Aa
what do you think?
My name is Stacy Spence and I have 2 kids I am concerned about.
Sawyer is my 5 year old son. He has been different since pretty much birth. He was born with no apparent problems but was smaller than all my other kids and struggled with putting on weight from the get go. He was sick a lot and was hospitalized with RSV at 9 months for 10 days and again for 5 days for the same thing a year later. He is very short for his age with his 3 year old sister almost the same height. He has seen a slew of doctors including a gastroenterologist, endocrinologist, genetics, nephrologist to name a few. He has had blood sugar issues both high and low, one unexplained seizure, GERD, surgery to take out his tonsils and adenoids. His hearing has been checked with it being good. None of the many test that has been run on him has shown anything significant. He has delays in gross and fine motor skills, and in speech. He was seen by ECI since 9 months of age and went to the public school for a year and was put in their self-contained classroom. He didn't really start speaking until he was around 4. He does speak much better. He has a lot of strange behaviors. Here are a few off the top of my head.
-Gets angry a lot and will hit his head and bite himself, he does hit himself in the head sometimes when
-He has a hard time relating to kids his age. I would not say he is anti-social. I do think he will play especially if it is a physical game but he just doesn't do well socially. For example, at church he licked his hand and wiped it on a girls hair. He will put his hands on someone's face to get their attention even if they say stop. He does show concern if his sister is upset but gets really angry if she wants to play with his cars even if he has a whole bunch.
-He seems to have fascination with getting towels sopping wet and stashing them some place.
-He tends to crave sensory things running into things on purpose.
-Lines cars up and bangs them together.
-Will hum the Cars2 theme song over and over.
-Does not understand the meaning of share at all.
-When he plays he tends to just get everything out. I don't see a lot of imaginary play with him. He gets all things out stuffs them in a bag or stuffs them in his big ride on Lightening McQueen and rolls them around the house back and forth.
-Very hyper except when watching a favorite movie or playing the computer where he will do the same activity over and over.
-Has a hard time winding down sometimes taking 2-3 hours just to fall asleep.
-He will say "Hi" to people and seems to be social at times and I don't really see problems with eye contact per se.
-He will ask the same question over and over again sometimes, or here lately will come up to me and tell me he misses me even though I haven't been gone.
-He has no sense of danger (once when the kids went to school he walked to school by himself looking for me. My hubby thought he was still taking a nap).
-He has a very high pain tolerance (it is unbelievable, once leaned against a hot smoker and got a nasty burn on his back. He had a melt down not because he was hurt but because my husband yanked him away from it.)
-He is still having problem with potty training with BM.
-He has low muscle tone.
-He has worn glasses since 9 months old and has stabismus.
-He gets right in your face to ask something and sometimes when you tell him to look at you he won't hold his head straight but rather tilts it all the way up.
Sawyer recently went to a church with my mom and they came and got her out of service and asked if Sawyer could come sit with her because he didn't "fit" in with the other kids. I'm not exactly sure what that means.
There is a lot more but these are what I can think of off the top of my head. I struggle with thinking Sawyer may be on the spectrum because like I said he is social. He does do a lot of weird things and doesn't fit in a lot of times. I am not sure he is or not.
My daughter, Kara, is 3 and we are concerned about her as well. She does not have the medical history that Sawyer has. She has poor muscle tone, her right foot turns in and her right hip turns in. She is delayed in gross, fine, and speech as well. She is having intestinal problems right now as well. Her belly will swell up and she will look pregnant and then she will finally have huge BM and it will go back down again. This happens over and over. Here are some things we notice about her off the top of my head.
-She has terrible temper tantrums with the longest lasting more than 30 minutes. This will include hitting the floor with her arms, pushing something over, scooting on her back kicking and screaming, flinging herself against the wall. If someone is the object of the anger she will hit, kick, and pinch them.
-She will hum the same song over and over.
-She says the word "butthead" over and over (I'm sorry but we have a teenager and she heard it from him)
-She doesn't deal well with changes not necessarily at home but things like her sunday school class where she had to go to a different classroom and almost had a meltdown even though the same kids were in there.
-She does sleep a lot. Sometimes taking 2-3 naps a day. But will have trouble sleeping at night even if she doesn't take a nap taking a long time to go to sleep. She also will wake up in the middle of the night screaming and hitting the walls until we can get her to calm down.
-She will sit there and stare at you for an unusually long time sucking her thumb.
-She too doesn't seem to play appropriately with toys. She takes them out and scatters them but doesn't put the doll in the stroller, play with the little people or what not. She tends to collect them and horde them but not make them do anything. I do see her talk on the "phone" occasionally but that is it.
-She will sit and open and shut a door a thousand times.
-We often refer to her as our crabby child and make the statement we hope she grows out of it someday.
-My son is sensory seeking and she is sensory avoiding. She hated walking in grass and would stand there crying if put in it. She always held her hands up when she was younger because she didn't want to touch anything. She will only eat pureed veggies and some fruits that way.
-She is very shy and when we go someplace she will often hang back with me coaxing her to come on.
-She likes to sit in the rocking chair upstairs and rock and rock and rock.
I asked her Sunday School nursery worker who has been with Kara for 2 years now how she interacted with the other kids. She said she mostly stays close to her. She takes a while before she warms up to anyone new. She will not smile or play with new people at all. She will play during activities like the bubble machines but a lot of times she goes and sits in the corner and plays with the dolls. She also said she will not give a hug unless asked for one. I notice this too. If you ask her to give you a kiss she puts her cheek up there so you can kiss her but she doesn't kiss you. My 18 month old gives kisses.
These are just a few of the things I can think of about her. I have taken Sawyer to a developmental pediatrician. He spent 10 minutes with him and said he didn't have autism he was too social. He told me he probably had a brain injury as an infant and said he needed PT,OT,ST. My husband and I were both rather aggravated. I guess I thought it would be a thorough evaluation. He said he probably had a brain injury when he was a young infant. So I asked him if he really believed that and he hem hawed around and said, Well it will get him some services. Also, how does that explain my daughter. Does she have the same brain injury?
Stacy
Once again, I appreciate your help.
Stacy
Sawyer is my 5 year old son. He has been different since pretty much birth. He was born with no apparent problems but was smaller than all my other kids and struggled with putting on weight from the get go. He was sick a lot and was hospitalized with RSV at 9 months for 10 days and again for 5 days for the same thing a year later. He is very short for his age with his 3 year old sister almost the same height. He has seen a slew of doctors including a gastroenterologist, endocrinologist, genetics, nephrologist to name a few. He has had blood sugar issues both high and low, one unexplained seizure, GERD, surgery to take out his tonsils and adenoids. His hearing has been checked with it being good. None of the many test that has been run on him has shown anything significant. He has delays in gross and fine motor skills, and in speech. He was seen by ECI since 9 months of age and went to the public school for a year and was put in their self-contained classroom. He didn't really start speaking until he was around 4. He does speak much better. He has a lot of strange behaviors. Here are a few off the top of my head.
-Gets angry a lot and will hit his head and bite himself, he does hit himself in the head sometimes when
-He has a hard time relating to kids his age. I would not say he is anti-social. I do think he will play especially if it is a physical game but he just doesn't do well socially. For example, at church he licked his hand and wiped it on a girls hair. He will put his hands on someone's face to get their attention even if they say stop. He does show concern if his sister is upset but gets really angry if she wants to play with his cars even if he has a whole bunch.
-He seems to have fascination with getting towels sopping wet and stashing them some place.
-He tends to crave sensory things running into things on purpose.
-Lines cars up and bangs them together.
-Will hum the Cars2 theme song over and over.
-Does not understand the meaning of share at all.
-When he plays he tends to just get everything out. I don't see a lot of imaginary play with him. He gets all things out stuffs them in a bag or stuffs them in his big ride on Lightening McQueen and rolls them around the house back and forth.
-Very hyper except when watching a favorite movie or playing the computer where he will do the same activity over and over.
-Has a hard time winding down sometimes taking 2-3 hours just to fall asleep.
-He will say "Hi" to people and seems to be social at times and I don't really see problems with eye contact per se.
-He will ask the same question over and over again sometimes, or here lately will come up to me and tell me he misses me even though I haven't been gone.
-He has no sense of danger (once when the kids went to school he walked to school by himself looking for me. My hubby thought he was still taking a nap).
-He has a very high pain tolerance (it is unbelievable, once leaned against a hot smoker and got a nasty burn on his back. He had a melt down not because he was hurt but because my husband yanked him away from it.)
-He is still having problem with potty training with BM.
-He has low muscle tone.
-He has worn glasses since 9 months old and has stabismus.
-He gets right in your face to ask something and sometimes when you tell him to look at you he won't hold his head straight but rather tilts it all the way up.
Sawyer recently went to a church with my mom and they came and got her out of service and asked if Sawyer could come sit with her because he didn't "fit" in with the other kids. I'm not exactly sure what that means.
There is a lot more but these are what I can think of off the top of my head. I struggle with thinking Sawyer may be on the spectrum because like I said he is social. He does do a lot of weird things and doesn't fit in a lot of times. I am not sure he is or not.
My daughter, Kara, is 3 and we are concerned about her as well. She does not have the medical history that Sawyer has. She has poor muscle tone, her right foot turns in and her right hip turns in. She is delayed in gross, fine, and speech as well. She is having intestinal problems right now as well. Her belly will swell up and she will look pregnant and then she will finally have huge BM and it will go back down again. This happens over and over. Here are some things we notice about her off the top of my head.
-She has terrible temper tantrums with the longest lasting more than 30 minutes. This will include hitting the floor with her arms, pushing something over, scooting on her back kicking and screaming, flinging herself against the wall. If someone is the object of the anger she will hit, kick, and pinch them.
-She will hum the same song over and over.
-She says the word "butthead" over and over (I'm sorry but we have a teenager and she heard it from him)
-She doesn't deal well with changes not necessarily at home but things like her sunday school class where she had to go to a different classroom and almost had a meltdown even though the same kids were in there.
-She does sleep a lot. Sometimes taking 2-3 naps a day. But will have trouble sleeping at night even if she doesn't take a nap taking a long time to go to sleep. She also will wake up in the middle of the night screaming and hitting the walls until we can get her to calm down.
-She will sit there and stare at you for an unusually long time sucking her thumb.
-She too doesn't seem to play appropriately with toys. She takes them out and scatters them but doesn't put the doll in the stroller, play with the little people or what not. She tends to collect them and horde them but not make them do anything. I do see her talk on the "phone" occasionally but that is it.
-She will sit and open and shut a door a thousand times.
-We often refer to her as our crabby child and make the statement we hope she grows out of it someday.
-My son is sensory seeking and she is sensory avoiding. She hated walking in grass and would stand there crying if put in it. She always held her hands up when she was younger because she didn't want to touch anything. She will only eat pureed veggies and some fruits that way.
-She is very shy and when we go someplace she will often hang back with me coaxing her to come on.
-She likes to sit in the rocking chair upstairs and rock and rock and rock.
I asked her Sunday School nursery worker who has been with Kara for 2 years now how she interacted with the other kids. She said she mostly stays close to her. She takes a while before she warms up to anyone new. She will not smile or play with new people at all. She will play during activities like the bubble machines but a lot of times she goes and sits in the corner and plays with the dolls. She also said she will not give a hug unless asked for one. I notice this too. If you ask her to give you a kiss she puts her cheek up there so you can kiss her but she doesn't kiss you. My 18 month old gives kisses.
These are just a few of the things I can think of about her. I have taken Sawyer to a developmental pediatrician. He spent 10 minutes with him and said he didn't have autism he was too social. He told me he probably had a brain injury as an infant and said he needed PT,OT,ST. My husband and I were both rather aggravated. I guess I thought it would be a thorough evaluation. He said he probably had a brain injury when he was a young infant. So I asked him if he really believed that and he hem hawed around and said, Well it will get him some services. Also, how does that explain my daughter. Does she have the same brain injury?
Stacy
Once again, I appreciate your help.
Stacy
By the way, for your son that is a sensory seeker and also has motor planning issues, the sensory activities called "heavy work" are so excellent. They give needed input into the sensory system (that it is seeking) while calming and organizing the brain to carry out motor planning. Doing physical activity before homework makes a huge difference for my son. He actually thinks better and can sit down and be calm.
Google heavy work. There is a web site I like called 'sensory processing disorder" or SPD and it has a listing of activities that are excellent.
I would socialize with him as much as possible. If it is too hard to do with your daughter with her own special needs, I'd ask your spouse to stay with your daughter and you meet someone at a park. One on one playdates for one and a half to two hours are a great way to help a child with social skills.
When a child that is sensory seeking gets lots of input in appropriate ways, they seek unsafe ways less often. We just simply say to our son "not safe" if he is about to do something that might hurt him to get input.
Much of what is on your list for your son would describe my son as well.
Your daughter is only three. Interacting at 3 for kids varies. She may not have great play skills yet and that would still be within normal. Kids often still do parellel play at that age. But, again, socializing with her with one other child is really helpful to hep her along. I would encourage her to rock whenever she wants to at three. That is giving sensory input and is quite calming and soothing to the nervous system. That she does imaginary play with a doll is excellent.
Let me know if you have any questions from what I've written or need any other ideas. Peace
Google heavy work. There is a web site I like called 'sensory processing disorder" or SPD and it has a listing of activities that are excellent.
I would socialize with him as much as possible. If it is too hard to do with your daughter with her own special needs, I'd ask your spouse to stay with your daughter and you meet someone at a park. One on one playdates for one and a half to two hours are a great way to help a child with social skills.
When a child that is sensory seeking gets lots of input in appropriate ways, they seek unsafe ways less often. We just simply say to our son "not safe" if he is about to do something that might hurt him to get input.
Much of what is on your list for your son would describe my son as well.
Your daughter is only three. Interacting at 3 for kids varies. She may not have great play skills yet and that would still be within normal. Kids often still do parellel play at that age. But, again, socializing with her with one other child is really helpful to hep her along. I would encourage her to rock whenever she wants to at three. That is giving sensory input and is quite calming and soothing to the nervous system. That she does imaginary play with a doll is excellent.
Let me know if you have any questions from what I've written or need any other ideas. Peace
Hi there. Thank you for your detailed post. Very helpful.
I have a son who has sensory integration disorder. With his sensory processing issues, he has motor planning issues. Fine motor, gross motor and speech can all be affected by this to varying degrees. He is a sensory seeker big time as well as a sensory avoider at other times. He's that mixed bag child. He was diagnosed officially at 4. We began occupational therapist at that time with an OT that specialized in sensory.
I will tell you that the progress with that strategy has been amazing. Really amazing. If you have not started OT for either your son or daughter, do not delay. They have worked with my son on many things including behavior management (how to be more flexible, how to cope when distressed in appropriate ways, etc.), social skills (how to interact with other kids, how to have socially acceptable behavior, how to hold a conversation, how to be a good sport, how to share, etc.), they worked on motor planning (fine was a huge issue for my son with hand writing but more importantly when you realize what motor planning is . . . that someone can not think of plans to carry out a task, they helped him learn to problem solve and be able to accomplish things in a strategic way of going about figuring it out), they help give direct input in safe ways to his nervous system for the sensory seeking and helped get him acclimated to things he avoided as he has tactile dysfunction. The results are fantastic. And I sit in on every appt. and am told what needs to happen at home to keep it going as that one hour a week is excellent but what we do at home is the real key. I've researched, I've studied, and I've implemented many things at home to help my son.
Low muscle tone is also conquered successfully with PT. We do work on that as well in OT.
We have paid for OT out of pocket most of the time as I wanted to go to someone that wasn't on our approved list. It has been worth the sacrifice of other financial things we can't do. I encourage you to make OT happen at any cost.
My son is now 8 years old and is in school with no interevention. He does OT once a week still. But overall, he functions beautifully to the point that some do not know he even has a developmental delay. He still does and new things crop up, but we handle it as it comes.
This is my encouraging message. Do what ever early intervention you can even if it seems like a pain and a financial drain as it will pay off soon enough. good luck
I have a son who has sensory integration disorder. With his sensory processing issues, he has motor planning issues. Fine motor, gross motor and speech can all be affected by this to varying degrees. He is a sensory seeker big time as well as a sensory avoider at other times. He's that mixed bag child. He was diagnosed officially at 4. We began occupational therapist at that time with an OT that specialized in sensory.
I will tell you that the progress with that strategy has been amazing. Really amazing. If you have not started OT for either your son or daughter, do not delay. They have worked with my son on many things including behavior management (how to be more flexible, how to cope when distressed in appropriate ways, etc.), social skills (how to interact with other kids, how to have socially acceptable behavior, how to hold a conversation, how to be a good sport, how to share, etc.), they worked on motor planning (fine was a huge issue for my son with hand writing but more importantly when you realize what motor planning is . . . that someone can not think of plans to carry out a task, they helped him learn to problem solve and be able to accomplish things in a strategic way of going about figuring it out), they help give direct input in safe ways to his nervous system for the sensory seeking and helped get him acclimated to things he avoided as he has tactile dysfunction. The results are fantastic. And I sit in on every appt. and am told what needs to happen at home to keep it going as that one hour a week is excellent but what we do at home is the real key. I've researched, I've studied, and I've implemented many things at home to help my son.
Low muscle tone is also conquered successfully with PT. We do work on that as well in OT.
We have paid for OT out of pocket most of the time as I wanted to go to someone that wasn't on our approved list. It has been worth the sacrifice of other financial things we can't do. I encourage you to make OT happen at any cost.
My son is now 8 years old and is in school with no interevention. He does OT once a week still. But overall, he functions beautifully to the point that some do not know he even has a developmental delay. He still does and new things crop up, but we handle it as it comes.
This is my encouraging message. Do what ever early intervention you can even if it seems like a pain and a financial drain as it will pay off soon enough. good luck
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