"Sensory integration and sensory processing problems distort perceptions."" Pg 247 of Patricia Stacey's book, the boy who loved windows. Read more on the previous posts.
I agree. Sensory processing issues including timing issues often correlate with altered perceptions. Many children with poor timing tend to blame, a form of denying ownership. Post IM I almost always hear of some gain in the child's ability to take ownership. "He said he was sorry." "She said it was her fault, etc." In my experience, there seems to be a direct connection between timing and ownership. These children actually experience the world so differently, perceive so differently, that their reality is distorted. You and I may be able to clearly see the connections; they cannot. In truth, we all perceive the world differently, because all of our sensory systems are different. But with poor timing, this can become problematic.
In house, a common timing issue that a child might have is to clap consistently about 100 ms too soon. He will even tell me with wholehearted sincerity, "I think the computer is wrong. I am clapping right on the beat and it says I'm too fast." He blames the computer for his error. He perceives the world his way! Even adults will tell me this in house. --It's one of the behaviors I find comical. I tell them to remember what that feels like, because in just a couple of days, they won't think the computer is wrong any longer. But, at first--in the reality they live in at that time--the computer is wrong!
Imagine a child with impulse to be early (a timing issue) on the baseball field. He's poised and ready to hit the ball. He's impulsive by nature and his swing is 100 milliseconds (ms) too fast. He wouldn't swing too fast if he believed the swing was going to be 'too fast'. He swings too fast because that's where he believes the ball actually will be at that moment in time. Typically, children do try to hit the ball!
This is how his day may go: The boy swings at the ball. The ball goes foul. The coach says, 'slow down'. Now remember, the boy's perception of time is skewed so when he "slows down", he would have to aim "too late" in his mind to hit the ball. Even when consciously slowing down, he's probably going to swing too fast. If he is able to reject his own perception and slow down, he will have no idea when in that late area he should hit the ball, after all, in his perception the ball is already past him. It will be a shot in the dark for him. Next time he's up to bat, he swings too fast again.
The coach, with a little frustration now, says, "Slow down!" Because the coach's timing is fairly accurate, he perceives real time better. The boy, also flustered from trying his hardest and still failing, responds "It's not me. It's those kids yelling over there." In the boy's perception, he's already tried slowing down, but that didn't work; that wasn't the answer. --What else could it be? He chooses something that makes sense to him. In his past, distractions have caused problems. It makes sense. He doesn't take ownership of his own actions, because his perception is different from yours and mine. He sees the world differently. We often say these children march to their own drumbeat. And they do! Sensory processing issues as well as poor timing can cause altered perception.
