Anyone with a Child with Sensory Processing Disorder?

My son has sensory processing disorder. What really helped for us was having him work with an occupational therapist who specializes in sensory processing disorder. Also, reading the books The Out of Sync Child and The Out of Sync Child Has Fun are a definite must. My son was probably about 4 when we started with the private OT and he did treat with the OT for about 2 years for this issue alone. Most of the issues that we were dealing with at the start (mouth undersensitized so that he was packing food on the roof of his mouth or constantly putting inedible objects in his mouth to sensory seek, head overly sensitive, poor body awareness, obsessively needing sensory input from other people's eyebrows) have all pretty much been worked through and are mostly history by now. He still gags at the smell of bananas and lunch meat but, in the grand scheme of things, we can pretty much live with that.

I hope this helps. If you give your son the supports that he needs, you will definitely see some vast improvement and this doesn't have to be a lifelong imposition. And just remember that what you are seeing with your son now is just a brief snapshot in time in his life. I've found that it is really helps to keep this perspective.

Blessings.

Yes. My son has SPD. Often kids with SPD are also gifted. You need to find a good Occupational Therapist. Also, there are some really great websites for information like www.spdfoundation.net. You can get lots of ideas there. My son is 9 now and he is gifted. We see an OT and I do exercises to help him at home.

Read The Out of Sync Child, it is THE BEST resource I have found. Good Luck!

My child has Pervasive Developmental Disorder and sensory issues are a part of that. I did not connect the dots that PDD was a form of Autism until he was in 7th grade.

Early Intervention Program at your local MR/DD school will really help. You will have to be very tolerant of lots of things; my kid would not wear many sorts of clothing if it had a tag or seam that touched his skin. He is a very picky eater still today, and cannot multitask. He is bothered by sights that are too busy, some lighting, noises, (especially if there are more than one ), and smells. There are techniques called "brushing" that help with the sensitivity somewhat.

Most everything gets better with time; my son is 16 now and much more able to function in the real world. I am sorry I did not get the information sooner though because I always thought I was a bad parent. You can get more information through Aspergers/Autism links.

I have 3 children, two have SPD, my now 4 year old (5 in September) has had an OT for the past two and a half years and has had pretty severe issues, crowds (thanksgiving, Christmas, Mall, any shopping) would send him into sensory overload and just melt down and cry throw himself on the floor, start hitting, ect... Food sensitivities, to mushy, too cold, too hot, textures....He puts everything (not edible) in his mouth to chew on, sucks/chews on his clothes or anything he can get in his mouth. Water sensitivities, the normal water temp would be too hot, taking a bath was a complete nightmare, washing hands, getting face wet and washing hair, he would scream. To get him into the tub we bought water color tablets (Target) and that made him a little happier. Playing outside and getting dirty was a complete disaster, he could not stand to have sand or dirt on his hands, would not go barefooted to walk in the grass or the sand, he would just stand there and cry.
Listening is a constant battle and we continue to work on that.
My son goes up to our local school and attends preschool at the Early Childhood Special Ed Class, he has a wonderful teacher, at school he gets the Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy he needs and is making alot of progress.
Depending how bad it is, depends on how long it will take to learn to adjust and work threw the issues. I love the Therapy that he has gotten so far and I highly recommend having one, you will see great progress!!
After my third child was born (second son) I knew what to look for, he was very delayed, by the time he was 12 months old, he just learned to crawl, only spoke one word, didnt pick up on any sign language I was teaching since 5 months, and hadn't even stood up on his own yet, when we took him to his appt the dr suggested he have a evaluation from the county, come to find out after the testing, he also has Sensory Processing Disorder. He has had an OT for ten months now and he is now walking and says about 4 words!!! But everything else is just like it was with his brother. It takes time for them to adjust and learn the issues and how to deal with them. Be patient, be sensitive to there issues and just avoid stressful places. If you ever have any questions, just send me an email and I would love to help. I wish someone was there to help me answer all my questions. The books suggested in the earlier post are excellent books and were a ton of help too. Hope this helps!!

Get yourself a good therapist and learn the exercises that will help your child. It will make a world of difference and I doubt once he is older than anyone will be able to tell anything.

You do need to find a good OT person. He/she may hay need to be evaluated as they get older for some other issues. My son needed speech and language therapy in addition to OT. Being able not communicate his needs caused my son to have tantrums. He also has been delayed in social skills. We started with speech and then added OT. As he got older we added social skills therapy. We were fortunate to find a good preschool to help him that had great OT and speech therapists. In Ohio you work with your school district to have your child evaluated. And from there we found the therapies that best met his needs.