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Sensory Glossary: Proprioception, Vestibular & Interoception
Every word an occupational therapist uses in a ten-minute appointment, defined in a sentence — so the report you were handed makes sense tonight.
Written byMaya Ellison
Medically reviewed byDana Whitfield, OTR/LLast reviewed August 1, 2026 · every clinical claim checked by a licensed pediatric OT
Verified accurate as of August 1, 2026
Browse the glossary
16 terms, grouped by what they describe. Jump straight to the one you need.
Sensory systems
- Proprioception
- The sense of where your body is in space, fed by receptors in muscles and joints. Pushing, pulling, carrying, and chewing all deliver proprioceptive input, which is the most reliably regulating input for both seekers and avoiders. Heavy-work schedule
- Vestibular input
- Movement and balance information from the inner ear. Swinging, spinning, rocking, and tipping the head all provide it. Slow linear movement calms; fast or rotary movement alerts. Indoor swing guide
- Interoception
- The internal sense of what is happening inside the body: hunger, thirst, needing the toilet, a racing heart, or rising anger. Reduced interoceptive awareness is common and explains sudden meltdowns with no visible trigger.
- Tactile system
- The sense of touch, including light touch, deep touch, temperature, and pain. Tactile defensiveness — distress at tags, seams, textures, or unexpected contact — is one of the most common sensory differences. Seamless clothing brands
- Oral motor input
- Sensory input through the mouth and jaw from chewing, sucking, blowing, and crunching. Chewing clothing or pencils is a request for it, not a bad habit. Chew-strength tiers
Response patterns
- Sensory seeking
- Actively chasing more input than the environment provides: crashing, spinning, chewing, touching everything, making noise. A seeker is usually under-responsive and needs the input delivered safely and on a schedule. Seeking vs avoiding
- Sensory avoiding
- Escaping input that feels too intense: covering ears, refusing textures, avoiding crowds. An avoider is over-responsive and needs dampening plus control over when input arrives. Ear defenders compared
- Sensory threshold
- How much input a nervous system needs before it registers a sensation. A low threshold means input is noticed quickly and can overwhelm; a high threshold means input has to be intense before it registers at all.
- Sensory processing difference
- A pattern where sensory information is registered more intensely, less intensely, or less consistently than expected. It occurs alongside autism and ADHD, and also on its own.
Strategies and tools
- Deep pressure
- Firm, even, sustained pressure across the body — hugs, weighted lap pads, compression garments, being squashed under a cushion. It is the most consistently calming input available at home.
- Heavy work
- Any activity that pushes or pulls against resistance: carrying shopping, wall push-ups, vacuuming, animal walks. It is proprioceptive input dressed up as a chore, and it is the backbone of most sensory routines. 40 heavy work ideas
- Sensory diet
- A planned schedule of sensory activities spread through the day to keep the nervous system regulated. The word diet means regular scheduled input, not food. Free schedule and template
States and behaviour
- Stimming
- Self-stimulatory behaviour — rocking, hand-flapping, humming, spinning objects. It regulates arousal and often expresses joy. Everyone stims; the goal is never to eliminate a safe stim. Stimming explained
- Regulation and dysregulation
- Regulation is a nervous-system state where a child can think, listen, and cope. Dysregulation is when input, demand, or fatigue has outpaced that capacity — meltdown and shutdown are both dysregulated states.
- Meltdown vs tantrum
- A tantrum is goal-directed and stops when the goal is met or clearly refused. A meltdown is an involuntary overload response, has no goal, and cannot be negotiated away — it needs reduced input and time.
People and practice
- Occupational therapist (OT)
- The clinician who assesses sensory processing and writes sensory strategies for daily life. In pediatrics, sensory integration is a core part of their training. Who reviews this site
Start with the system, not the shopping
Once the vocabulary makes sense, the sensory toys guide maps every tool to the system it feeds, and the sensory diet schedule turns that into a daily routine.
Keep reading
Start with the sensory tools by sensory system guide, then go deeper:
- MixedCalm down cornerWhere to put it, what goes in it by age, and the script that teaches a child to use it.
- All systemsSeeking vs avoidingA side-by-side checklist for each sensory system, and which tool to reach for first.
- MixedInteroception guideHow these two internal senses work together to regulate your child's body, mood, and behavior.
- ProprioceptiveHeavy work activitiesPush, pull, carry, and chew ideas by age and setting, with how long each block should run.
- All systemsSensory toysThe full map of sensory toys by the system they feed — tactile, proprioceptive, vestibular, oral, auditory, and visual.
- MixedSensory fidget toysSilent, single-action fidgets that survive a classroom — and the noisy ones to skip.