REFERENCE · RECOVERY TECHNIQUE

Sensory Discrimination: Texture, Location and Object Recognition

Most likely fit: Touch is detectable but difficult to interpret, distinguish or connect with a familiar object. [Clinical rehabilitation adaptation; FND-specific component efficacy is uncertain]

For the Person With FND
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For the Person With FND

What this approach is for

This practice asks “What information can I use?” rather than “Does this feel normal yet?” You might compare two familiar, safe objects or locate a gentle contact while looking.

This differs from desensitization, which focuses on tolerating contact. If contact cannot be detected, a demanding guessing task may simply be frustrating. Begin with visual help and a useful activity instead.

Terms in everyday language

Tactile discrimination means telling touch experiences apart. Localization means identifying where contact occurred. Stereognosis means recognizing a familiar object through touch. These involve more than skin sensation: attention, language, memory and movement can affect the answer too.

A practical example and flare adaptations

An educational example is sorting a smooth cloth and a textured towel while seated. Look and handle each first. Later, if useful and comfortable, briefly look away and choose between the same two items; check by looking again. There is no requirement to close your eyes.

Use blunt, room-temperature items. Avoid small objects if they introduce swallowing or handling risks. A wrong answer is information for adjusting the task, not a failed recovery test. If the activity increases symptom checking or distress, return to an ordinary use of the object.

These are choices to discuss with your care team, not a required exercise schedule. Helpful activity, comfort and access matter even when sensation remains altered. The evidence and its limits are explained below. (Sources: 1, 2)

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For Family, Friends, and Other Supporters

Keep the task collaborative. Show the answer without praise for “normal nerves” or criticism for a mistake. Offer pointing or matching instead of naming if speech or memory makes naming difficult.

During a flare, put the exercise away when necessary and help with a safe familiar task. Do not turn household touch into an unexpected examination.

For the Person With FND
For Family, Friends, and Other Supporters
For Clinicians and the Care Team
Research and Sources —

For Clinicians and the Care Team

Selection and assessment

Assess detection before discrimination and establish that comprehension, naming and motor handling permit the chosen task. Consider visual impairment, peripheral neuropathy and cortical sensory dysfunction. Do not infer a functional mechanism from inconsistent performance in an inadequately controlled task.

Explicit procedure

Choose one relevant discrimination demand, such as finding an object in a bag.
Confirm object familiarity and safe handling with vision available.
Offer two clearly different, tolerable items and agree how the person can answer.
Add a brief reduced-vision trial only when safe and useful; immediately offer feedback.
Reduce choices or restore vision if error, distress or fatigue increases.
Finish by using the selected object in the intended daily activity.

Review, progression and stopping

Record assistance needed and successful everyday use. Accuracy may be informative but is not a measure of effort or prognosis. Increase similarity or reduce feedback only when the activity remains manageable. Do not add a blindfold to standing, walking or hazardous tasks.

The procedures are educational implementation examples requiring clinical adaptation, not validated standalone protocols. (Sources: 1, 2)

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Research and Sources

Sensory discrimination is presented here as a clinician-adapted rehabilitation option within broader sensory work. The sources do not establish this two-object sequence as effective for isolated functional sensory loss; broader sensory-based OT outcomes cannot supply that missing proof.

Citation	Full citation
[1]	Nicholson C, Edwards MJ, Carson AJ, et al. Occupational therapy consensus recommendations for functional neurological disorder. JNNP. 2020;91:1037–1045. FND-CIT-0011. Source
[2]	McCombs KE, MacLean J, Finkelstein SA, Goedeken S, Perez DL, Ranford J. Sensory processing difficulties and occupational therapy outcomes for functional neurological disorder: a retrospective cohort study. Neurology: Clinical Practice. 2024;14(3):e200286. FND-CIT-0035. Source

Source check: September 15, 2026 · Occupational-therapy, physiotherapy, neurology, pain, equipment, lived-experience, supporter and accessibility review pending.

For the Person With FND
For Family, Friends, and Other Supporters
For Clinicians and the Care Team
Research and Sources —