Sensory Issues - Kew Gardens,NY

Sensory issues have been around a long time, people are just becoming more aware of them.

It is essentially children (or adults) have have a sensitivity involving their senses. For some it can be light, sounds, touch...

My son has major sensory issues with touch or texture, like he has a very hard time wearing diapers/pants/socks/shoes... anything restricting around the lower half of the body. In fact, I have always had touch sensory issues myself, certain fabrics I can't touch, have to have evenness (like if someone pinches one arm, my other arm has to be pinched)... but as I age I am able to cope with them better.

It's a disorder now termed "Sensory Processing disorder": you can read more about it here:
http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/

It can be treated to teach kids how to cope, usually through sensory integration activities, but it's not something that ever totally goes away:
http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-integr...

The website that Momma L gave is excellent! It's the website I went to when my son's principal suggested he may have sensory issues. What is great about it is the symptom checklist (several pages long). I was stunned how many symptoms my son had in 2 categories! He had no symptoms at all in a few categories and only 1 or 2 in others.

Also, for people who have kids w/ sensory issues, the book, "The Out-of-Sync Child" by Carol Stock Kranowitz, M.A. is excellent. It really helps you to understand what your child is going through. A lot of things about my son suddenly made sense, and I no longer got frustrated w/ some of the things he did, because I understood why he did them- and that he really couldn't help it. An occupational therapist helped him a lot.

It's basically when one or more of your senses misfires, so to speak. You can be oversensisitized or undersensitized. For example, my son's mouth is undersensitized which means his mouth constantly feels like it has novaine in it, so he sensory seeks by over stuffing his mouth with food and putting inappropriate objects (dirt, rocks, pencils, whatever happens to be around) in his mouth. At the same time, his sense of smell goes haywire with certain smells. The faintest whiff of banana makes him want to throw up and he's not exaggerating or pretending.

How sensory issues manifest in each child is different. It's a neurological issue and a lot of children who are on the autism spectrum have it. Working with an occupational therapist who has been specially trained in sensory processing disorder has helped our son tremendously. She had a protocol that she had followed that helped regulate my son's senses to the point where they are manageable (he now only gags when he smells a banana in close proximity to him and he only puts designated appropriate things in his mouth). Maybe the fact that he is older has helped decrease the issue but I do believe that our OT was a lifesaver for us.

I hope this gives you a little better sense of what SPD is all about. Have a good weekend.

My youngest has sensory issues. I became concerned when at 18 months he was hardly talking. He had a handful of words I could understand, no one else could. At his two year check up things where the same. He sent him in for evaluation and sure enough it was a combo of speech and occupational therapy. He has gotten more out of OT then speech. The speech therapist, is there to back up what he is getting out of OT.

He started walking at 8 months. Now i no there is no definitive answer for this but, I believe he would have been talking sooner if he had crawled longer.I am a firm believer the two do go hand in hand.

He is a chatter box now. he will ask me where we going...ill tell him and then he will say...but mommy, how we get there? i almost melted the first time i said i love you zephyr...and he said back to me...i love you too mommy/. It wasnt clear as glass. but anyone that heard it knew what he said.

I am learning as I go because I had never heard of sensory disorders. I am also learning the easy signs for stuff like all done and more the easy stuff, that he is still having trouble picking up on. Just so he doesnt feel trapped in his brain. he will have two ways to communicate with daddy and me. then brothers if it is something we just keep doing.

I know they consider something a sensory thing now if they are not up with age group or close behind. I am choosing this now, so that in three years they try to push it off as ADD or something like that. His behavior prior to getting treatment was that of a child with ADHD. he would be wild and refused to listen. hurting people was his way to show his anger emotions. He felt these often. because we couldnt guess what he was in need of or wanting.

This has been around for a long time, but like everything else, it is the latest
diagnosis. No different then autism. Years ago autism was a child sitting
in the corner, no eye contact, flapping his hands, spinning things. Now if a
child has one little oddity he is considered autistic, on the spectrum. A year
from now it will be something else.

I don't think it's "new," but it seems to be a new label or diagnosis, which is great because if recognized young there are intervention exercises that can really help!

http://www.spdfoundation.net/

Sensory means the things that we senses and the processing skills we use to interpret those things...sight and visual processing, hearing and auditory processing, touch (really, this effects all processing, but for the purposes of your question, most often it is how children react to certain clothing items, air temperature, and textures) balance and body awareness (vestibular processing) and a motor component to each of the different kinds of processing along with interaction with all the intlectual processing. They are all intertwined in ways you have never really thought about, until one of these is "off."

Many kids with neurodevelopmental issues will also have senosory processing diffiuclties of one kind or another. It is common for sensory issues to be one presentation of a child's profile, but some professionals now think that sensory processing disorder also stands alone. As an educational advocate, I have seen many kids with sensory concerns, and most are part of and secondary to a primary diagnosis like autistic spectrum, ADHD, tourette, and others.

Kids may out grow or learn to tolerate things that they find overstimulating or unbearable as children. Some persist with the same aversions or difficulties through life. Visual processing issues can be very debilitating for a lifetime if not remediated well. Outcomes are very differnet for every child and "sensory" covers a very broad range of presentations.

You probably knew people with issues, but did not know it. Kids with visual processing issues may be clumsey, or not read well or not be able to write neatly. Kids with vestibular processin issues may always stand too close, or bump into others and wil avoid some activities or seek out swinging, or hanging...did you ever see a kid roll around on the floor when they were supposed to be listening to the music or the book at circle time? Have you ever seen a kid with their shoes on the wrong feet, becaue they like it that way, or not wearing socks in the winter, or not wearing his coat and hat, but dragging them through the snow while his Mom yells at him to put it on? Those were sensory issues, more than likely.

They were there when you were younger too.

M.