SPD and Listening Therapy

I wanted to take this chance to spread a little info about Sensory Processing Disorder. This is a neurological condition that shares some traits with Autism and ADHD. It is commonly misdiagnosed as ADHD. In SPD, the nervous system cannot process sensory info correctly, resulting in incorrect responses to sensory input. It does not affect people in the same way, nor does it affect an individual the same way at all times. For example, one sense that can be out of whack is the tactile sense, or sense of touch. Some people will actually feel a very light touch as extremely uncomfortable, and will react strongly against it. Others may not notice touch at all, so they will crave touch and constantly be in others space. Even worse, some will waffle between the two extremes. My son is a waffler! Other senses that can be affected are sight, sound, taste, smell, proprioceptive and vestibular. Not all senses have to be affected. My son is affected in all areas, but especially with sound, touch and vestibular. My daughter, who isn't diagnosed with SPD, but may have it as well, has problems with vestibular, sight and auditory. If your child has ever been diagnosed with ADHD or autism I would recommend doing some research into SPD. The treatment for SPD is Sensory Integration Therapy, along with a lot of other things that are worth a try (although they are considered alternative). Today our Occupational Therapist ordered my son's Listening Therapy program. This is a special cd player and headphones (with different cd's) that play frequencies that regular cd players and headphones won't even play. This somehow retrains the brain to "hear" correctly. I do not understand it completely, but I am happy to learn. When we first started therapy we tried something called Wilbarger brushing. It seemed like an odd thing to do as "therapy", but it has made a world of difference in my son's behavior, as well as his ability to communicate. Thank the Lord, my son's SPD is only considered moderate. However, this leaves him in the category of being misunderstood quite frequently. His SPD has caused him to have a fine motor delay (pretty severe), low muscle tone (endurance), dyspraxia (poor motor planning), eye convergence problems (even though his vision is 20/20), along with some minor struggles with social skills. When he was 4 I took him to our local school system to have him tested for SPD. Unfortunately, they didn't know enough about it to point us in the right direction. A couple of years later we went to our pediatrician, who was leaning toward ADHD, but recommended further testing (unfortunately, through the school system again). Finally, I took him to an independent OT who specialized in Sensory issues. She has helped him in so many ways. We go to OT once a week and I wish we would have been able to do this when he was younger. I think this is one of my new missions in life...to educate the world about SPD. Help spread the word!