Understanding sensory processing: the cups analogy

Photo credit: Donna Ford

Differing Minds’ founder Jess Meredith explains how we respond to the world around us – and why this can look different for the neurodivergent community.

When you think about sensory processing, it’s useful to understand a few terms. One of those terms isarousal . Arousal is the level of alertness in the body – and different activities and environments require different levels of arousal.

For example, when you’re in deep sleep, that level of alertness and arousal is going to look very different to when you are playing sports, or trying to learn.

Youroptimal arousal is when your level of arousal matches the environment and activity.

Sensory regulation is the ability to change your arousal state to match the environment and activity, achieving optimal arousal.

Dysregulation – when an individual is not in an optimal arousal state – is the opposite of this.

The peak of dysregulation could result in ‘nervous system overload’ – otherwise known as a meltdown. Or it might trigger a ‘fight or flight response’.

We haveeight sensory systemsconstantly relaying information to our brain, including visual (sight), auditory (sound), olfactory (smell), (gustatory) taste, and tactile (touch) – and the lesser known proprioceptive (muscle movement), vestibular (direction of movement) and interoceptive (how we are feeling) sensory systems.

While we all have different sensory profiles, neurodivergent people often have heightened sensory needs and difficulties with regulation.

A neurodivergent individual might need a lot more of a particular sense, or far less of it, to stay regulated. I’ll often use a cup analogy to explain how this works.

Think about us having an internal, metaphorical cup for each of our sensory systems. All of our cups are different sizes and, for you to be regulated, your cups need to be full. Not too much, not too little. Every time you get a bit of sensory input, your corresponding cup fills up a bit.

Let’s say you have a small cup for sound. This means you get overwhelmed really quickly, because it doesn’t take a lot of sound for your cup to be filled up and for you to be regulated.

On the flipside, if you have a large cup for say, movement, you need a lot of movement senses in order for your cup to be full and in order for you to be regulated.

For neurodivergent people, our cups tend to be on the small or large size for each of those senses. That said, the size of our cups can change depending on a number of factors, such as the environment we’re in, how we’re feeling emotionally, whether we’ve eaten well, slept well, or need the toilet.

All of these things can impact the size of our cups – and our ability to stay regulated.

Find out more about sensory processing and many other educational resources around neurodivergence on the Differing Minds website .