What is Sensory Integration?

Dr. Jean Ayres, who formulated the concept of Sensory Integration gave a very simple definition of Sensory Integration. "It is the organization of senses for use in everyday life"

Let us throw some light on the definition. Everyday every moment we receive numerous information from our own body as well as from the environment. Just pause for a moment and listen to the sounds that you can hear as you read this. I am sure you have noticed a sound now which you did not hear in the first place. This is because of Sensory Integration. As we receive numerous information, some of them relevant and some irrelevant to us, our brain automatically filters out the irrelevant ones so that we can stay focused on the task at hand.. in this case, reading this content. So, we are organizing our senses...

Why do we need to organize our senses? As we organize information, we decide whether it is important or not. If it is important we act upon that information, isn't it? So we receive the information and 'use' it. And we are looking at our day to day tasks right from switching off the alarm in the morning to cover ourselves with blanket in the night.