Hi all….Haven’t been around the board lately,struggling with the school district as usual (o: Anyhow I have some questions about Developmental Verbal Apraxia that I am hoping someone might be able to answer. As I research this speech and language disorder I have come across a large number of stories from parents about a few behaviors that these kids, many times, have in common. Mainly sensory integration issues, tantrums, even into K, 1st and 2nd grades and potty training issues even in the 5 and 6 year old range. One question I have is in regards to sensory integration and exactly what qualifies as a symptom in this area. My little guy and I have battles every day about his socks, which never fit right and feel funny on his feet and his belt which he insists on wearing even tho his pants fit perfectly. This in itself would not be an issue if he also didn’t insist that it be cinched so tight that it leaves marks on his tummy for the rest of the evening after he removes it. If I try to get him to not wear it he has a major meltdown and acts like his life depends on wearing that belt. Can these be considered SI issues? Also, we are still struggling with making it to the bathroom in time at age 5 and 1/2. He does not wet the bed although many times I must wake him when he is thrashing in his sleep for him to go to the bathroom. During the day it is like he isn’t aware of a need to go until the very last second and then by the time he gets there and gets that dang belt off it is way to late. Is this another SI issue or something else all together? Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions would be appreciated, THANKS!
Re: Questions on DVA???
As far as the waiting so long to go potty in the daytime, my younger adhd son did a similar thing. Most times he would just suddenly be in a squirm(middle of the grocery store, the car, you name it) I would always be so confounded, I would ask him ‘didn’t you feel like you needed to go in the last few minutes? how could it just come upon you like that?’ Anyway, I never got a good answer for that, he had come home a few times with wet pants from school up to first grade. He does however take ddavp for night time accidents which seems to work(finally something does). He also went number 2 a lot when he was younger because he wouldn’t sit still on the potty long enough to finish at any one time(goes along with the seat belt at the dinner table I guess :o) ) Rambling story short he did finally outgrow most of this, he is still very active.
This sounds like sensory integration issues to me, although you would need an evaluation by an OT specializing in it to know for sure. You might pick up the book Out of Sync for some more information.
My son was diagnosed with SI at age 7. In retrospect many of his difficult characteristics as a preschooler were probably because of his SI. He still has a thing about socks, although he likes the Osh Gosh athletic socks better than anything else.