Monday, November 17, 2008

Sensory Processing Disorder---much more than "my tags itch"!

A patron saint of our family turned me onto this website and this is the path we are going to pursue now for Casey.

I do not have any energy or time to commit to blogging or gosh even basic needs right now. But now we have hope for our son.

Please check it out, if you are interested. I was literally crying this morning like so many mornings, just wracking my brain with WHAT THE HELL IS W R O N G WITH HIM???? and this email popped into my inbox, suggesting this disorder and I googled it and....well now I have to go call the pediatrician and demand a referral for Occupational therapist. If they are stupid about it I will switch doctors asap.

Be thinking of my Casey and our whole family as we start the journey of discovery and adaptation after 5 years of calling this little boy "bad", and living in a circle and a society that has also called him AND our parenting "bad", we have a whole lot of healing to do.
Peace,
Joy

8 comments:

Rixa said...

Hmmmm, perhaps this will solve a lot of mysteries and release many frustrations. I hope you can find a good referral and figure out if SPD is indeed the case. Hugs to you...

Kelley said...

I sincerely hope you are able to find what is bugging him so badly. I can certainly relate. Good luck, Joy! My prayers are with you.

Anonymous said...

My son has/had this. I suspected a whole range of things when he was age 5 from tourettes to ADHD. now at age 10 life is so much easier!

it's really important, as you know to get a great OT. With the right one and good supports and tools life will get much easier. this is my child who continues to homeschool even though the others are in public school.

check out this site
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/common/standard/transform.jsp?requestURI=/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/sensory_integration_disorder.jsp

and specifically the part on therapeutic brushing. It is awesome - my son asks for the brushing. A great book is The sensory sensative child by karen smith. We also have a small exercise sized trampoline in the house that helps.

weighted vests, and weighted hand gloves for help with writing, weighted blankets are all great.

feel free to email me if you want some of the resources my OT gave us. werehip@magma.ca

I'm glad you found the name to describe what he's feeling. Now it will be easier to get the right tools for support.

You also might want to consider at some point doing some educational testing. Often these kids are really bright.

erin

Anonymous said...

something else that was good for my son was Braingym. It is not well founded in science but its a series of movements that professes to encourage connections in the brain. The movements are somewhat like Yoga.

easy to do at home with all the kids
erin

justme said...

my 4 year old has spd and yes what the hell is wrong with her comes up a bunch, she sees an ot, some days are impossible.

Jennifer said...

You have already done the hardest part--figuring out what wasn't working for Casey. The good news is, is that SPD is totally "out there" right now and very treatable. Five years ago, not so much.

My youngest, Madeline, was treated by an OT for almost a year. She has low muscle tone (hence the reason she can't swallow) so they treated her for oral aversion and some sensory stuff as well. She was thought to mainly be a sensory seeker, but today, she is in the "normal" range.

Casey will probably really enjoy therapy with an OT. They typically have really cool equipment, and are usually really good with kids so they like coming. You will be amazed at all the stuff they can do! And the really cool part about discovering this early is that you are going to be helping Casey for life! Did you read the Adult SPD checklist? Would have been nice if this kind of therapy was around when we were kids.

You did the right thing. You knew something was up with him, and you pulled him out of school when it would have been really easy to just leave him there. You know I initially found your blog's through this one. I just think you are a wonderful mother, and that you have wonderful kids too. I have gotten so much from you and some of your other reader's blog's too; it's been such a great resource for me.

I will say a prayer for you and your family, and hope that Casey get's hooked up with the right therapist and that your family finds peace and healing.

Take care,
Jennifer

Housefairy said...

THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH, EVERYONE!

We have an appoitment with a new pediatrician Monday who will get us the referral to an OT out of a very good hospital in our area. Will be checking out all your links and suggestions for sure, thank you so so much!

Joy

sneakmastergeneral said...

I'm sorry momma, you'll be alright. As you know our son was just diagnosed with autism, you've already done the hard part which is figuring out that there's something going on and something that needs to be done.