Sensory Integration Dysfunction

Jessica, are you a special ed. teacher? Just for your information, when you become a school psychologist………so many different issues are dropped in the laps of resource teachers that many times we cannot get to all the issues we might like to. Indeed, there is a group of LD youngsters who manifest sensory issues. Many of these have an ADHD diagnosis or we suspect a diagnosis would be in order, but for some reason has not occurred. Oftentimes they appear to be the ADHD/inattentive variety. I have taught quite a few overweight little boys who were sluggish children, disorganized, and very clumsy. Part of this pattern often includes the appearance of low motivation or a low level of concern (they are difficult to motivate, even with reinforcers often little really is rewarding to them). One of these little chubby guys was diagnosed as S.I. disorder and was receiving therapy outside of school. He eventually went on ritalin and that helped more than anything else. In fact, as I review my last 9 years worth of students in my mind, probably 90% of them with significant sensory issues were either diagnosed ADHD or suspected ADHD and over half were chubby. I think there is much to be learned from brain research about these children.

Finally, to answer your question, I have no more time to do sensory integration activities than I have time to do vision training and a host of other therapies. Please, when you begin working as a school psych., don’t dump issue upon issue into the lap of the resource teachers with whom you work. Most days just adequately covering the major academic issues carefully is about all I can squeeze into the time I have to teach students.

Anitya-

thank you so much for your input- i will definitely keep in mind the awesome responsibilties resource teachers have at my IEP meetings!!!

Jessica

You may be interested in reading the book “The Out of Sync Child.” I can’t remember the author’s name, but it is a pretty popular book in the book stores. Also, if you have an occupational therapists that work in your district you may want to consult with them on the topic. They attend a lot of conferences on sensory dysfunction and have a variety of activities and strategies you can use to help someone with sensory dysfunction. Unfortunately, sensory defensiveness along with ADHD get misdiagnosed and also present with similar characteristics. With all do respect to the resource teacher, if sensory issues are not addressed first, their efforts to teach are often futal. If every time a child picks up a pencil and it feel like a million pins and needles to their skin then are they really learning at this point? This is an extreme example, but it is just like maslow hierarchy of needs, a child sensory needs must be addressed first or you are in a way compromising their perceived safety and trust. Good luck in your field, keep and open mind and always address what the child needs first and then delegate the responsibilities equally.

My boy (autistic non-verbal) had moderate SID. Very mild tactile defensiveness (manifested in refusal to eat certain food textures and a tendancy to take off itchy clothes). We received OT services thru Easter Seals to address this, and he has made significant progress in this. As my boy did not have a severe problem with sensory integration I am not sure how big an impediment this was to his other developement. The schools were less than helpful in this, taking the stance that they did not have the resouces for proper OT.

SID goes hand in hand with many LD’s, notably autism and ADHD, two of the more prevalant problems. Failure to address this will not allow the child to make meaningful progress in other areas, as untreated SID increases inaatention and inability to focus. To a child with profound SID, the world around is an overwhelming cacophany of sights, sounds, smells and textures. It is hard for those of us who do not suffer from this to fully appreciate the magnitude of the problem for children. How many are being medicated for attention problems that could be helped instead by proper OT is unknown.

Common therapies for SID include deep pressure, brushing and AIT. Some children benefit from a couple of sessions per week, others will need it daily to ease their overstimulation. lessened by changes in diet, including the gfcf diet for some

Interestingly enough, many children also have their SID autistic children who have leaky gut syndrome, or the Feingold diet for some ADHD kids.

It is important to get children diagnosed as accurately as possible, and for all memebers of the education team to work together from the same page in determining the appropriate services needed to help the child progress, and not for people to take adversarial stands which in the end accomplish nothing. It is for this last reason that we decided the best thing to do with my boy was homeschooling, which we have been doing for over a year now with very good success.

I am a mother of 2 daughters. Both are very gifted, above average IQ’s. My older was diagnosed 2 years ago with dyslexia but she is not SID. My younger daughter does not have a LD but just recently diagnosed with SID, something I have known about since she was a toddler but never new there was a name for it. She is highly tactile defensive, vestibular, and oral. She is mild in other areas of SID’s.

I did some reseach on SID when I first found the name for her condition and most of it states that is often found within Authism. I’m not sure this always a direct link but it is possible for people to have SID’s and not have a LD. I know of 2 other people who have SID and not have LD’s.

One thing you have to keep in mind about your study is many doctors don’t understand SID’s, as in my case. I beleive there are many people, children, go undiagnosed. In my case it took till my dauther was almost 9 yrs old and 5 doctors before I found one that didn’t think she was just spoiled or she was looking for attention. I have infomation, identifying qualties, on her that goes back to when she was under the age of 2, to find a doctor who understood SID’s. I believe it was only because he to has a SID’s child.

The book reference in on of the other post’s, “The Out of Sync Child”, is very good reading, information.

Good luck in your study.