My Three Year Old Daughter

[cindylee088]

I have a three year old daughter and i am a bit concerned about some of the things she does as well as her development. When she falls down she doesnt put her hands infront of her to catch her, that was the first thing i noticed, then i realized that she cant hop, an she walks a little funny. She also cant say a couple words or put certain words together, she stares at lights, and covers her ears when ever there is a loud noise, or she covers them when she knows a noise is coming. if she hears a loud noise she freaks out. She is also always stomping her feet without knowing she is doing it, and when you bath her she is terrified to get her vagina washed she freaks out to the point where we basically need to hold her dwn to keep her clean. she is also very sensitive, gives dirty looks like you coulnt believe and is very smart in that sort of way she is very rude an bossy. I know lots of kids are and people say its the way they are raised but i raised both of my kids the same and the 2 are completely different.

[cindylee088]

Thanx yes i have heard of it and googled it , that 8is definately something i will look into with my doctor, and with the vagina washing its because she is prone to infections and i cant ut soapy water in the bath because she gets bladder infections as well as she is always very smelly in that area i have spoken with the doctor about that as well and she tells me to make sure i clean her well in the bath as well as wipe her with wipes often to keep her clean.

[specialmom]

Hi there Cindy.  What you describe is near and dear to my heart.  You describe my son at that age perfectly.  He has sensory integration disorder which I encourage you to google.  It is a developmental delay of the nervous system and can affect many areas of a child.  I wouldn't know for sure that your daughter has sensory but think it is something you should look into as a possibility.

The motor things you describe could be part of the Motor Planning system of the nervous system.  This is how the brain communicates to the muscles to do a task-----------  lots of coordination is involved with that.  Gross motor is more noticable than fine motor but I'm wondering how she'll do with holding a pencil, using scissors, etc.  Are new fine motor activities hard for her?  Many kids with motor planning issues will avoid a task completely that challenges them.  Also, speech is part of motor planning and all areas of speech can be affected.  My son had some articulation problems which that would again be muscle control to make the sounds.  But other areas such as receptive/expressive speech can be involved as motor planning contributes to organizing thought to converse and what to say.  We have to process what comes in and organize our answer every time someone asks us a question, for example.  

Sensitivity to sound and attraction to light ------------  visual processing and auditory processing----------- please google that when you google sensory integration (or processing) disorder.  The slapping of the feet is something my son has always done-------- his brain does not get the signal where his feet are at strongly---------- that is giving much needed input with the stomping.  My son has also crashed a lot to do the same thing with his body.  

Modulation/regulation is part of sensory and this is the emotional aspect.  Some kids have trouble self soothing and can have 'fight or flight' responses to things that bother their sensory system.  An example would be the issue with bathing-------- she is in a base level reaction to it.  (I WILL say though that I don't understand the needing to wash her vagina.  If she sits in a bath, and you have sudsy water---------  I mean, how much scrubbing does a young child need?  I'd not hold her down for that.  That sounds like 'extreme' cleaning.)  My son had issues with water.  He loved it and hated it depending.  He had a flight or fight response to washing hands.  

The good news is that you can do so much to help a child with sensory issues.  My son is now 7 and doing fantastic.  He still sees his occupational therapist (which is who evaluates for sensory and treats it)-------- but much of the issues he had have either subsided completely or are significantly less.  I have . . . maybe 10,000 suggestions of ways to go about handling sensory integration disorder-------- but google it first and get back to me as to what you think.

A good website is "SensoryProcessingDisorder".  good luck