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Sensory Processing Disorder Therapy

Sensory Processing Disorder Therapy in Fort Worth

Cowtown Pediatrix Clinic provides sensory processing disorder therapy in Fort Worth, led by occupational therapists with advanced training in Ayres Sensory Integration. Through play-based sessions in our sensory-rich clinic, we help children whose nervous systems over- or under-respond to the world feel calmer, safer, and more capable.
If bath time, haircuts, or the grocery store regularly end in tears, or your child never stops crashing into furniture, you may be watching sensory processing differences at work, not misbehavior.

What Is Sensory Processing Disorder?

Sensory processing describes how the brain receives, organizes, and responds to information from the senses. When that process does not work smoothly, everyday input can feel overwhelming, or barely register at all. This is often called sensory processing disorder, or SPD. It is a difference in how the nervous system handles the world, not a behavior problem and not something a child can simply be disciplined out of.
Boy playing with colorful sensory fidget toys on a couch

Sensory processing involves more than the five familiar senses. Children also process movement and balance (the vestibular sense), body position and pressure (proprioception), and internal signals like hunger and a racing heart (interoception).

Differences in any of these can shape how a child eats, dresses, plays, learns, and copes.

What Sensory Differences Can Look Like

Every child’s sensory profile is unique, but patterns tend to fall into a few recognizable shapes:
  • Over-responsive: distressed by loud noises, clothing tags, sticky hands, hair washing, or bright, busy places
  • Under-responsive: seems not to notice their name, messy face, pain, or extreme temperatures
  • Sensory seeking: constantly crashes, jumps, spins, chews, touches everything, and plays rough without meaning to
  • Poor body awareness: clumsy, presses too hard or too soft, invades personal space without realizing it
  • Avoids swings, slides, or having their feet off the ground
  • Struggles to settle for meals, dressing, or sleep because their body cannot find calm
Many children show a mix, seeking some kinds of input while avoiding others. That mix is exactly what a skilled evaluation untangles.

How Sensory Differences Affect Daily Life

Sensory processing challenges rarely stay contained to one moment. A child who spends the school day holding it together in a loud, bright classroom may fall apart the minute they get home. A child who cannot stand the feel of most clothing starts every morning with a fight. Birthday parties get skipped, restaurant meals get abandoned, and parents begin planning life around what their child can tolerate. Teachers may read sensory seeking as disruption, and strangers may read a meltdown as bad parenting. Naming what is actually happening, a nervous system doing its best with overwhelming input, lifts blame off the child and the parent alike, and points the way to support that works.

How Sensory Therapy at Cowtown Pediatrix Clinic Works

Evaluation by Advanced-Trained Sensory Therapists

Sensory integration is the foundation our clinic was built on. Our founder, Sue Khammar, OTR, has specialized in sensory integration for more than 30 years, and our team is trained in Ayres Sensory Integration, including the EASI, a structured evaluation of how a child processes and organizes sensory information. The evaluation combines standardized measures, skilled observation of your child at play, and your insight into daily life at home and school.

Play-Based Sessions in a Sensory-Rich Clinic

Therapy happens in a space designed for exactly this work, with swings, climbing, crash cushions, and tactile play. Within what looks like joyful play, your child’s therapist is carefully grading sensory challenges so your child’s nervous system can practice taking in input, staying regulated, and responding successfully. Over time, this active, just-right challenge helps children handle more of the world with less distress.

Practical Strategies for Home and School

We help you understand your child’s sensory profile and build supports into real life: how to prepare for haircuts, what helps in a loud cafeteria, which kinds of movement help your child settle. When parents and teachers understand the why behind a child’s reactions, everything gets easier.

Who Sensory Therapy May Help
Sensory-based occupational therapy may help toddlers through middle schoolers with sensory processing disorder, sensory differences related to autism or ADHD, dyspraxia, and children with no diagnosis whose sensory reactions are disrupting daily life. Sensory processing differences and autism are not the same thing; a child can have one, both, or neither, and our evaluation helps clarify what is going on. A diagnosis is not required to begin.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the signs of sensory processing disorder?
Common signs include extreme reactions to noises, textures, or grooming tasks, constant crashing and rough play, apparent obliviousness to pain or mess, clumsiness, and meltdowns in busy places. Signs vary widely because children can be over-responsive, under-responsive, sensory seeking, or a mix.
Sensory processing differences are common in autistic children, but SPD and autism are not the same. Many children with sensory processing challenges are not autistic, and autism involves differences beyond sensory processing. An occupational therapy evaluation looks specifically at the sensory piece and can be one helpful part of a bigger diagnostic picture.
Ayres Sensory Integration is the most established, research-based framework for understanding and treating sensory processing difficulties, developed by occupational therapist Dr. A. Jean Ayres. Therapy based on this approach uses active, playful, individually graded sensory experiences to help the nervous system organize input more effectively.
The EASI (Evaluation in Ayres Sensory Integration) is a standardized set of tests that measures how a child processes sensory information across multiple systems. Our clinic’s therapists are trained in EASI administration, which supports a detailed, evidence-informed picture of your child’s sensory strengths and challenges.
Some sensory sensitivities soften with age, but significant sensory processing differences often persist without support and can affect learning, friendships, and family life along the way. If sensory reactions are disrupting your child’s daily routines now, an evaluation is a reasonable step rather than waiting.
No. A sensory diet is a personalized menu of movement and sensory activities scheduled through a child’s day to help their nervous system stay regulated. Your occupational therapist designs it around your child’s specific profile and your family’s real routines.
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Creating comfort through sensory-based support.

Your Child Is Not Giving You a Hard Time. They Are Having One.

Families often arrive at our Fort Worth clinic exhausted and wondering if they are doing something wrong. You are not. Sensory differences are real, they are common, and they respond to the right support. We would love to help you understand your child’s sensory world.

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