*~Spring SPD support thread~* - Page 2

[MindfulBirth]

For those of you with a formal diagnosis.. who does the diagnosing? The pedi?

My daughter is a sensory seeker. I see the same thing in myself. I cannot walk through a clothing or department store without touching the various fabrics and textures.

I'm not sure if having a formal diagnose will help or not. DD already gets OT, PT, mental health therapy, and SPED in addition to all the doctor visits and hospitalizations for her Landau Kleffner, so I'm not sure I want to add yet another therapist to the mix.

I have a copy of the Out of Sync Child I'm trying to read through. Anyone else just trying to do a bit of therapy at home?

[Stephenie]

Mindfulbirth: Our OT did the eval and our neurologist confirmed. We're doing home OT right now, but DS was much better when we had it done in office.


So it seems sensory seeking starts very early in the morning: I woke to a crash...turns out Keagan was trying to climb the shelves behind the toilet and somehow got the tank lid off and it broke into 1000 pieces.

[SpottedFoxx]

Mindful - our dev ped diagnosed him. It's funny. DS is adopted but I'm a total sensory seeker too. I loved the weighted objects they have for kids today. I wish I had them when I was little.

[dandilion44]

could this be SPD behavior??

deleted

[*LoveBugMama*]

Hi.

MY son has no diagnosis, but has had sensory issues all his life. I`m on my way out the door, but wanted to aska quick question first:

Has any of your sensory-kids trouble with showering? My son loooves to swom/dive/jump into water, and is a great swimmer. BUT..... He HATES showering. Truly and honestly hates it. It`s a constant battle. He is 9 YO, and I have the exact same struggle with him taking a shower as I did 6 years ago. He can`t/won`t tell mye why, he just says he will. not. shower. We have showering on our schedule 2 days a week, so he knows it`s coming. But he still makes a really big scene about this every time.

Any other with experiences with this??

[umami_mommy]

yeah, my son hates showering. he hates the feeling of the water on his skin. he started slowly with wearing googles in shower. he is also terrified of water/shampoo getting in his eyes. and he hates the feeling of being cold when he gets out. we solved that with a huge towel and a space heater in the bathroom. he does it now, just reluctantly.

[*LoveBugMama*]

Originally Posted by umami_mommy

yeah, my son hates showering. he hates the feeling of the water on his skin. he started slowly with wearing googles in shower. he is also terrified of water/shampoo getting in his eyes. and he hates the feeling of being cold when he gets out. we solved that with a huge towel and a space heater in the bathroom. he does it now, just reluctantly.

Wow. Just.. wow. THis is EXACTLY what my son says. Word by word. But he loves going swimming. He has no problem getting wet/going under with his head in the pool. Thank you so much for answering!

[umami_mommy]

yeah, my DS loves to swim too, except when he was a baby he hated it. and when he was learning to swim he needed nose plugs and goggles. he was so busy being terrified of getting water in his nose/eyes he couldn't relax. but now he doesn't need them. he is very happy in the water @ the pool. sometimes i ask him to shower in the locker room, that sometimes goes over well. sometimes not.

[*LoveBugMama*]

Yeah, goggles were a must for years. He started swimming when he was 5, and needed the googles all the time until this year. Now he can swim without them, but absolutely prefers to have them on. Last week he got really panicky when he tried swimming without them and his eyes started "burning". (His words.) He yelled at me (VERY unlike him), rushed out of the water, cried and was pretty miserable for atleast 10 minutes. Poor guy.

[justKate]

I think I belong here. DD is 16 months and we will have her first OT eval later this month. She is heavily sensory seeking, nonverbal, high-energy, unaffectionate...the list goes on. For those of you who've had an eval on a toddler, can you give me an idea of what to expect?

Originally Posted by faithsstuff

hi all! I'm lurking and wanted to pop in with a hello. I was at the psych's for OCD and the doctor is convinced my 15 month old has SPD. DS's ped says it's too early, and dh and I don't know what to think . I can tell you, the kid is wonderful and active! I just read a mention of a weighted blanket and plan to do some reseach. Ds can't sleep without something heavy (like me or dad) laying on part of him. lol, we are very tired parents! I will be checking in here often hoping to get some tips!

DD needs weight/pressure to sleep too. It would be cruel not to give her that pressure, not to hold her arms down for her, if that makes any sense? I think I would get an eval. If you think something's off, get it figured out, you know? You're with him, you know if something is not right.

I've been reading Sensational Kids (I think that's what its called) and The Out-of-Sync child, but I find those are really geared toward kids that can vocalize their thoughts/feelings. Any resources for nonverbal likely-SPD toddlers?

Thanks for letting me share.

[proudmamanow]

We are moving along on the SPD journey. We have been doing lots of reading & making little accommodations along the way for dd1, and it's amazing how much of a difference it makes.
things like: not having the radio on during meals or stressful times has cut WAY back on the screaming. -letting dd wear goggles in the bath has helped immensely
-giving her a stool to put her feet on during meals helps her sit still.

It's amazing too how I find my attitude has shifted--rather than feeling like I am accommodating Ms. Pickypants for the 400th time, I feel MUCH more compassionate towards the things that are really bothering her & I am much more able to be flexible.
Also it's been really encouraging to see how dd has started to identify things that are bothering her in appropriate ways. I forget what specifically she said yesterday but something to the effect of being annoyed by a certain noise. It is so helpful! Then we can address rather than her turning into a screaming, bouncing off the walls, mess!

We are waiting for our official OT assessment on June 28th. We have finished with the child psych for now, who suggests addressing dd's sensory issues before doing anything else. She ruled out ASD for us, which is helpful though.

I am feeling pretty positive about this whole thing It's funny how many times I had considered SPD in the past but dismissed it because she didn't seem 'that' affected...talk about denial!

Dd2, age 2, seems like she might be a little sensory seeker (unlike big sis who is more of an avoider). She loves to climb & touch everything, hates being sticky or dirty & hates wearing shoes! But it seems to provoke less intense behavioural reactions in her, which I think is as much temparement as anything else.

So far we've read Raising a Sensory Smart Child and Building Bridges...looking forward to reading more.

[Rose-Roget]

Hi all! I posted in a December or January thread, but I haven't been back much since. Ds was having a really hard time adjusting to the new baby and was reacting more strongly than usual to everything. While he doesn't have a dx of SPD, I really think that there is some going on at some level.

I find him to be primarily a sensory seeker. This is what gets him into trouble. Lately, I have been trying to incorporate more "heavy work" and deep pressure into his daily life. This has been helping. I have also been giving him magnesium supplements to address what could be adhd behaviors. Not sure which is affecting him or whether it's the combo, but he's been doing a lot better recently.

Here's a question I have, though: What is the reaction tv/computer can have on the brains of SPD kids?? Ds has always been particularly susceptible to becoming overly-engrossed anytime there is a screen near him and has significant meltdowns surrounding that time. We don't do a lot of tv in our home, greatly for that reason. When I try to explain to people (particularly grandparents), they treat it like I'm just imposing my radical views on my child (I'm hardly a radical!) and that it's completely normal kid behavior that he needs to learn to work through. So I'm wondering whether they is any different effect on these kids vs. more typical kids? (Of course, getting them to understand SPD is a whole different battle, so it probably won't do any good to even know of any effects! lol! ) Thanks!

[justKate]

Well our doctor's office [UA violation]-ed up our script for OT, so now they've got to start the script/deal with insurance to cover the OT we chose/get an appointment dance all over again. We're planning a trip to see my parents next week, so likely nothing will get scheduled for another week, so now we're looking at mid-July before she gets another appointment scheduled.