First grade and sensory needs

I thought Charlotte had her sensory issues licked.

No big deal anymore, I bragged.

Not true. Not true. What I have learned is that her sensory needs and the manifestation of her dysregulation has changed. While body awareness and gravitational insecurity may be a thing of the past, other sensitivities have emerged.

And it took the entire first half and then some of the school year to figure it out.

Our big struggle has been behavior at home. At school she’s considered a model student, but home is different altogether. After a pretty awesome summer, her behavior slowly started tanking at the beginning of the school year.

At first I chalked it up to the arrival of Nolan. He was born the same week school started. But it didn’t seem like it was all Nolan.

As fall went on, it kept getting worse. There was lots of screaming, hitting and pinching (thankfully biting never resurrected). The implementation of routines and consequences definitely helped, but we still dealt with daily massive outbursts that we could make no sense of. Completely unpredictable.

These outbursts seemed to coincide with sensory-seeking behaviors like smooshing her body in the couch cushions. Or sitting upside down. Lots of crashing.

Following Christmas break, home life was truly miserable. I began looking for a behavioral therapist to help us. At the same time, we also thought maybe getting back into OT with a private therapist might help. And right at the same time my husband suggested maybe we should remove dairy from her diet again.

We had been trying to keep her dairy consumption at a minimum but, as with many things, our good intentions weren’t enough and her consumption of it crept higher and higher.

Truthfully, I was not too keen on trying a diet change again. Been there, done that, not interested. But then Charlotte herself told me, “Mom, I think I am going to stop eating cheese for awhile.”

I suggested maybe she should stop all dairy for awhile and see how it goes. She wholeheartedly agreed.

Within less than a week all the hitting and pinching stopped. The screaming slowed down but did not go away. The sensory-seeking behaviors stopped.

I wish I could figure out the mechanism that makes cow’s milk affect her like that. It’s mind-boggling. There was no other change during that time – it has to be the dairy. I don’t get it but, I decided, that’s OK. Don’t have to understand everything.

Right around this time she also began to tell me that noise levels were bothering her. Sarah’s crying, the lunchroom, when they are packing up for dismissal. Every day she came out of the building from school in a bad, bad mood. Yelling at me. Screaming in the van on the way home. Evenings were tough. A whole lot better than before, but not acceptable.

I know kids with sensory issues often times need to “let it all out” when they get home to their safe place. But the screaming and arguing and refusal to comply with anything was just too much “letting it out.” Something had to change.

Enter the mid-afternoon sensory break. Her special ed teacher, who walks her out every day and bore witness to the soon-as-she-sees-mom daily fiasco, suggested it.

Every day since she began the afternoon sensory break has been a success. Comes out the door happy, pleasant, cheerful. The couple of times she didn’t get one, the old unhappy, angry, crying Charlotte emerges from the building.

I find this amazing.

Remarkable really.

That 5 minutes of sensory activities makes THAT big of a difference.

Even her special ed teacher is amazed. And I love it that’s is not just me seeing the difference. I love that there’s another adult to corroborate the positive impact from those 5 little minutes.

I won’t be so bold as to say that her sensory issues are resolved. I know better now. What’s important to remember is that what looks like awful, miserable, bratty behavior is really not that at all.

And no matter how hard I might try, I’m never going to discipline dysregulation out of her.

 

Tidbits

Be careful if you find yourself thinking that your kid has overcome her sensory processing issues.

For the last few weeks I’ve been saying that Chee doesn’t seem to have any sensory challenges anymore. No major wig outs, no apparent “dysregulation” to speak of.

Monday when her occupational therapist asked how things were, I mentioned how Chee goes immediately to meltdown when Ess takes one of her Cinderellas. I also described how odd it was that sometimes it really bothers Chee, and how other times she’s all “whatever, no big deal.” She’ll even go so far as to offer up alternative toys to Ess (“here, you can play with the Dwarfs”) on occasion.

Her OT asked how her Sensory Diet had been lately. Um, what sensory diet? Haven’t really been doing much of it because she just seems to be handling stuff pretty okay.

Interestingly, Chee has spent a lot of time in the snow the last two days (I believe cold is a sensory need for her and works the same as deep pressure or crashing), and for the last two days she has been the picture of chill and mellow when Ess does her famous grab-n-run. Could there be a connection? Time will tell.

In other news, I have a friend who has started a new blog that she is co-writing with her 10 year old daughter. Her daughter was recently diagnosed with ADHD and they are on the journey of figuring out how to help her. I just love the unique format of hearing from both Mom and Daughter. Check out Mommy and Me … and ADHD.

And, finally, Chee has taken adherence to routine to a new level. A comical one. Every night, for the longest time, when Daddy tells Chee it’s time to brush teeth, she will protest. Lots of whining (her and us) and discussion about whether to do it upstairs or downstairs. Just get them brushed already!

But that has changed lately. And not just with teeth brushing, but with many things. Here’s how it went tonight.

Daddy: “Chee, it’s time to brush your teeth.”

Chee: “Wait! I’ll go in the playroom and cry, and then you tell me, ‘Chee, it’s time to brush your teeth.’”

And she goes to the playroom, buries her face in the carpet, and whimpers. It’s hysterical.

Where does she come up with this stuff?

And, of course, when one kid is fake whimpering and getting lots of attention, shortly thereafter will come another one.

Yeah, yeah, we know: Ess, just say no to crack, honey.

 

Motor plan this!

There’s a lot of context I could provide here. Like how I overheard Chee and Ess discussing making breakfast. How Chee tried to force me out of the kitchen so she could do it all by herself. How I insisted I stay but promised not to interfere.

But the only thought that ran through my head as I witnessed (and photographed) this breakfast making adventure was:

motor planning issues my ass.

 

Discovering

I wish to thank everyone who gave me suggestions for Ess and her lack o’ veggies. Always one to confound, she has, in the last few days, eaten both peas and corn. And salsa (counts as a veggie, right?). After eating peas she said, and you must imagine hearing this in the most little-girly voice you can, Oh! I like dees peas. They taste.

She never says precisely what anything tastes, but we finally figured out that if something tastes that means it tastes good.

Good stuff.

Chee is good stuff too. Deciding about kindergarten is still top of mind for me. I’m 90% certain we’ll send her on to K next year. Unless she has some significant regression (doubtful), she’s going.

Her language and social skills are progressing along nicely and evenly. Even her sensory processing seems to be humming along. No major challenges.

The one area that worries me somewhat is how Chee becomes overwhelmed in a crowded situation. Especially a classroom or small group activity. Saturday we went to a park that we love and there was a presentation on fossils. We went into the Education Room where there was a half dozen other kids around a table and a volunteer talking about the fossils from our area.

Chee spent the first five minutes with her lips turned down and her face buried in my lap. She didn’t cry, although she looked like she would at any second. When the volunteer handed her a fossil she perked up, and when the magnifying glasses were handed out, she was downright enthusiastic.

This is typical of how she reacts in a new situation. When we went to church a few months ago, although she wouldn’t let her Daddy leave, it wasn’t until Circle Time that she became upset. At the time I thought it was because she was expected to be quiet, now I think it’s the “group”-ness of it. Perhaps I mean the class-like nature of it.

I think back to our trip to the zoo early in the year, and how she cried and cried when we came into the Education Center. We thought it was a matter of disappointment that we didn’t go straight to looking at animals. I blamed myself for not prepping her for classroom part. At the time that explanation didn’t sit entirely comfortable with me as, generally, Chee isn’t prone to meltdowns for unexpected changes in routine.

I am remembering countless story times at the library where she ran circles around the rest of the kids who were sitting in the circle. I remember our family reunion last year where she refused to go into the room where all the food and drinks were, preferring instead to stay upstairs, away from the crowd sitting at long tables lined up across the room.

Then there are the playgroups where she tended to gravitate to a room by herself to play. And the birthday parties where she retreated either outside or upstairs during the singing of happy birthday when, again, everyone is gathered together in a group to sing.

Further back than that, I recall music and tumbling classes where she didn’t want to, or more likely just couldn’t handle, being in such close proximity to so many unpredictable other little human beings.

The pattern is starting to emerge more clearly. Chee is overwhelmed? anxious? dysregulated? in a structured group setting. Be it a circle time, or a mealtime when everyone is sitting along rows of tables, or a concert where the kids are seated in rows listening – Chee is uncomfortable. To the point that she either has to get out of there, or she cries.

Can you tell this is one of those lightbulb moments for me?

Another pattern is emerging too. As time passes, Chee is quicker to adapt to the new situation. It was after about 5 minutes at the fossil presentation that she joined in the activity. Granted, that was a pretty small group, but she was clearly uncomfortable when she got there. And she clearly got over it.

This is an important recognition, I think. I’m not entirely sure what it will mean in terms of her education, but it feels significant.

It also feels manageable. And overcomeable.

And feels like not that big of a deal.

I like it when things aren’t a big deal. In our house, that in and of itself is a big deal.

 

Serving up Halloween

I generally don’t find myself wishing friends or neighbors a Happy Halloween as I haven’t typically found this to be a celebratory “holiday.” Goblins and ghouls and all things macabre just aren’t my thing. But dressing kids in cute costumes and watching them spaz out on sugar overload … now that’s cute. Well, the dressing up kids part at least.

Somehow, in our house, Halloween became a developmental milestone to conquer. Yet another yardstick for measuring Chee’s relative typicality.

Her first Halloween she was but a wee little infant and had not a clue. We dressed her up in the Cheapest Costume I Could Find at the last minute and traipsed her around to all the grandparents for a little show and tell.

Her 2nd Halloween wasn’t much different. At 15 months, she was still fairly clueless about costumes and candy. I dressed her up and we went to a party/parade at the MOMS Club I briefly joined. At the time I didn’t understand the whole candy thing, still don’t really, and Chee didn’t quite get the idea of collecting it in a bag, so we just sort of wandered the room. She was still the cutest kid there.

At 27 months, I thought Halloween Number Three would be it. That she’d get excited about wearing a costume, or that she’d want to collect candy (which she’d never had) and trinkets in a bag at a party. In hindsight I recognize that Chee was only echolalic in her speech and had no reciprocal language. However, I didn’t realize it then so I chalked up her lack of interest to just her age. Still I picked out a very cute clown costume and planned to attend a playgroup party. However, she refused (in a temper tantrumy, meltdowny kind of way) to wear the costume (hello SPD, nice to meet you). So I put her in pajamas, put her hair in a bunch of ponytails, and she went as Slumber Party Girl.

Now we’re up to last year. We have moved and live in a Trick or Treat-friendly neighborhood, Chee is certainly old enough, at 3 plus a few months, to know what Halloween is and to get into it. Except, she still has that language thing going on. She doesn’t verbally tell me she wants to dress up as anything. I chose not to force the issue and buy her a costume anyway and try to go door-to-door. She had the fear of garages going on and likely would not step foot into a single driveway. I wanted us to “do” Halloween when it was something Chee (or Ess) wanted to do, not something we, as parents, wanted her (them) to do. So our little family sat outside and greeted the neighborhood Trick or Treaters.

(Oh, look, hey, there’s me, I’m the one on the right. I still look like that but my hair is longer and I don’t usually look that pale. Oh, who am I kidding, I’m that pale all the time.)

Interesting thing, though, was that about half an hour into the candy passing, Chee decided she wanted “to go with all the kids” and she takes off. So for half and hour we walked the streets, no costume, no bag, steadfastly avoiding driveways, and froze our buns off. As soon as we got home, she wanted her Daddy to take her back out to look for the kids again. Another half hour spent wandering the streets.

And so we arrive at 2008, Halloween Number Five for our heroine. And guess what? She WANTED to go trick or treating! She couldn’t wait for Halloween to arrive so she could wear her costume. When I imagined what Chee might eventually want to dress up as, I admit that my mind didn’t wander too far from the tradition of Cinderella or a Butterfly or something similarly girly and, y’know, expected.

Not Chee though. No, no Cinderella’s for this Halloween novice.

About a month and half ago as we were walking through a store I pointed out the costumes and said,

Chee, it’s going to be Halloween in October. Do you think you want to wear a costume this year?

Yes! She declared, quite enthusiastically.

And what do you think you’d like to dress up as?

At this point, Chee stopped, put her hand on her chin, pondered for a minute, jumped up and down, and said, I WANT TO BE A WAITRESS!!!

And there she is! Our little waitress in standard waitress attire: black pants, white top, and flair-adorned apron. I also made her a tray complete with cups and bowl, but she left Daddy (who she insisted wear a Chef’s outfit) to carry that.

We met up with the family down the street (whom we have only met a few times) and their 6-year-old son was rather smitten with Chee (can you blame him?). They ran from house to house together, ringing doorbells, laughing, talking, having a grand ol’ time.

It was such a fun and festive time, I actually found myself wishing passersby a hearty Happy Halloween.

Also, let it be known that Ess was an adorable Snow White.

Cheapskates that we are, and not certain whether Ess would stay in a costume for more than a minute, we sort of primed her for being a princess and let her choose from the dresses we already have. She chose Snow White and loved collecting her candy, so long as she was safe in Mommy’s arms. Walking down the street she “want down, want down,” but for going to the door, she needed Mommy.

I guess you can say it was a very Happy Halloween.

 

Little bits o’ stuff

Despite a yucky virus that made its way around our house last week (knock on wood, I was the lone one spared), things have been extraordinarily ordinary. I love it.

Within the ordinary, though, there is still the extraordinaire.

Let’s start with Chee and her piano lessons. A couple of months ago Chee asked me to teach her to play songs on the piano. Sadly I had to tell her, Mommy doesn’t know how to play the piano (which was my Aunt’s and passed down to me to keep in the family). She has always enjoyed banging around on our piano and I’ve always planned to have both of my girls start piano lessons at a young age. Around 5 is what I imagined.

But then Chee said she wanted to learn how to play songs. I asked her if she’d like to take lessons from a piano teacher and she was rather exuberant in her Yes!! I kept asking for about a month and she kept at the exuberance. So I did some looking around and found a teacher. Chee’s very early into the lessons with only a few down and last week was missed due to the aforementioned virus.

Of course I was worried about how the lessons would go, and I forewarned the (young and enthusiastic) teacher that Chee might not sit through a 30-minute lesson and so we were just doing a trial. How wrong I was.

So far it’s safe to say that Chee loves it. LOVES it. Her only stipulation is that I have to sit in the room too. Fine, by me, and I think it’s better to watch so then I can help her with her practicing during the week.

Speaking of practicing, she practices every single day. All I have to do is tell her not to forget to practice her piano and she’ll spend, easily, 15-20 minutes doing her lessons over and over again. And then my little reader keeps turning the pages and is working on upcoming lessons. She reads the text and follows the visuals to learn the next thing (much of what she’s learning right now is hand position and using fingertips and high notes and low notes). It’s fun to watch. Her teacher is going to be surprised this week when Chee has the next two lessons already down.

It’s exciting to witness Chee learning. I can almost see her brain as a sponge, soaking it all up.

It’s equally fascinating to watch Ess. She’s a little sponge too. Sometimes that sponginess worries me and I question whether she’s doing something quirky in her own right, or if she’s imitating her sister. However, this past week has shown us that Ess has her own little Sensory issues. I noticed about a year ago that she didn’t like long sleeves and she seemed annoyed with the popular, snug-fitting pajamas.

As time has gone by, she is getting more and more particular about her clothing, especially socks and shoes. Today she refused to wear a coat (lay on the floor crying till I took it off her). Tonight it was tears about going into the bathtub.

It feels like a pattern of sensory defensiveness is emerging. As such, I started brushing her skin tonight (she calmed down instantly). I am going to ask Chee’s OT next week if she concurs that that’s okay to do with Ess. At this point I don’t think she has SPD nor do I think she needs OT. But, she definitely has some Sensory Issues going on and I don’t want to let it get unbearable for her … if that might be the direction it’s headed. Even though she is not developmentally delayed, I still need to take the sensory stuff seriously and be proactive.

I hoped to write more about the extraordinaire that we’re seeing in our house, but this post is long enough.

Soon I will write about how well Chee is communicating and all the positive things we’re seeing from her.

Stay tuned.

 

A safe place

When Chee is in her weekly Occupational Therapy appointment, I will sometimes skim through the books in the parent library. That is, if Ess will play by herself for more than 30 seconds. Sometimes I get lucky, sometimes not.

Lately I’ve been skipping around in The Sensory-Sensitive Child and I stumbled across a chapter about the home environment and how, often, kids with SPD just “let it all hang out” at home. Home is the safe place where siblings cut them some slack and expectations are not as high.

Reading this, I had one of those A-Ha moments.

Lately Chee has had me a bit bewildered at times. Other than one issue at school, she’s been doing great there. Really great. Behaviorally, she’s a compliant little dream (please know that comment is laden with sarcasm and eyerolling). She is actually behaving well, though.

She’s mostly pretty good when we go to people’s houses or to the store. Mostly. As good as you can expect any four-year-old with SPD to be. Or any NT 4-year-old for that matter.

Then there’s home. Home can be a totally different story. Can be I say because there’s nothing consistent going on here. At home there are times she’s just totally, one hundred percent, O-F-F. Off.

Want examples?

Saturday we had friends over for dinner and she was incredible with them. Talkative, engaging with their 2-year-old son, pleasant at the dinner table (even stayed through the whole meal). A model child.

Before our guests arrived, however, and after they departed, were … not so model. She threw several tantrums and was seriously defiant. Not listening to us at all and very physical (i.e. seeking behaviors). I can’t now remember all that she did, but I do remember, before the guests arrived, wondering if the night was going to be a total disaster. And after they left we wondered, What the hell happened to Chee? Where did she go?

Sunday was similar. We went to her teacher’s house for a class party and to ride her horses. The kids each got to take a spin around the corral on the horse. Chee had a very hard time getting focused to get dressed and out the door. She wouldn’t stop shaking the banister. She was just O-F-F Off.

We get there and she was superb. Talkative and engaged with another little girl. They held hands and jumped together. They ran around playing together for a long, long time. I was so impressed. Shocked. I’ve never seen her play this long with any one child before. She was fully engaged with her. My husband and I kept exchanging wide-eyed glances.

Afterwards, however, more of the same from the morning.

Sometimes I let myself get stressed from her behavior at home. I worry and fret and wonder what it’s like for other people at home with their kids and why does it seem like it’s always so hard for us. We do certainly have good times together, but she can and does make things difficult at times keep me on my toes.

Reading the brief passage in the book about home being a safe haven for an SPD kid to just be was a lightbulb moment for me.

That she can behave happily and respectful when we have guests, or when we are guests, or when we are in a public setting, is something to applaud.

That she feels safe and secure and loved enough to just let it all hang out at home, to show her disjointedness and whackiness and out-o’-sortsness in front of us, that is worthy of a standing ovation.

My heart smiles knowing that our home is the safe place that it should be. For all of us.

 

Sensory Processing Disorder: Managing it Every Day

In my post a few days ago about Sensory Processing Disorder (in support of October as SPD Awareness Month) I said that I would write about managing SPD on a daily basis.

I should caveat that I am writing only from MY perspective with MY daughter. I’m not an SPD expert, I just play one on my blog. Or not. Really, I’m just a Mom who’s got a kid with SPD.

In our house the most signifanct aspect of dealing with SPD has been the Sensory Diet. For those that don’t know, a Sensory Diet has absolutely nothing to do with food. (Unless of course crunchy food is part of your sensory diet as it is ours.)

Here’s a good explanation of a Sensory Diet from the Sensory Smarts website (which is written by the authors of Raising a Sensory Smart Child – which would be a great addition to one’s SPD library).

The sensory diet, a term coined by OT Patricia Wilbarger, is a carefully designed, personalized activity schedule that provides the sensory input a person’s nervous system needs to stay focused and organized throughout the day.

What worked for me to establish an appropriate and effective Sensory Diet was careful observation of Chee followed up by discussion with her OT. I noted times of the day and certain activities that triggered negative behaviors from her. I talked to her OT and she made suggestions of activities that would help her overcome those.

Chee’s Sensory Diet includes a significant amount of deep pressure touch and heavy work. Hugs are prevalent. I also do a lot of Chee Sandwiches and I actually encourage her to jump and crash on the bed. We try to play games of Simon Says where we do bear walks and wheelbarrow walks. Ess will climb in a laundry basket and Chee will drag her around (that’s heavy work). I try to do joint compressions on her several times a day. I’ve recently resumed the brushing protocol because Chee found the brush and wanted me to brush her skin.

In addition to the aforementioned, I also make sure Chee eats crunchy food with each meal. She used to drool a lot and seemed unaware that her face was messy with food. This is because she was under-responsive to that stimuli. I need to “wake up” her oral senses. Chee also seeks input to her mouth in the form of biting when she is frustrated. Not biting humans (fortunately) but rather clothing and toys. Eating crunchy food provides great sensory input to her mouth. Luckily, she loves carrots, so she usually eats raw carrots with both lunch and dinner. Just a couple of sticks is enough. At breakfast she eats dry cereal which is a little bit crunchy. I have found a very crunchy GFCF cracker that she likes and that also works its way into her diet daily. Oh, and potato chips. That’s her snack daily at school. Since she’s been on the GFCF diet, I have to pack her snack. I let her choose and she chooses potato chips every day.

These kind of activities help Chee to organize her nervous system and manage sensory input. The hope is that as she gets older, she’ll learn when she needs input and do whatever it is she needs to do to get organized. I already see that beginning to happen.

It’s hard to put into words what the Sensory Diet does for her, but it’s very easy to recognize when I’ve been slack. She’ll start rolling around on Ess, she’ll hit me when I tell her no, she’ll lay on the floor and kick the wall.

The toughest part, for me, of SPD is trying to determine whether she’s displaying typical 4 year old behavior or whether she’s out of sorts. Lately she’s become very defiant. Four year olds across the world are defiant. But sometimes her defiance is rooted in feeling out of sorts. Sometimes it’s not. That particular aspect of SPD has been challenging to manage. We are working our way through it, though, using a bit of trial and error.

I am finding that if she’s regulated then she responds to discipline. If she’s dysregulated then she falls apart and her defiance escalates into screaming. A heavy duty bear hug will usually calm her down. I still try to follow through with the discipline if I can. If not, we will talk about it. Honestly, I don’t know whether that is working. All I can do is try to be consistent. As my mother so eloquently told me last week, Defiance is normal and sometimes you just got to ride out the tough times.

My husband and I believe that Chee’s Sensory Diet is vital to helping her have a good day. Vital to helping her feel safe and calm so that she can learn and communicate.

Finally, I’d like to direct you over to Elizabeth at Three Channels who has a nifty list of bloggers who are writing posts about Sensory Processing Disorder. Click on over there to check it out (it’s in the upper right hand side of her blog).

 

Sensory Processing Disorder Awareness Month

I recently learned from Patty at Pancakes Gone Awry that October is Sensory Processing Disorder Awareness Month. She, and several other bloggers, including yours truly, are going to blog about their experiences with SPD and at some point I imagine there will be links collected and shared.

If any of my readers wishes to blog about SPD, please do so and let me know via comment or email, and I’ll make sure you are included in the list of collected links.

My daughter, Chee, has SPD. One thing I have learned in the 15 months since she was diagnosed (right when she turned 3) is that no two kids diagnosed with SPD look the same. In addition to that, SPD in one child might look this way one day, and then a totally different that way another day.

Many people, myself included at one time, think that SPD is when kids are particular about their sock seams, get irritated by clothing tags, or have intense, frequent meltdowns. Chee’s first SLP said to me that the hallmark symptom of SPD is frequent and intense temper tantrums from which one has trouble calming down.

Based on that, I said, Nope, Chee does not have SPD.

However, I followed her suggestion for an evaluation which ended up leading us to a wonderful OT at top-notch institution.

Much was learned.

I learned that we have two more senses in addition to the traditional five. The proprioceptive and vestibular senses (you can click on the links for simple explanations).

Those two senses make up the core of where Chee has her challenges. The dysfunction in her proprioceptive sense, which refers to body awareness, manifests itself in being a Sensory Seeker. Chee loves to crash. She seeks pressure, particularly in the form of bear hugs, from us frequently throughout the day.

The dysfunction in her vestibular sense showed up as gravitational insecurity. Chee was 3 years old before she would willingly climb a ladder to a TALL slide and slide down on her own. Bounce houses (aka inflatables) she wouldn’t have anything to do with those until this summer, when she was almost four.

I also learned that often times what looks like bad behavior, what looks to others like a kid who has parents that don’t know how to control her, is actually very much related to Sensory Processing.

The best example I can give of that is when Chee goes shopping. Chee loves to shop. And for the most part, shopping with her is fine. She is pretty good. But Chee is totally a wanderer. She has a very, very difficult time staying with me at the store. She can walk alongside me, but I have to be in hyper vigilant mode to keep her focused on a) keeping one hand on the cart; or b) looking for something on the shelf for me. When we get to the checkout, I try to always do the U-Scan lines because then she can help with scanning our purchases and bagging them.

I know this is not typical behavior. I pay special attention to kids at the store and I’m always amazed at how they just walk behind their parents, or alongside the cart, without hardly a sideways glance from their parents.

I’m even now observing with it my own daughter. Ess, who is not quite two years old, is desperate to be allowed to walk like a big girl in the store. She doesn’t want to ride in the cart anymore. The couple of times I have allowed her to walk have been surprising. But really not. She walks right behind me. She follows me through the aisles without trying to run away. Her biggest transgression is picking things up off shelves and saying, in her cute little girly voice, Here, we need this! and dropping it in the cart.

What Chee does, this running and running though the store, this is not some failure to control on my part. In fact, I think she does as good as she does, and has improved so much, because I have worked so hard to keep her focused when we’re shopping. It goes without saying that I am exhausted when we’re finished shopping together.

How and why this is related to Sensory Processing, I know not. I do know that I have heard similar tales from many an SPD parent.

Probably the most significant thing I have learned about Sensory Processing is that it’s not the end of the world. I remember asking Chee’s therapist when we first began OT, Can Chee overcome this? And she said, emphatically, Absolutely, yes, she will overcome this.

Sensory Processing Disorder is frustrating. It’s confusing. And it certainly takes some time to understand how it manisfests itself in your own kid. But there is hope. Lots of hope.

As part of SPD Awareness Month, I will write another post this month about what I’ve learned when it comes to managing daily life when your child has SPD.

Stay tuned.

 

They roared their terrible roars

Things are loud in our house.

L O U D

There’s the almost two-year-old who is discovering her Voice and loves to hear herself scream. There’s the  Sensory Defensive Seeking Defensive Seeking 4 year old who loves to hear herself scream drown out her sister’s screams.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Chee is all over the board with her sensory needs, particularly with sound. One minute she’s covering her ears and yelling at me to tell Ess to stop crying. The next minute she’s trading terrible roars with Ess, competing to see who can be the wildest thing.

Times like these I repeat my tried and true SPD mantra: This too shall pass.

Until then, I am practicing the fine parental art of tuning out.

And I upped my arsenal of ibuprofen.