Sensory Integration

So... anyone had a diagnosis? Anyone in the process of finding out about this? We have an appointment in 2 months time to get Matilda assessed. The OT thinks she has some vestibular disorder, and definately some tactile issues...

Sorry Chrisite, but I wish you all the best with your appointment. Such a long time to wait.. Hugs.

Hey Christy

I've worked alot with kids with this diagnosis, working very closely with the OT who was diagnosing them...

One of the books she would often recommend is called "the out-of-sync child"...

All the very best in your appointment

Ashy has never had an actual 'diagnosis' but is curretnly seeing a psychologist/cognitive bahaviour therapist to help her learn to cope with her 'sensory issues'
While there is no set 'tag' for her at the moment, its a case of yes she is displaying sensory processing problems, she is pedantic and particular and yes we need to work with her to help her over come these prpblems. Its not a case of 'fixing' something, its more like helping us all deal with these issues.

She loves the appointments, they are lots of fun for her and they are defiantely helping her. We still have issues, but not like we used to. She has been going for a few months now, she's been about 4 time i think??

I'd love to hear more about the assessment. I saw a peadiatrician that said there was nothing wrong at all and I wanted to cry at the end of it, I felt like I was completely dismissed. This therapist I see now was the first person to actually listen to me and take it all seriouslly and say yes, there is a problem and now we need to look at how we can help it. She was also shocked that the peadiatrician said everything was okay.

Dee, thats what happened with me at first, was a paed saying there was nothing wrong. I felt dismissed as well. Our close friend is getting a PhD atm in OT and specialising in developmental behaviour. I asked her about Matilda's "quirky" behaviour and if there was anything I could do to help her prepare for school & she said she's been watching Matilda for a while now & is the one who recommended I look into it.

Its so frustrating isn't it Christy, when you yourself know that *something* isn't quite right but they just don't listen.

As wonderful as our therapist is I would still really like to find something that specialises in the sensory processing/integration field, but being in a small country town I so far haven't come across one.

I have honestly found the therapy we have had so far to be wonderful and kick myself for not picking up on it earlier. I always put it down to tantrums and things before I realised there was more to it and she wasn't just doing it to be difficult. Actually, the more I look into it the more I realise there are certain sensory problems I have myself, and have had since I was young but I've learnt how to deal with them, or more so avoid them. People think i'm crazy, just to me it was just how i'd always been....

Christy do you know what they do in the assessment and how the assess the children??

Hi Christy, not sure if it is the same thing but we are about to start the assessment process for DS looking at sensory perception/sensory motor perception disorder ? can't remember the exact title too many big words. Same reason, want to help him cope better at school. Not much help as we are still looking into it

We are in the waiting game atm. Monnie I will definately have a look for that book, I think it will help us understand... it gets confusing when they throw around words like Autism and Aspergers and yet they don't explain the wide range of those conditions.

WIshing you all the best Christy!

Christy, or Monnie, this is not something I've heard about. Out of interest, what sorts of behaviours are associated with this?

*hugs* Christy... it must be hard to have such a long wait, but I hope you do get some answers.

I hadn't heard of sensory integration before, so I googled it and have been having a bit of a read. Its quite interesting to know about. Aidyn has a tactile issue I think(is terrified of wearing denim - and will scream the house down if you try to put him in denim pants) but I think in his case its just that isolated issue, I haven't notice anything else.

Anyway, I just want to wish you all the best with it hon... Please let us know how everything is going.

From what I understand, sensory issues are seen in kids (and adults) when they are either under sensitive or over sensitive to different types of sensory stimuli...which then results in problems for them...

So it can be like the kid who doesn't 'sense' pressure accurately...so they can be too rough, without realising it...they throw the ball too hard...push into people without meaning to...

It can be the kid who doesn't sense "tactile" information accurately...so they may be overly sensitive to fabrics that are too wooly or too stiff...they like to have their socks always pulled up...they can't bear the feeling of a tag at the back of their t-shirt...or they can't bear a certain type of touch (they often prefer deep pressure touch to gentle caressing)...

The kid who has sensory overload with sounds...so things like vacuum cleaners or planes or sudden noises are very distressing for them...

Kids who don't know 'where their body is in space'...so if they close their eyes, they can't really 'sense' where their arms/legs are...so these kids are often very fidgety and restless, trying to get 'sensory feedback' from their wriggles and squirms...

Kids who are overly sensitive to textures in their mouth...so they struggle with certain textures (e.g. lumpy foods)...

It's often hard to pinpoint what is going on (that's why an assessment is really important)...these kids often look like they are being 'naughty' or misbehaving...but really they are struggling from sensory overload or sensory understimulation...they also look like they are not paying attention...but sometimes it's because they are paying so much attention to their sensory stuff (because it's overloading their little bodies), that they can't pay attention to other stuff...

It's certainly seen in diagnoses such as autism or aspergers...but can also be a disorder just on it's own...a bit like a child might have a speech problem...

Occupational Therapists are usually the professionals that deal with sensory issues with kids...but not all of them...they often need to have specialised training...alot of the therapy they do with kids is providing them with a 'sensory diet', helping them to 'desensitise' them to sensory information...but also helping parents to recognise the 'signs'...

Hope that makes sense...

Fantastic Monnie, thanks.

Great explanation Monnie. Thanks for that.

If you have an aversion to just one texture, sound etc - like labels on skin, or velvet, or concrete or fingernails down a blackboard, is that just an aversion to one thing, or a mild version of this?

The way my friend described it to me was that it was like that but more extreme and the feeling lasted longer depending on the severity. So some kids it would be like fingernails down the blackboard for a day afterwards...

Wow, that must be awful for the poor little tikes. And I can imagine how easy it would be for parents just to assume that it's just bad behaviour without understanding why. Good on you Christy for looking into this further.

Yeah...I think to have the diagnosis, the sensitivity needs to be the point that it affects daily living on a regular basis...basically that the sensory issues "get in the road" of doing what you are supposed to be doing...whether it's eating, getting dressed, playing, learning, etc.

It would be incredibly tough for these kids...especially if their behaviour is misunderstood as something else...

I remember running a group once and there was this one kid who squirmed and fidgeted to the absolute extreme...the sort of kid that would get 'told off' for not listening all the time....anyway, the OT I was working with just put two telephone books under his feet (as a footrest), he was sitting down. It was to act as a 'grounding' for him so he was getting some sense of where his body was his space...and immediately, the fidgeting stopped! Quite amazing!

WOW Monnie, thats amazing. Matilda ALWAYS gets told off for not sitting still. In fact this morning, I couldn't get her to look me in the eyes to get her to sit down to have her hair brushed (which I don't know why I even tried... I can never brush her hair without another person holding her down for me, which is awful) and I got so cross with her for not listening and for fidgeting... I got up & walked away today, but then there are so many times I fight her over simple things like listening and sitting still.

With Ashlea, like Monnie said, her major issue was getting dressed and wearing clothes. It became such a disturbance to every day life when it would take up to 2 hours to get her dressed each morning. I would feel sick at the thought of having to tackle getting her up and ready to leave the house in the morning. Certain clothes were easy and it was over with in 5 mins, but abviously i had no idea what was going on and did put it down to 'bad behaviour' as I had never heard of something like this.
She is almost 6 now and still has problems but is getting better now because we both understand the problems and realise that it really is a problem.

Chrsity, Ash could NOT stand having her hair tied up for years. Bands and clips and cute things 'didn't feel right' to her. I was so upset looking at the other kids in their gorgeous pumpkin patch clothes with hair bands and pony tails and clips, while ash was bare foot in a skirt and t shirt with her hair out all over the place.
Now she is experimenting with what she can deal with in her hair and as she gets older she can tolerate things better which is nice, but its still an issue. She can't stand low pony tails, they have to be high enough that they don't irriate her neck, and she prefers plaits of they are in a pony tail first, not just plaited.

Christy it very slowly does start to get better, and it really has helped ash seeing her therapist to help her cope with the situations. Like i've mentioned before, its not about treating the actual sensory problem, but finding ways to help everyone cope better with it. I certainly can't force ash to start dealing with a certain feeling or certain clothes, but we have come up with ways to help her.

Hi - it has been a while since anyone has written in here and I was wondering how you were going with paed visits and whatnot ??

We have an appointment next month as my son has some mannerisms consistent with autism. We saw a paed OT this week who said they cannot diagnose, but that he has sensory integration issues.

I had forgotten all about this thread but thought I would post what's been going on with us.

DS saw 2 paeds and got blown off by one and the second one diagnoised Pervasive delevelopment delay (and basically told us he didn't believe there was really much there but he would give us this dx to get some help at school)

After lots of umming and ahhing and swaying between feeling like a hypochondiatic mother and tearing my hair out as to why no-one else could see what was going on here a OT actually rang us. I had been told she was excellent and had put her name down on some school forms stating we would be seeing her but hadn't followed through with the mixed messages.

Anyway she is AMAZING! It helped tha Xanny was having a "bad" day the day of her assessment (vs the awesome day he had when we saw the paed) She was disgusted that the paed had blown us off and went through a lot of sensory processing disorder stuff with us while DS interacted with all of her "toys" weighted blankets, vibrating cushions tampolines high chairs, fidgets and widgets - he entertained himself for 3 hrs while she sat and assessed him.

It was so nice to sit in a room with someone who understood our child and what we go through nearly everyday! She has lots of things we can use at home - vibrating cushion to sit on at school and during dinner, weighted vests and blankets to calm when things are upseting and she is also working on his low muscle tone and speech problems (interesting to note that after 3 hrs of "therpy" - which he loved - his language was vastly improved - he could get whole sentences out without stumbling repeatiing or stuttering! Amazing difference. Anyone in Townsville area highly recommend Jillian Balyntine!!!!!

I'd forgotten about this thread too!

Well after all the cr@p in the past with the pead. that said she was completely fine despite me spending an hour telling him about all her little 'quirks', i finally found a pead that was a few hours from home that I went to see.
Within 5 minutes of being there she told me Ashlea has "Sensory processing disorder" and that Ashlea's specific area was "Tactile defensivness"

I almost cried just having someone finally listen to me and diagnose her. We talked alot about how it works, how it effects the child etc. She said that it was like her nervous system was running so high all the time. Similar to the feeling you would get if you were walking alone at night on your own and someone tapped you on the shoulder.

Anyway, we spoke about a technique called brush therapy and other things such as the need for things to be firm with her, such as holding hands, hugs, touch, etc. Soft toush created more irritabilty for them and heightens their nervous system, where a firm touch, a squeeze of the hand, a bear hug etc is alot more comforting for them.

She rolled ash up in a soft thin matress and put pressure on her which ashlea absolutley LOVED! She also tried the brush therapy with her which i still need to get one of to have at home.

While there isn't alot you can do for the tactile defensivness its wonderful to have seen this lady and understood more about it and ways to help Ash be more comfortable. I'm planning on seeing her again but time and money has been an issue lately.