In what way does the approach differ from Dennett's?

The theory is extremely close to Dennett's: in particular it strongly endorses heterophenomenology, that is, the idea that people do not have privileged access to their own sensations, and that (access-) consciousness is a stance one takes to account for other people's and one's own behavior.

What the sensorimotor theory adds beyond Dennett is a concept (namely skill) that provides a natural way to explain the perceived phenomenal quality of sensations. The differences between skills explains the differences in sensations within and between different sensory modalities. Two aspects of sensorimotor skills that we call "corporality" and "alerting capacity" explain why sensations have a sensory "presence" that make them very different from other mental activities.

These additions eliminate the criticism that can be made against Dennett of "explaining away" consciousness. Now we can explain why there is a feel to sensations, rather than no feel, and we can explain what the feels are like and why they differ the way they do. In other words we have a handle on phenomenal consciousness, which is something that we think Dennett did not deal satisfactorily with.