities can include:
Balance and vestibular exercises
Rhythm and timing activities
Body awareness and coordination tasks
Visual and auditory processing exercises
Tactile and proprioceptive activities
Multisensory combinations that require attention, timing, and whole-body coordination all at the same time.
When practiced consistently, these activities strengthen the neural pathways that support regulation, attention, and learning.
“A regulated brain is a connected brain, and a connected brain learns more easily.”
Children who strengthen their sensory system through a multi-sensory approach can show improvements in:
Focus and attention
Emotional stability
Flexibility and frustration tolerance
Reading, comprehension, and classroom performance
Confidence and social connection
The national dialogue is expanding, but still incomplete. We talk about food, screens, stress, anxiety, and behavior, but sensory integration rarely makes the list.
Yet sensory processing influences every aspect of a child’s daily experience. Without addressing it, we risk misunderstanding behaviors, delaying support, and missing opportunities to build strong developmental foundations.
To create meaningful change, policymakers, school systems, and healthcare providers must recognize sensory integration as central to brain development and learning.
At Brain Balance, sensory integration is not an afterthought. It is a core component of our multi-sensory, movement-based, cognitive training program that strengthens the communication pathways in the brain responsible for:
Focus and attention
Behavior and emotional regulation
Mood and stress resilience
Social confidence
Learning and academic performance
Families consistently share that once their child begins strengthening sensory and cognitive networks, everything starts to shift. Mornings become easier. Homework becomes smoother. Meltdowns become less frequent. Confidence grows.
Because when the brain works better, children feel better and function better in every area of life.
Brain Balance's evaluation unveils how everything connects.
We use FDA-approved eye-tracking technology (RightEye), validated cognitive assessments, and evaluate areas that most places never check, such as primitive reflexes that should have integrated years ago but did not.
✓ Visual motor analysis with live playback
✓ Cognitive metrics across six key domains
✓ Developmental reflex evaluation
✓ Fine motor precision testing
✓ Balance, coordination, and sensory processing assessment
No single test gives the full picture. That is why we look at all of them together, giving you a clearer understanding of how your child's brain is developing and what supports will create meaningful change.
Fill out the form above and book your child the support they deserve and take the first step toward improved focus, regulation, and confidence.