Sensory Processing Disorder?

At the end of December Connor had his first appointment at Kidz Spot. This is an outpatient Pediatric therapy clicic with a team of occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists. Connor had an occupational therapy evaluation scheduled but since we already had him screened a couple months ago at his preschool evaluation, she decided not to put him through the same tests. I was thankful for this because that meant we had a full hour of her time to learn about sensory processing disorder. (In one of my last posts I mentioned how Connor was seen by a Developmental Pediatrician and she saw signs of sensory processing difficulties. That was also confirmed in his preschool evaluation. We were referred to Kidz Spot by his developmental pediatrician for outpatient occupational therapy in addition to the therapy he will receive at school.)

I didn’t do any research on sensory processing disorders before our meeting. But when Kim (the occupational therapist) started explaining what this disorder looked like I instantly felt like she was describing my son, a child she has never even met! Here are a few things I learned at this visit…

• Sensory processing disorders (SPD) happen when the brain cannot organize all the sensory signals coming into the body into an appropriate response.
• Sensory processing disorder affects people differently. Some children only have difficulties in one area- touch, sight, movement. Others have several areas that cause them trouble.
• In Connor’s situation, he seems to crave touch and movement. This is why, out of the blue, he will hit someone or push another child down for what appears to be no reason. But really he is needing that contact to calm down all of those signals his brain is trying to organize.A lot of times SPD is misdiagnosed as ADHD. Children with SPD have a hard time sitting still, are impulsive, and seem to always be on the move. We stopped going to story time at the library because as much as he enjoys it, he can’t sit still for 20 minutes while the librarians read. He starts out by just fidgeting, then he starts to roll around on his back or belly, then he will start to crawl away from me, and eventually it turns into him hitting me. I get so frustrated because I wonder why he can’t just sit still like all of the other kids. Now I know why.
• Because these kids can’t sit still, they can become very frustrated when asked to complete a task. They know they can do what they are being asked but their brain is working hard to understand all of the other signals it’s receiving that they simply can’t do it. We see this a lot in Connor. When I sit down at the table with him to work on a puzzle that I know he knows how to do, he starts running around the room, throws the puzzle pieces, or starts laughing and acting silly. This doesn’t happen every time, but it does happen more often than not.
• Many of these children are just as smart as other kids their age, some even gifted. Because they are so high cognitively, this causes frustration because like I mentioned above, they know what is being asked of them but they can’t complete the task like their peers. This can cause these kids to have low self-esteem or other emotional issues.
• Anxiety is also common in children with sensory processing disorders. I have been noticing anxiety causing several behavioral outburst in Connor recently. Our pediatrician was the first person to tell us that anxiety comes out in aggressive behavior. At first this totally shocked me because I didn’t know that kids as young as 3 could experience anxiety. Now I can see when a situation is making him anxious and know that an outburst is about to happen. My goal is to learn how to prevent the aggressive outburst and learn how to teach Connor to work through anxious situations.
• Another common emotional issue associated with SPD is feeling socially isolated. This one absolutely breaks my heart. We have already seen bits of this happening. Connor is known to be very aggressive with a lot of different children so I have seen kids panic when Connor gets too close to them, I’ve seen kids cry at just the sight of him, and he’s even been called a monster. All I want for both of my boys is to have a happy life. That includes having friends and being social. I fear that if we continue with this behavior Connor will have difficulty making & keeping friends. This is especially heartbreaking for me because I know how sweet he is. I know he has it in him to be a good friend. But with his social-emotional delay, anxiety, and sensory processing disorder it makes it hard for him to socialize with his peers.

Treatment:

Treatment for sensory processing disorder is done with an occupational therapist. Since Connor was approved for the developmental preschool, he will receive 90 minutes a month of one on one therapy at school. I didn’t feel like this would be enough (and I wanted to learn what we could do with him at home) so I am also having him get therapy in an outpatient setting. His therapist recommended meeting once a week to start out. Therapy sessions take place in a sensory rich environment that will challenge him to work through the different sensory struggles he has. The therapy is all play based but will ultimately teach him the appropriate response to the sensory input his brain receives. This is going to be a lot of team work between Connor, his therapists, and us at home.

I am looking forward to learning different exercises to work on with him. I pray that we are on the right track to helping our precious son.

I hope Connor knows how much I love him and how my heart could literally burst with how happy he makes me. I am so proud of him and can’t wait to see what the next few months bring!

Thanks for checking in with us!

-Renae