What does it really mean for sensory integration to be a developmental theorym and how does that change the way we see the children in front of us?

In this episode, we pick up right where Episode 33 left off. Tracy opens with a powerful quote from the Sensory Integration Theory and Praxis textbook that bridges sensory discrimination and executive functioning, and the conversation takes off from there.

We explore how Praxis doesn't arrive all at once but interacts with a child's changing developmental competence, from the six-month-old reaching for a toy, all the way to the basketball player executing a perfect shot. Tracy shares a rich clinical story of a little boy with Fragile X syndrome whose play shifted dramatically, not because he was taught new skills, but because his motivational system was met exactly where it was. And we get into genuinely fascinating territory around sensory surplus, neurodivergence, and what it means when a child needs to spend far longer making sense of perceptual qualities before they can move into representational play.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction & recap of Episode 33

01:43 Tracy's quote from Sensory Integration Theory and Praxis (2nd ed., 2002)

03:00 Sensory integration as a developmental theory — the spiralling continuum

07:17 What does "developmental theory" really mean here?

08:14 The embodied experience of a six-month-old becoming a reacher

10:34 Praxis elaborating from affordances — the basketball example

12:33 The interrupted development of Episode 33's little cherub

14:22 "Praxis interacts with the changing developmental competence of the child"

18:00 Connecting to executive functioning — planning and inhibitory control

20:06 Sledging, dysregulation, and the autonomic nervous system

20:33 Affect is the glue — Stanley Greenspan

21:48 Clinical story: the boy with Fragile X and the red cars

26:33 Attunement, pacing, and knowing when to stretch

29:00 How you find the affect inside a child's category interest

30:03 Sensory discrimination as the foundation of executive function shifting

31:20 Executive functions are embodied before they are cognitive

33:27 Visual discrimination and cognitive flexibility

35:00 Stuck in developmental stages — integration dependency

37:26 From concrete/literal to representational thinking

38:42 The million repetitions problem — and why play partners get tired

41:00 Filling the perceptual cup

42:04 Wired to Feel — autism as a condition of sensory surplus

44:00 Motivational bias, executive function, and the "not done yet" feeling

45:26 Affect as the glue in pathway building

47:12 Meeting children exactly where they are

49:14 DIR, honeypots, and what it means to really be with a child in play

49:55 Did affect unlock self-other connection?

53:15 Pulling it together for parents — the relief of knowing this is the work

54:52 We don't teach shoe-tying to 2-year-olds — developmental readiness

Resources mentioned:

Sensory Integration Theory and Praxis, 2nd ed. (2002) — Anzaloni & Murray

Children Adapt — Gilfoyle, Grady & Moore

Wired to Feel: Autism as a Condition of Sensory Surplus — Sweezy & Bergenfeld (2025)

DIR/Floortime — Stanley Greenspan

Early Start Denver Model — Sally Rogers

SPIRIT Model — Tracy Stackhouse, Developmental FX

The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model — Jan Winhall

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