The OT conundrum: Is it sensory or behavioral? And what can be done about it anyway?

You may have been to an individualized educational plan (IEP) meeting where talk turns to the child having sensory concerns—instead of just behavioral concerns—and the table of experts on the child’s team turns to you to weigh in. How do you know if a child has sensory concerns, and if that’s what is fueling the negative behaviors? Even if the sensory concerns can somehow be definitively discerned from purely behavioral challenges, how do you, as the sensory “expert” on the team, effectively treat the child in the school setting? Further complicating the discourse is that, for many parents, an underlying nervous system condition (such as dysregulation) can be a lot more palatable than a behavioral issue. It lands differently to the parent to hear that a child is doing something out of their control as opposed to listening to a discussion about negative “willful” manipulation. The latter may lead to them seeing the discussion as an attack on their parenting style or feeling that they’re being judged; thus, pushback may occur before any interventions are considered.