Sensory Integration Disorder - Saint Paul, MN

I can tell you from person experience that weighted blankets work like a dream...for us, anyway. It's worth a try, b/c they worked instantly for us.

Great idea to go online to learn more. I saw a therapist who told me the best thing to do when and if you feel overwhelmed is seek information. Boy, that was one of the best pieces of advice I ever received.

The more you know, the more confident and positive you get.

L. , our oldest was 5 weeks premeeie and he seemed fine until school started although teachers kept telling us they thought he had ADHD. The strange part was he wasn,t hyper unless someone touched his head. He had other little issuse but was a very bright student. When 4th grade started he was having trouble concentrating in class. I took him to the MD and she sent us on to the OT. It turns out that he has a vestibular disorder (motion,dizziness ) and propriceptive dysfunction ( a touch sensitivity problem ). We used a weighted vest at school and he also used weighted blankets to lay on the floor and do homework and a balance disc on his chair. We also do a little massage that seems to help and low classical music at night when he sleeps. We also had him to a psycologist and they put him on an ADD med to get him to concentrate. His problem at school was he would just shut down and space out because he was very sensitive to all of the noise around him and shutting down was his coping mechanism. After the therapy and meds we had an awesome school year.Wtih all the tools and advice from the OT and therapist we feel we can now handle any little bump in the road. We recieved his scores from the OT and at the begining of therapy he was scoring 24 out of 100 + now he is at 80's to 100's. We wil be done with OT next week and are very greatful for all of the accomplishments our son has made. Good Luck. This was a trying year but well worth all the hard work.

Hi L.,

My Son does not have Sensory Integration Dysfunction, but my Son has autism, and they seem to kinda work the same way, or I should say that they work with them in similar ways. We used pictures for my Son and still do. I also have started using an alarm clock or something to show him how much time he has left and or I tell him what the big hand is on a number and the little hand is on a number then it is time to clean up or something. It seems to work very well that way. Like Autism children with Sensory Integration Dysfunction, need to know what to expect and what is next. Other then that, time is all that you have to work with him..

Good luck and know that I am here if you need to talk. :)

Hi L.
my daughter was diganosed with SID at 18 months. what seemed to really help her was the wilbur brushing program. you may want to ask the OT about it if you are not already doing it. also there are some really great books to help deal with this I am sorry I cant think of there names right now. Good Luck T.

It is great that you have a diagnosis and are able to do OT. My DS was diagnosed with SID/SPD at about 3.5 years old and we also did OT. It made a huge difference for him and for me. I watched every OT session (from the little mirrored room on the side) and the OT made sure to teach me any techniques that would be helpful at home. I learned how to do joint compressions, brushing, and relaxing massage for him. In addition, I found reading "The Out-of-Sync Child" and "The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun" to be helpful in understanding what my son was experiencing, how to minimize him being overloaded, and how to help him if he went into either sensory seeking (propioceptive) or sensory avoiding (sounds and touch mostly) mode.

Talking to his preschool teachers is key. Give them any reports from the OT evaluation and if you have good teachers, they will be interested in learning what techniques they can use. My son had 3 preschool teachers and one of them became the "expert" for him, learning the joint compressions and massage. She also made sure he had a safe, quiet zone for retreat when the classroom became too noisy or busy for him.

When he started K this fall, I also had a specific meeting with the teacher and then helped DS advocate for himself when the classroom became overwhelming. For example, the music at naptime in the fall was driving him nuts. So the teacher set up a little nap spot just outside the door and made it a little "fort" surrounded by a bench, walls and a book shelve. This helped DS slowly acclimate to the music and by second quarter he wanted to sleep right next to the CD player.

So know that it gets better as the child grows out of some of it and learns strategies for coping with the rest. Continue to learn and advocate all you can. It sounds like you are on the right track.

An excellent book to read, that explains things in normal terms and not scientific ones is "Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight". It's about Adults who have Sensory problems and the ways in which they have found to cope with it. The adults not only talk of present day, but relate stories of how things were for them as a child, how they learned to cope then and how things changed as they grew older. It's a real eye opener as to what your child might deal with if he hadn't been diagnosed and things that others have found to work for them.

As for what to do for your son at home, ask your OT. My friends daughter was diagnosed (but not for sensitive hearing) and she had to be wrapped in blankets for a set amount of time each day, they bought her a bean bag chair to sit in while watching tv or sitting with the family so she would get the 'snuggled' feeling that she needed, they did the brushing several times a day, and eventually bought her a trampoline to help with joint stimulation. Before going all out though, I'd really recommend that you ask the OT as each childs needs are different and what works for one may very well not work for another, it's all trial and error.

When you talk to the school, tell them that you want AEA brought in to work with your son. The school provides this service to you free and makes it so that they have to provide your son treatment while he's at school (if the OT requires that certain things be done during school hours). They will also work around his diagnoses...when my son was diagnosed, they allowed him to leave a morning and an afternoon class 5 minutes early and arrive at the next one 5 min. late so that he could go to the gym to run around to burn off energy and stimulate his nervous system (he was in Junior High at the time). The teachers are involved in this plan as are you....you all work together to find what works best for your son and his needs so that he can get the best education possible. There will be several meetings at the begining of each year as the teachers, the AEA worker (who is usually knowledgeable about sensory problems) and you work with your son to find what works best. You will then have a couple of follow up meetings through the year to reasses how things are going, make sure that nothing needs to be changed, etc. Some schools aren't so keen about doing this, but if you insist, they will as they are required to by law. I've found through my experience that though the school office wasn't so keen about it, the teachers were very enthusiastic about it and were very glad to work with you, your child, and AEA so that your child can get the most benefit.

By the way, I am a self treating adult with Sensory problems who has two teens with sensory problems who were diagnosed too late to be effectively treated, it's all maintance now. It's good to hear of those who've managed to get their children diagnosed at young ages when treatment is extremely effective and successful!.....Good luck to ya hun!! :)

Both of my boys have gone through SID OT for mild sensory issues. It sounds like maybe my boys were milder cases, but we found the OT very helpful. My youngest has completed the basic OT, but is still receiving feeding therapy for his sensory eating issues. His 3rd grade teacher was very receptive to my suggestions and even offered to talk to or meet with his OT if necessary, which it wasn't. She was a young teacher, which may have helped. I don't really have any advice for you (sounds like others have recommended the major books), but just stick with the therapy and it was very helpful for us. You might get some comments from grandparents and others from older generations who have never heard of sensory issues. If it gets negative just do your best to calmly explain that you are trying to help your son and offer them some literature or even a meeting with your son's OT. The grandparents had to "brush" my older son when they babysat and they thought it was one of the strangest things they've ever done. In retrospect, my younger brother was a classic "sensory child," but of course when he was little no one had ever heard of such a thing. Oh, another book to look at for the sleep issues is Mary Sheedy Kurcinka's, "Sleepless in America." It is very helpful and she is familiar with spirited children, sensory issues, etc. Good luck with OT.

I don't have any personal experience with sensory integration disorder, but my friend's son was diagnosed with it at around 4 or 5 years old, too. Her biggest struggle was getting the school to understand his needs and finding teachers willing to work with/around those needs. She also struggled with what to tell them, because she didn't want her son labeled, etc. Definitely get a good dialogue going with your son's teachers. I think the OT and having understanding educators really helped her son. He is now a very healthy, normal 11 year old who plays with other kids and is active in sports.
Good luck and God bless!

Have you read the book "The Out Of Sync Child"?
If you don't have a weighted blanket, it's worth a try. I've not really noticed it working with my twins but I'm afraid to not use them in case it does. They are poor sleepers. They also have many other issues besides the Sensory Integration problem.

Hi L.,

My daughter, who is now 9, was diagnosed with SPD when she was 5 (she'd been going to speech since she was 3 through the school district, and they did testing and she qualified for OT/PT, but it wasn't until she started Kindergarten that we figured out what she had. I diagnosed, and her Childhood Specialist confirmed).

For my daughter when she was younger, it was loud noises, loud music, bright lights, being overstimulated, or not being stimulated enough. Itchy/scratchy fabric, too tight clothes, anything that buttons/zips at the waist (we use elastic waist pants). She will be in the 4th grade in the fall and still has trouble with telling time/conceptualizing time. She also struggles with transitions and making a decision (can't push her for a fast decision; throws her into a tizzie), and social issues as well. And on top of the SPD, she is also a highly sensitive child. Yeah. She's like a young adult in a child's body. She has a hard time understanding why kids do what they do and why they don't listen and why they're mean to other kids and why everyone can't be nice. So those are issues we work on every day.

She's very emphatetic, and very smart. She also suffers from low self-esteem, which we continously work on. She wants to be perfect, and we have to work on the concept that one doesn't need to be perfect.

I have answered many, many mothers' questions about this one, so you'll find quite a bit of information if you read through my previous posts; I also have listed some books that I found highly helpful in dealing with my daughter. If you don't find the list of books and are interested, please contact me and I'll send the names of the books I have on my shelf.

It takes a lot of work (and it's continuous work), but every year, my daughter is able to "live" in the world better and better, and her ability to form friendships and "relate" also gets better. We have her in speech and OT/PT in the school district, and she also sees an outside OT/PT person for more specific specialized help, as well as still seeing the childhood specialist/psychiatrist. We've found that taking her to see a psychiatrist has been an absolute lifesaver for our family, as the older she gets, the more issues she has that she doesn't necessarily want to talk about with us. And my husband and I find that we really don't have any good ideas to give her for dealing with her unique situation(s), so we love her specialist. And as an added bonus, I also get some "mom help" and ideas on what my husband and I can do to help our daughter. So we've found our daughter's specialist to be a real family saver. Plus, it helps that we love her as a person and think the world of her (our daughter first saw her when she was a Post-Doc student, before she became "professional," and that might also have something to do with how well we all get along. She's also one of only a handful of child psychiatrists in the country. We live in Madison, WI; if interested, let me know and I can tell you who we see.).

It's more extra work, but I'm so proud of how well my daughter is doing. Yes, we still have to deal with the "flight" response once in a while, and with being overscared with certain things/issues (like having to have a scab scraped off by the dr after having a wart burned out, or going ballistic and terrified when we just dealt with head lice), but those huge blow ups or issues are getting better to deal with and the blow ups lesser as the years go by.

The key is having as much help and as much knowledge as you can get so that you can help your son with his own unique needs and challenges.

Good luck. And if you need someone to talk to, or you have specific questions, please, contact me. I've done a ton of research and reading on the subject, as I'm sure all the moms with SPD children have. You're not alone.