SPD Diagnosis

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As I had posted before, we were waiting on the official word on what the psychologist and OT decided, as well as the school district. We got both results back this past Friday.

For the school evaluation, they said in general his results were great. Academically he is on track or above average. The areas he had lower scores in were not very low (just slightly below the curve) and they said it was more to do with how the test works, not so much that he was "behind". They said that his reasoning and mental organization are well above what they usually see and that his problem solving was pretty unique for this age. From their testing and observation they feel he may very well be gifted (I am as well, and my father, so this wasn't a big surprise). They did notice that he definitely scripts and uses rote phrases/conversations, and that his attention span was lacking. They also noticed some of his "stimming" type behaviors.

The child psychologist and OT came back with the diagnosis of Sensory Processing Disorder (mainly sensory seeking), with the strong possibility of ADHD later. They don't officially diagnose ADHD until later (he almost 4). She noted in his file that he has "autism-like behaviors" caused by the SPD. Again she was pushing starting meds right at the age of 5, something I am not remotely comfortable with. We don't have to see her again, and won't, given the med-pushing conversations. Medication is something I would consider if his school performance was effected or his daily life was miserable for him, but for now I don't see it as needed and don't want a pushy psychologist.

Overall, we are satisfied with where we are right now. We have at least a partial answer for his behaviors and have a starting place. With OT and a good home sensory diet we will see how he does. I honestly felt as though the school got a better feel for him than the psychologist did - for instance, picking up on his scripting and stimming, which the psychologist wrote off (as she wrote off most of what I told her).

Now I am starting on getting some sensory "equipment" in the house, and figuring out space for it. We have a very small house so we are going to switch out some furniture to smaller pieces and try to find space. I'm getting him a trampoline for sure, and made a diy crash pad last night. We have about 8 months of bitter winter here, so getting his sensory input during those months is going to be a challenge. But now at least I feel like I have a direction to put my efforts towards instead of blindly trying a million things.

I'm glad you feel good about the feedback you got. My older son has a diagnosis of SPD as well. We had one doc say that his issues were all ADHD related, but then had a full eval and the docs said his lack of attention was because he was too stimulated with sensory input and it was SPD. I think there are overlapping symptoms between the two. We give him noise cancellation headphones for when he is working in class and lots of fidgets. He is also allowed to take breaks and walk down the hall. We also decided to not medicate when the first doc said it was ADHD. I am not against medication, but I had decided to exhaust all avenues first. He is doing better as he gets older.

This does not take up much space at all, but is excellent for some good sensory stimulation:

http://www.amazon.com/Body-Sensory-7-Si ... B005NQV9UQ

There used to be a person who made Lycra bed sheets, but it seems like maybe she is going out of business. The site I used to go to no longer exists and I found an Etsy store that seems to be winding down. But it shouldn't be too hard to make your own. It is like a Lycra tube that goes around the mattress and the kid lies between the mattress and the tube.

A simple thing that helped my son was pulling heavy things around on a blanket. My daughter used to like to be sandwiched between couch cushions. Some things you do not need to buy. You can just be creative with what you've got.