Tactile defensiveness can adversely affect development in which domains?

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Tactile defensiveness is when touch feels unusually aversive, which can disrupt how a child processes sensory information from the skin and body. This can interfere most directly with body awareness (knowing where body parts are in space) and motor planning (the ability to plan and carry out coordinated movements). It also affects vestibular and proprioceptive integration, essential for balance, stabilization, and the sense of body position during movement. Because touch can be overwhelming, a child may avoid activities that provide necessary proprioceptive and vestibular input, hindering the development of coordinated movement and body schema. Language development, social communication, and cardiovascular endurance aren’t the primary domains impacted by tactile defensiveness, even though participation in activities can indirectly influence them.