Sensory Integration Disorder Questions

[Jenny_A]

I spoke to DD's PK4 teacher today and she thinks DD (5 years old) might have Sensory Integration Disorder. We have suspected something was not right and had thought it might be ADHD or ADD, but the teacher thinks we should rule this out first.

I'm suppose to meet with the teacher in the morning and go through a check list with her. I'm trying to do some research tonight to educate myself a little more.

Is Sensory Integration Disorder different from Sensory Processing Disorder or are they one in the same?

If you have a child with this, what were the symptoms? Did therapy help? What specific things did they do in therapy?

Any book recommendations or other treatments I could try, should she have this?

Thanks!

[DietCokeLover]

Yes, those are the same things. I think they've changed the name to the processing disorder. An occupational therapist would be able to give you more information about it.

[Uno-Mom]

That must be stressful. But clearly you have good instincts. I am SO glad your teacher is sensitive to the difference between the diagnoses. I tend to see kids mis-diagnosed with AD(H)D way too often.

There are lots of very informed people on this board - both parents and professionals. I'm a "professional." If you ever feel like PMing me, go for it. But you'll probably get plenty of helpful advice from everybody else, too.

I will say, if you work with somebody who's talented, the difference therapy makes can be AMAZING! Seriously, I've seen kids go from totally disorganized to calm, cheerful and playful seemingly overnight. And anything you try should be fun, too. Sensory "therapy" activities are usually stuff that is fun for any kid (or adult,) because we all enjoy sensory play.

Well, I do, anyway.

Lots of parents really like "The Out of Sync Child" and other books by the same author. Her writing is enjoyable and informative.

[MamaKath]

I have dc with spd aka sensory processing disorder or sensory integration dysfunction. I am on my iPod so need to keep short but a good book is TheOutofSync Child by carol stock kranowitz. In my experience as a parent and a teacher spd is typically comorbid though not always. Some kids just have spd. Many have a comorbid dx as they get older with ADHD( or add) or asd (aspergers etc). Many comorbid dx can not be given until age seven (ADHD add or aspergers) though by qualification in the dsm. Ot helped a lot for awhile then it stagnated. Lots of moms on here can help, run a search and you'll get tons of info.

[egoldber]

In my experience as a parent and a teacher spd is typically comorbid though not always

:yeahthat:

FWIW, my older DD was diagnosed with SID/SPD at 4. We spent about 18 months in OT and saw little benefit and it was very much (IMO) a "do you want fries with that" type of service model. At 7, we realized it was more and at 8 she was diagnosed with anxiety. She also has executive function struggles (ADHD type behaviors, but without the diagnosis). So I would just be cautious of a stand alone SID/SPD diagnosis and to be alert for other issues down the road. I also wish I had been more forceful earlier with the OT services that we were NOT seeing improvement.

So I am not saying OT is worthless. Far from it. I have seen OT be helpful for many, many kids. But I have also seen a lot of kids spend a lot time in OT and parents spending a lot of money just to realize in several years that 1) it was just quirks that their kid would grow out of or 2) it was more and the OT was really not that helpful.

Yes, I'm bitter. :)

[Uno-Mom]

:yeahthat:
Yes, I'm bitter. :)

Sounds like you have good reason to be. Nothing works 100% complete, 100% fast. But if they just did the same thing for FOUR years ... no improvement ... seriously?

If it doesn't work, you have to keep looking. There's something missing. That's my approach.

[HIU8]

What Beth said.

DS has SPD. He turned 6 in November. His teachers do not seem to think ADD or ADHD. My mommy instinct says it's a bit more than just SPD (or at least executive function issues). We are going to KKI next month to see a developmental ped.

FWIW, DS has been going to OT for 18 months. We have seen some pretty big changes in him. He used to hate to draw and now he loves it and writes everything. He has much better control of himself (able to calm himself down). We do the "How does your engine run" routine. We also did therapeutic listening and got some really great results from that (not everyone does). Last September we took DS from 2x a week to 1x a week b/c a) it's expensive and b) he gets OT and speech at school. The OT feels DS needs about 1 more yr to come up to where he peer group is. Don't know if we will continue that long yet. It seems that when DS reaches some OT milestone he can work on more to get ahead (at some point life has to take over and therapy has to end).

Plus, DS acts shy (although it's seen as pragmatic speech issues). He is in a private school for kids with no diagnosis yet, but who exhibit pragmatic speech issues and are quirky etc.

[egoldber]

But if they just did the same thing for FOUR years ... no improvement ... seriously?

No, I'm sorry. I worded that poorly. She started at age 4.5 and went for 18 months, until she was 6. We weren't seeing any improvement and were tired of paying for OT. They wanted to add more therapy, but we declined. At 7 we had a further evaluation done and at 8 they were able to make a better diagnosis.

Part of the problem, IMO, is it is so hard to tell at age 4 what is just random quirky stuff that a kid will mature out of (which DD has for many things) and what is an underlying component of something else. It became a lot more clear to us at 8 that a lot of what seemed like sensory, was really anxiety. There is also just a low lying level of nothing really diagnosable as anything but quirky with her though too.

[HIU8]

Beth, what type of things does your DD exhibit with respect to anxiety? I only ask b/c DS has this thing where he hyperventilates or goes uh uh uh uh like he is having a nervous breakdown. It doesn't happen with respect to school right now. It's more when we need to go somewhere (I need to start him getting ready 20 minutes prior to walking out the door) or something has to be done (brushing teeth). We only say that he has to brush his teeth, but he can choose the order he does things in (for monrning and night).

I'm going to be addressing his bouncing off the walls behavior, inability to focus and the above behavior when we go to KKI. I was just curious.

[Gena]

DS has SPD as part of his autism; however not all kids with SPD have ASD. DS has had sensory differences since earliest infancy. He has been in private OT and gets OT at school.

He has dyspraxia, which is a motor planning disorder. It affects his gross motor, fine motor, and oral-motor skills. He has many motor skill delays.

He is also a sensory seeker - very active, very tactile, very busy all the time. He loves to run and to crash into things. We do a brushing protocol and use a weighted vest to help calm his body. We also engage him in "heavy work". Holding him upside-down seems to calm him a lot. He processes pain differently (less) than other people.

He also avoids certain sensory input. It took years of OT to teach him to tolerate backwards movement and swings. He dislikes touching messy/sticky substances. He hates loud noises, but he covers his eyes when he hears them. Although he knows he hears with his ears and sees with his eyes, he does not really understand how the body parts relate to the senses.

So DS is making a lot of progress, but we still have a lot to work on.

[Uno-Mom]

No, I'm sorry. I worded that poorly. She started at age 4.5 and went for 18 months, until she was 6. We weren't seeing any improvement and were tired of paying for OT. They wanted to add more therapy, but we declined. At 7 we had a further evaluation done and at 8 they were able to make a better diagnosis.

Part of the problem, IMO, is it is so hard to tell at age 4 what is just random quirky stuff that a kid will mature out of (which DD has for many things) and what is an underlying component of something else. It became a lot more clear to us at 8 that a lot of what seemed like sensory, was really anxiety. There is also just a low lying level of nothing really diagnosable as anything but quirky with her though too.

That makes sense. All the kids I work with have quite severe, obvious issues. Also co-existing developmental disabilities and many with abuse histories. I imagine it would be much harder to pinpoint in an otherwise typically-developing child who has a stable family situation. Well, I'm glad you were able to assert what you needed and (eventually) get it. I hope she's doing well now. I remember from other posts that she's also a very gifted girl. Seems to go together often, huh?

It's really true, too, about the low-level quirky stuff. Working with kids who already have LOTS of labels, I see that plenty normal-kid-quirky stuff gets labeled "awk...a problem...needs treatment!!!" when if some other kid did the same thing, we'd all just say: "hey - he's 7. 7 year olds do strange things sometimes."

[daisymommy]

DS#1 has SPD and ADHD.
I second OT, as well as the Feingold diet http://www.feingold.org/ and the books "The Out of Sync Child", "The Out of Sync Child has Fun" and "Sensational Kids."
This website is also very informative: http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/index.html

[lalasmama]

Just another recommendation for The Out of Sync Child! DD has ADHD and dyspraxia (in short, she can't get her body to figure out how to do movements that other people watch and repeat easily). DNeice has SPD, but hasn't been disgnosed yet (working on it).

DN has had SPD clues since she was less than 3 years old. We thought she was just a slow-to-mature child. We had to feed her in her diaper, because otherwise, she would paint her clothes with her food at 3yo. She refused to wear certain clothes. She had been a very high-needs baby/toddler. She couldn't handle certain food textures. She would seek out certain tactile experiences. At 5, she would still chew on toys. If she got too tired, she would start screeching at the top of her lungs non-stop. She couldn't function well in daycare because she would seek that extra stimulation that she needed. To sit still, she needs to be scratching, which, obviously, doesn't keep her very still for long. We could manage a little longer if her mom or I constantly dragged out finger tips along her forearm. As she got older, and DD came into our lives, the differences became more pronounced. DD was potty-trained first, learned to use eating utensils first, stopped finger-painting with dinner first, etc. She still shows all the same behaviors, and more. Now she can't wear clothes with a tag. She can't handle sitting in certain chairs. She can't sit near certain (normal) things because they "annoy" her (her words). The light on the smoke detectors will keep her up at night. Certain noises throw her into screeching fits. If there is anything new/different, she just can't handle it.

OT helped DD with her dyspraxia.... I hope we can get DN into OT as well, because it would be wonderful for her to learn how to become tolerant of some things and not have such a hard time with daily things.

[crl]

Another quirky kid here. DS received OT for sensory issues starting at 2 1/2. He was mixed, both sensory seeking and sensory avoiding. His sensory seeking behaviors included constant motion; in retrospect, I think a lot of that was anxiety related. His avoiding behaviors were nearly all related to sound. I think those were probably a mix of true sensory issues and anxiety.

He has almost entirely outgrown his sensory issues. I do believe that OT helps many kids with sensory issues, but I don't think it really helped ds. (OT helped with fine motor skills deficits and speech therapy really changed our world for the better.) I suspect that is because there were other underlying issues. He did benefit from accommodations, from us and at school. For awhile he had noise blocking head phones, which allowed him to use public bathrooms (otherwise terrified of the loud noises) and go to things like movies and major league ball games. He has had preferential seating at school--he likes to sit at the edge of the circle near the front so he has fewer distractions. And so on.

Catherine

[Jenny_A]

I greatly thank you all for your input and replies! Part of me is really excited we might be onto something that would explain the "off" behavior and part of me just wants a "normal" kid with no issues. One step at a time as they say.

* DD has been a horrible sleeper from day one. She just can't "relax". We joke that she has two speeds, off and full throttle.

* She is a very picky eater and has about 4 or 5 things that she will eat. She won't eat meat of any kind.

* Talks excessively and very loudly

* Moves constantly. She never walks (always runs, jumps, skips, etc...). We have a lot of issues with her climbing all over the furniture.

* Pulls her hair (not hard) for comfort

* Hates loud noises

* Teacher says she has issues tuning things out in the classroom and staying on task

I could go on. It's just encouraging to see there may be a reason for some of these. Again, thanks for the help! I'll update when I know more.