Our private psychologist and the neuropsych have said that my son “freezes” in almost an unresponsive state for several seconds when he gets overwhelmed or doesn’t know how to respond.
The psych thinks it is related to anxiety. He says it is situational and he recovers quickly, but he said it is unusual.
During their sessions they play checkers. He says that playing the game addresses many of the issues my son is struggling with; one big one being handling frustration and making decisions.
He says that many times during the game my son will “freeze” and become unresponsive; like a fixed stare almost.
I was just wondering if anyone has ever heard of something like this and what it might be called specifically.
Re: anyone heard of "freezing"
Yup. Happens to my older son too, when he’s overwhelmed. It was most apparent in Kindergarten, when it was bad enough that we had to have him tested to rule out a seizure disorder.
Our neuropsychologist said the same thing that Lulu mentioned… a “deer in the headlights” response. Fortunately, as long as he is in the tproper, not overly stressful setting, it doesn’t happen. So for us, it’s a good measure of his stress levels in school. If it starts happening, we know we’ve got to get in there FAST and figure out what’s causing him that much anxiety.
Karen
does your son receive OT?
It’s a relief to hear that others know what I’m talking about. Sue mentioned (above) that it could be a response to overwhelming stimuli (which really makes sense). Does your son receive any OT that addresses this? The pyschologist is working on it with him but I wonder if its enough because it sounds like this could be a SI issue?
We cannot get a smaller classroom setting for him (the school just will not do LD classrooms). So this is an obstacle that will not be relieved easily in the regular classroom.
Last year he was getting in trouble for not answering, we now know why he wasn’t answering sometimes, he just gets overwhelmed and shuts down.
The neuropsych suggested ruling out seizure as well, but the psych isn’t convinced it is a seizure disorder. He says go ahead with the testing if we want. I don’t know if I want to put him through it, but maybe we should to be on the safe side? We’ll see what the pediatrican’s final decision is next week, since he holds the magic “referral ticket” for insurance coverage.
Does your son with this symptom have NLD?
Re: does your son receive OT?
In our case it’s really not an SI issue. (Believe me, that household would put any normal soul into sensory overload :-)) It’s an “Emotional Overload” issue, or cognitive overload, or a combination (and this is a very bright kiddo). THe common thread is consistently an anxiety thing. Of course, focusing more attention when she’s shut down only makes the shutting down worse… it can be hard to convince teachers that it’s for real, so it’s one of th ose cases where a “label” really comes in handy. (Saying “she gets anxious” makes teachers think it’s something she should JUST GET OVER or take a few seconds and deal with… having a 504 says “okay, this is outside the normal range of being a little nervous.”)
Re: does your son receive OT?
Yes, he’s the one we know has NLD. (The other one is strongly suspect) He has not had OT for that, just fine motor stuff. But, of course I didn’t know as much as I do now when we were going through the OT testing stage. They told me he didn’t have any SI issues. I am now sure that he does have some SI issues, but they are of the hyporeactive sort. (for instance, he doesn’t react to pain stimuli and cannot be tickled) Now he’s old enough that he wants no part of OT.
As far as the classroom is concerned, he is still in a regular integrated classroom. We have just reduced the pressure by making sure there is adequate help in the room to help him out when necessary. (there is always either an aid or a SPED teacher in the classroom as well as the general ed teacher) and making it clear that teachers have to be on top of building stress. This means, largely, not overwhelming him with written assignments that he can’t complete in the allotted time. There are ways to de-stress even a full sized classroom with some creativity.
As far as the testing for a seizure disorder is concerned, it wasn’t a big deal. He had a face-to face exam, followed by an EEG. The EEG doesn’t hurt… the only hard thing is that they need to be sleep deprived before hand. THAT wasn’t that hard on him… He thought it was a blast staying up half the night It was hard on ME. And I , of course, had to put up with his crabby, over-tired mood afterwards.
Karen
Re: does your son receive OT?
That sounds more like my son too. I really don’t think it’s an SI issue with him either.
Karen
I’ve not seen it myself but one of my nieces does that, and yes, it’s unusual (she’s also been evaluated & a 504 will be in place so she can do things like take those nasty standardized tests with a smaller group in a calmer setting… funny how the school’s got no problem with getting *those* test scores up but that may be a tad cynical, as they’re also willing to accommodate other situations). The docs didn’t give it a special term (hey, “freezing — deer in theheadlights” sort of describes it fully) that I know of… they’re not seizures or the like, as you said, it’s a response to overwhelming stimuli.