Sensory Integration Disorder

beattyfamily

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Joined
Jul 13, 2000
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Anyone here familiar with this or dealing with this with their child?

My DD has had many health issues in her young life and has overcome so many of them; hip displacia, born with one kidney, reflux (where the urine goes back to the kidney; had surgery at 8 months to fix it), underweight, gagged on certain food textures, sensory issues, speech delay, E-coli hospital stay, mono etc.... if there's an illness going around, she'll get it!

She's always had sensory issues but this year (she's 8 and in 2nd grade), it has really started to affect her at school. She breaks down at least 2 - 3 times a week and once she gets upset, it takes awhile to calm her down. The littlest thing can set her off; the way her socks feel, hearing someone hum or chewing, not having enough time to do something, not getting the book she wanted in library etc...

At first the school suggested she see a psychologist for anxiety and finally after a few months of seeing her, a consensus between her teacher (she's been great!), the school counselor, myself and her psychologist was that she definitely had sensory issues that could be causing the breakdowns in school and thus she should be officially evaluated by the school's OT. That is in the works and should be done this month. Her psychologist also recommended she have a private OT sensory evaluation and that is in the works as well (learned it usually isn't covered by insurance ) . Also, her psychologist recommended we also do a neuropsychological evaluation as well and that is also in the works but wondering what that will determine.

I hope that after all of this, she can get the help and support she needs to be happy and fully functioning in school and at home. I sure hope she gets the proper diagnosis as well. I know there are many disorders that have similar symptoms (I'm starting to wonder about asperger's syndrome after reading up on it today). Hopefully, this will be her last hurdle to overcome.

Here are some of her symptoms:

She covers her ears for loud noises that don't seem loud to others
she cries if she hears licking, chewing, humming etc...
she doesn't like her socks
she doesn't like certain clothes like her snow pants
she doesn't like bright light
she is very clumsy
she is very forgetful (she will forget why I sent her upstairs)
she is very disorganized and needs guidence when getting ready for school or bed
she is constantly loosing things (she has lost so many sippy cups I lost count!)
she likes routine and doesn't like change
she is a very picky eater and doesn't like certain textures or cold things like ice cream
she doesn't like getting wet, especially her face (so she wears a poncho for Philarmagic!)
she seems very naive, although very smart
she seems to be in her own world sometimes thus she's almost been lost several times and I have to make sure she is listening to me when I talk to her to be sure she heard me
she is very sensitve and emotional and cries easily
she will cry just by having to make a choice
she will cry if things don't go her way like if she runs out of time in library to pick a book or if she can't see a school show well because she is sitting in the back.
she is always putting things in her mouth
she has poor fine motor skills (writing, buttoning, eating with a fork/spoon)
she fears certain rides for fear of nausea like the Tea Cups and merry go round
she has a hard time catching a ball or balancing
she has a hard time learning excercises or dancing; uncoordinated

There's more but that's the majority of her symptoms.

If anyone has any information or advice, I'd love to hear your stories. Maybe we can support each other and help each other. :goodvibes
 
Hello there!

I was wondering if you have read this book, which I found very helpful: The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder, by Carol Stock Kranowitz. My DS had a language delay paired with some sensory issues. This book was a great help and relief for me, as his delays/symptoms weren't the more common ones. It definitely helped me understand him and work with him better.
 
Hello there!

I was wondering if you have read this book, which I found very helpful: The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder, by Carol Stock Kranowitz. My DS had a language delay paired with some sensory issues. This book was a great help and relief for me, as his delays/symptoms weren't the more common ones. It definitely helped me understand him and work with him better.

I've heard of it and I do plan on buying it! Thanks!
 
Hello there!

I was wondering if you have read this book, which I found very helpful: The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder, by Carol Stock Kranowitz. My DS had a language delay paired with some sensory issues. This book was a great help and relief for me, as his delays/symptoms weren't the more common ones. It definitely helped me understand him and work with him better.


I was just going to recommend this. Our early intervention program recommended it to me when ds7 was 2 1/2. He also had speech delays and issues with bright lights, cuffs on his shirt, turtlenecks, sound of toilet flushing, had to warm his juice/milk, etc. He has seemed to outgrow a lot of it and since it didn't "interfere with his learning" at school we would have to pursue it outside of school. He does have an older cousin with Aspergers and SID so I was very worried. Our OT/speech eval thru school determined he did not have SID but did qualify for OT for handwriting and speech.

Stay with it and you will see an improvement. Also this author wrote other books along those lines too.

http://www.amazon.com/Out-Sync-Chil...bs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200087759&sr=8-2

good luck and I hope your dd gets the support she needs!! :hug:
 

Does sound like a combination of SID and Asperger's. I would definitely get your child in with an OT--makes a world of difference. A psychologist may be helpful, too, especially as your child gets older and other kids notice the differences more. Unfortunately, as we are finding out with our DD10, kids are cruel and don't seem to have a problem making fun of someone with a hidden disability. Sending hugs your way as you try to work out yet another issue in your child's life. Good luck! Know that you'll always find friends on this board! :hug:
 
I'm not sure about the Asperger's though because she will look you in the eye.

Someone else suggested maybe Nonverbal learning disorder. She seems to have a lot of those symptoms too.

I'm so glad now that we decided to have the neuropsychological evaluation because I think that will help weed out what else could be going on with her.

Thanks so much everyone! :goodvibes
 
My family is going through it too. My son has always been sensory sensitive. He just received his Autism diagnosis last month. Good luck.
 
I'm not sure about the Asperger's though because she will look you in the eye.

Both of my kids with autism will make eye contact. I have also worked with many kids with autism and most of them would make eye contact. The "symptoms" that you listed do seem to run along the Autism Spectrum. The neuropysch eval should help you either confirm or rule out an autism spectrum disorder. Lori
 
My 8yo, PDD-NOS, also makes eye contact and is very affectionate. You cannot always go by what most people think is typical for kids on the spectrum.

After numerous evals. my son still was not dx. at age 4 - it took to age 6 before we had our suspicions confirmed.

The Out of Sync Child is a good book. An O.T. will help a lot and I know some who have benefited from the brushing technique. An OT can guide you with that as well.

Good Luck - it's not always an easy road. Stay strong.
 
Thanks so much, everyone, for all the wealth of information.

Sounds like neuropsychological evaluation will give us some answers.

I bought the Out of Sync book tonight. :thumbsup2
 
Happy reading. I'm sure alot of lights will go on in your head as you make some connections to your daughter's actions as you read it.
 
Well, I've been reading and researching my brains out (as I tell my girls) last night and this morning and I'm starting to think it's a combination of SID and NLD (Nonverbal Learning Disorder).

SID would be all the sensory issues and the NLD would be the clumsy, forgetful, sensitive, meltdowns, naive, poor fine motor skills etc....

Of course, I'll let the neuropsychological eval and the OT sensory eval tell me but that's my strong gutt feeling right now.

Thanks everyone.
 
Hi there~ I'm an OT in the schools and have worked in the private setting as well. It certainly does sound like her little sensory system is impacting what's going on at school (and home too). The Out-of-Sync Child is a great book - but I also like Building Bridges Through Sensory Integration. It does a nice job of explaining each of the systems (with interventions) in a very parent friendly way. Also, The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun is a great book with activities. One more (because there are a ton!) is Raising a Sensory Smart Child.
I would certainly recommend a private OT evaluation- The school OT will be a wonderful help for her at school, but we are often limited to what we can do (educational vs. medical)-- and if your school OT isn't "sensory based", she/he may not be able to really tune into what is going on. The private service can really work intensively on her system. THe bad news is that often insurance doesn't pay.. but if she is also having motor problems (motor planning, fine motor skill acquisition), that may be a way to get coverage (the sensory piece would be a way to achieve the motor goal.....).
Anyway, good luck. THe good news is that there is a lot out there and it looks like your seeking out the right help!
 
Another good book is "The Special-Needs Child" by Stanley Greenspan. It's written in very readable language. He does a great job of breaking down the differences between SID and autism. Our dd has either Sensory Processing Disorder, or High Functioning Autism, so I've tried to do some reading up on this too. After reading his book, I"m leaning more towards the Sensory Processing diagnosis, but there is a lot of overlap amongst the disorders. I also like the "OUt of Sync" book some previous posters mentioned. I really hope you get some answers on this. :goodvibes
 
Just wanted to update you all.

I bought Out of Sync and it arrived today! I'm already half done with it.

I booked the private OT evaluation for SID January 26 and the school OT evaluation is in the works and should happen this month.

Her psychologist called me today to let me know that she started the process to get my DD evaluated by the neuropsychologist before she leaves on her maternity leave and that I should get a call within a week to set it up.

I told her while I had her on the phone that I've been researching Nonverbal Learning Disability and asked if she heard of it. She said yes. I said when I read the descrption that I thought it could be my DD and she said, yes, that is a possibility and that is something that came up in her discussion with the counselor at my DD's school. So my gut feeling could be right. She said to definitely bring it up when we go in for the evaluation.

I feel like some good progress is being made.

Thanks so much for listening. :goodvibes
 
Thanks for keeping us posted. I'm glad you'll be getting some answers soon.

With my DD, I found it so helpful to have a diagnosis. It was reassuring to know that other children had similar issues and there were specific ways to help her.

Good luck with the upcoming evals.:flower3:
 
I'm very new to this board & this is my first post, so please forgive any ettiquite errors, in addition to my spelling (I'm a horrible speller).

My son has dx for Aspergers & Sensory Integration (among other dxs). I'm sorry but I didn't read all of the posts that you received, but I wanted to tell you some of the modifications we have in school that has helped, I hope I don't repeat too much.

My son is in what we call a Co-teaching class - it has a teacher and an intervention specialist/or an aide - the IS & aide split their time between a 1st grade (his class from last year) class & his 2nd grade class. This way he has a constant that he was able to carry from 1st to 2nd grade (doesn't like changes).

Within the classroom he is given the option of sitting in alternate areas, so as not to be bothered by certain stimulas. As horrible as this sounds he has an old Laminator box that they stood on end (so the opening is to the side) with a bean-bag chair - he sits in his box when he is starting to become overwhelmed (in first grade the box was in the cloak room for double privacy). I had special ear plugs made for him to help block out sounds - he wears these at noisier times such as lunch & indoor recess. We also utilize a brushing procedure (which has a proper name which I don't know), when he is starting to feel anxious or a panic attack coming on he asks to be "brushed". Which brings me around to OT.

Occ. Therapy was the absolute best thing we ever did for DS!! While he is still somewhat sensitive about his clothes & such he really has learned to cope. We noticed the change after about a month of OT. The little boy who never went outside to play, all of a sudden was begging people to go out. We could actually get him to keep his clothes on in the house. And we learned the wonderful brushing technique! His coordination improved & he actually finally picked a hand preference for writing!

I could go on forever - I too loved the Out of Sync child book (as I'm sure you found out by now how good it is).
Charlotte
 












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