Journey into Sensory Processing Disorder:The Discovery
From time to time I will post blogs called Journey into Sensory Processing Disorder(SPD). My son suffers from this little known learning disability. With a lot of help he is doing great. I wrote this blog 12-13-2007.. If you have any questions about SPD please feel free to comment and ask questions.
Last year at this time was incredibly hard for me. Not because of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but because we were in the mist of having our son tested for a possible learning disability.
It all started at my sons 3 year check-up. After the evaluation the Doctor felt like his speech was behind. He suggested I enroll him in a local preschool for more social interaction. I was in a daze. Honestly I was mad at the Doctor-How dare you tell me there is something wrong with my son- I can understand him just fine-the Doctor just wasn’t listening. After I went home and cryed on the phone to my mom, I decided better to be safe then sorry, to go forward and try what the doctor suggested. We enrolled him in preschool.
After his first week in preschool the teacher approached me. She felt like Nolan was not able to communicate what he knew and he had a lot of energy. She suggested that I have him evaluated by the school. I was crushed I didn’t want to believe Nolan might be different then the other kids. But I knew we had to go further to help him.
The evaluation with the school was hard. They had 10 kids in a room and they just watched them play, coached him on some things, drawing lines, jumping. We did a hearing and vision test then we were sent home. “What that was it” I thought. I was so confused. Then a week later I recieved a booklet in the mail with a list of behaviors. As I looked at them, having worked with autistic kids, they were all autistic behaviors. As I answered the questions I just thought Nolan can’t be autistic and in my heart I couldn’t answer the questions right in fear of that.
After a couple weeks of waiting -over the Christmas holiday, we were called into a meeting with the school.
With a room full of early education teachers, speech and occupational therapists we sat down to talk about Nolan. “Sensory Processing Disorder” is what they called it. I had never heard of this before. As they talked about it I cried- it explained a lot of Nolan’s behavior. Things I questioned. Things the Doctor was worried about. I left that building feeling hope, and joy but still a little scared of our journey ahead.
Last year at this time was incredibly hard for me. Not because of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but because we were in the mist of having our son tested for a possible learning disability.
It all started at my sons 3 year check-up. After the evaluation the Doctor felt like his speech was behind. He suggested I enroll him in a local preschool for more social interaction. I was in a daze. Honestly I was mad at the Doctor-How dare you tell me there is something wrong with my son- I can understand him just fine-the Doctor just wasn’t listening. After I went home and cryed on the phone to my mom, I decided better to be safe then sorry, to go forward and try what the doctor suggested. We enrolled him in preschool.
After his first week in preschool the teacher approached me. She felt like Nolan was not able to communicate what he knew and he had a lot of energy. She suggested that I have him evaluated by the school. I was crushed I didn’t want to believe Nolan might be different then the other kids. But I knew we had to go further to help him.
The evaluation with the school was hard. They had 10 kids in a room and they just watched them play, coached him on some things, drawing lines, jumping. We did a hearing and vision test then we were sent home. “What that was it” I thought. I was so confused. Then a week later I recieved a booklet in the mail with a list of behaviors. As I looked at them, having worked with autistic kids, they were all autistic behaviors. As I answered the questions I just thought Nolan can’t be autistic and in my heart I couldn’t answer the questions right in fear of that.
After a couple weeks of waiting -over the Christmas holiday, we were called into a meeting with the school.
With a room full of early education teachers, speech and occupational therapists we sat down to talk about Nolan. “Sensory Processing Disorder” is what they called it. I had never heard of this before. As they talked about it I cried- it explained a lot of Nolan’s behavior. Things I questioned. Things the Doctor was worried about. I left that building feeling hope, and joy but still a little scared of our journey ahead.