First thing first, today is Sunday. Let’s all take a moment and pray. If you are not religious take a moment and meditate in silence. Thank your God for the life you do have, remember it can always be or get worse. Be thankful for your family, friends, and beautiful child(ren).
Today I'd like to talk about Sensory Processing Disorder. What it is? What that means and how to tell if your loved one may have this condition. What can you do to help?
In order to understand Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) you have to understand the five senses. Sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste are all sensory input methods. Your body has two nervous systems at work, the central nervous system (life functions) and peripheral nervous system (the senses). I'm not going to bore you with a lecture on anatomy, this is just the basics, and how I understand them. While you are reading this blog your eyes are sending messages to your brain through electrical impulses. Your brain receives these electrical impulses in the occipital lobe of your brain, located in the back of your head, and turns them into what you recognize as words. It’s amazing how quickly this happens and this is one of the many wonders of the human body. If you receive a bug bite on the arm, the peripheral nervous system sends that information to the brain and the brain alerts the central nervous system to make an appropriate movement, usually in the form of a swat or smack on your arm. Active thought is not necessary to make this movement and that is why you may sometimes swat at a friend playing a trick on you. I am not a medical doctor, so if you have specific questions, in regards to the nervous systems or the human brain, please direct them to a physician. Again this is a basic understanding I have about how this works and it has helped me to understand why SPD is what it is. Here is a link with more information on brain anatomy if you are interested: http://www.bami.us/Neuro/BrainAnatomy.html
An interesting new study just released in January 2014, shared on the Autism Speaks website, published by the Journal of Neuroscience, and conducted by Vanderbilt University, found some children with Autism have trouble simultaneously processing sights and sounds. It’s like watching a foreign moving with English dubbed overtop the film. The mouth movement and sound of the voice don't match up. This finding may explain the delay in social and communication skills in those with Autism. This is hugely beneficial and exciting to hear, not because of the struggles, but because it is one more piece to understanding the Autism puzzle! What does it mean in the meantime and how can we apply this information to our home lives? That is simple. When you ask your Autistic child a question, ask only one and pause for an extended period of time for an answer. Then proceed to the next question. It also could explain why Autistic children answer questions with the last word you say, for instance, would you like water or juice? They answer juice. Ask the question again, but change the ending: Would you like juice or water? They answer water. Instead hold up the options and have the child point to the one they truly want. Here is a link to the article on Autism Speaks, it is coupled with an informational video about the study: http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/study-suggests-sight-and-sound-out-sync-some-autism
What is Sensory Processing Disorder? Also known as Sensory Integration Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is the disorganization of sensory signals to the nervous system causing an inappropriate behavioral reaction to the input. That was a really fancy way of saying the individual with SPD cannot appropriately react to the world around them due to the way their brain is receiving the information. I have heard SPD described as a neurological traffic jam, which makes a lot of sense. The brain is receiving more input than it can organize. From the moment you are born, until the moment you die you are receiving sensory input. We are practically bombarded on a daily basis by sensory input. Examples of this are temperature, television, radio, a wide variety of smells, etc. Here is a fantastic exercise to understand SPD. Stare at your computer screen. Focus on the world around you, the sounds. What do you hear? Air conditioner, voices, maybe music or cars. Keep that in mind, notice every change. Now, simultaneously focus on what you feel. Is it hot or cold? Focus on all the sights. Are people moving around you? What do you smell? Did someone have an offensive garlic lunch nearby?
"Typical" people do not notice every part of their environment. We learned from a very young age how to filter out the input we wish to ignore and focus on those we want to. Some people without SPD are more sensitive to certain types of sensory input than others and if exposed to those inputs they will not be able to focus. The most common example is temperature. If you are sitting in a movie theater and it is far too cold for your personal taste, you will not be able to focus on the movie. The explanation for this is simple, you are too cold. You don't have SPD, you're senses are telling you, you need to get warmer. This is a survival mechanism. Individuals with SPD cannot eliminate any of their sensory inputs. Just imagine a grocery store on a Saturday afternoon. Lots of squeaky carts, influxes in temperature (thank-you freezer section), conversation, and bright Florissant lights, that weird sterile smell, and a constant hum of electrical equipment. You as a "typical" person going to the grocery store can eliminate the sounds, smells, and bright lights to focus on your purpose- buy groceries. An individual with SPD cannot. They hear, smell, see, and feel everything.
It took me a long time to understand SPD. My eureka moment came when I went to see a movie, Superman: Man of Steel, released in 2013. The moment took me by complete surprise. I did not go to this movie anticipating having a realization in the world of my son's Autism, I went because I am in love with Superman. There is a particular scene in the movie in which Superman is fighting the bad guy, General Zod. During the fight Zod's armor is damaged and he is exposed to Earth for the first time. He is crippled by all the sensory input flooding his system. That, for me, was my moment. It hit me, "This is what Aiden goes through" I thought, and suddenly I understood. I saw life through my son's eyes and I was forever thankful to the director Zack Snyder for capturing that moment so well. Here is a clip I found of this scene from the movie I describe above:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KAzRHDdI5o
If left unaddressed the individual suffering with SPD may have motor clumsiness, behavioral problems, anxiety, depression, school failure, and many other impacts on their life. Do not ignore SPD. SPD is lumped into the diagnostic category known as ADD/ADHD. I used to believe ADHD meant undisciplined child. I was terribly wrong. I did not know there were so many different sub-types of ADHD. My son is a very active and easily distracted child, so I thought the diagnosis of ADHD at two years of age was a little odd, isn't every toddler that way? Now I understand the root of the behaviors. More than half of my son's behavioral issues can be attributed to his personal battle with sensory overload, the rest is Autistic behaviors. For more information on SPD please look into the SPD Foundation, here is their link: http://www.spdfoundation.net/about-sensory-processing-disorder.html
If your child is shutting down when a sensory event is happening, address that situation. The child may cover their ears or close their eyes. They may shake or curl up in a ball. Every child reacts based on their individual overload. They may scream or lash out when you try to touch them. Sometimes this feels like it happens often and it will lead to an Autistic meltdown if the child is not removed from the stimulation. Another behavior to look for is self-soothing behaviors, or stiming. Stiming is an action performed by a person to sooth themselves in a stressful situation. My son will grab my hand, put it to his open mouth, and rub his mouth on my skin while saying "ahhhh". It’s odd to picture and you would think he was trying to bite me, but that is his stim. We are working with our ABA to fix this stim.
How do you help? First, if you suspect sensory processing disorder, film it. Take video of an event or a series of events to an Occupational Therapist to determine if your child needs further assessment or treatment. If the event is happening at school, ask the teacher to film it and send you the video. This will help you understand if it is a behavioral problem for the ABA therapist, or determine the need for Occupational Therapy. There are a few things you can do to help ease sensory overload and it starts at home. One of the first sensory items I bought my son was a weighted blanket. He loves it. These items are not cheap and you have to do some math as far as body weight vs blanket weight, but this has helped him with his sleeping. In fact he almost demands the blanket when he's sleeping at home. I got it off Amazon.com from a business called SensaCalm. Here is a link to their website: http://www.sensacalm.com/weighted-blankets/
Choose a heavier lamp shade and dimmer light bulbs; this lessens the impact of bright lighting. Put the child's bedroom in a quiet room; consider adding or updating the insulation in that room to assist with sound and temperature control. Keep your home at a constant temperature, something comfortable. We keep our home between 75-76 F in the summer and in the winter at 77-78 F. That is what is comfortable for our family. If you have a spare room in your home, create a sensory room. A sensory room is a place of total control for the child. It can help exponentially decrease the length of time of meltdowns (addressed in my prior post) and gives the child a feeling of calm.
How do you create a sensory room? First paint the walls and ceiling black. Black absorbs light and color, it does not reflect it. This dims the room. Fill the room with different textures, bean bag chair, fuzzy rug, a black light is fun, a ball pit, one or two stuffed animals, etc. Put chalkboard paint on one wall and provide two or three pieces of chalk (as long as your child does not eat chalk). Here is a link to more great ideas for a sensory room: http://reclaimingthehome.typepad.com/home/2009/01/building-an-autism-sensory-room-on-the-cheap-environment.html
What if you don't have the space or money for a sensory room? Do not fret. A sensory tent, or as I love to hear them called sensory cocoons, are for you. This is a small pop open tent installed in the child’s room. If the child goes in the tent, that is their quiet space. The tent can be put in any room of the house, but the child's bedroom is the most common location. Be sure to pick up a tent that is a non-stimulating color, like red. Blue or black tents are ideal. Put some sensory items in the tent, a book of textures, rain sticks, soft blanket, fluffy pillow and a stuffed animal. Make those items only for the sensory tent, so it may be helpful to have a zipper closure option. Here is a really crafty idea on how to make a sensory tent for much less than you can buy one:
http://speech-specialed.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-make-sensory-tent-for-small.html
I hope this has helped you begin to understand SPD and its serious nature. Here is a link to my blog about Autistic Meltdowns: http://aidensheroes.blogspot.com/2014/04/autistic-meltdowns.html
Please feel free to ask any questions on this post or through our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AidensHereos My thoughts and prayers are with you all.
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