What are some signs of Sensory Processing Disorder?
Signs Of Auditory Dysfunction (not associated with a physical hearing problem):
Hypersensitive: Covers ears and startled by loud sounds; distracted by sounds not noticed by others; fearful of toilets flushing, hairdryers and/or vacuums; resists going to loud public places (even cafeteria at school).
Hyposensitive: May not respond to verbal cues; loves loud music and making noise; may appear confused about where a sound is coming from; may say "what?" frequently.
Hypersensitive: Covers ears and startled by loud sounds; distracted by sounds not noticed by others; fearful of toilets flushing, hairdryers and/or vacuums; resists going to loud public places (even cafeteria at school).
Hyposensitive: May not respond to verbal cues; loves loud music and making noise; may appear confused about where a sound is coming from; may say "what?" frequently.
Remember that inconsistency is a hallmark of this disorder, so you may find yourself/your child being hypersensitive one day and hyposensitive another day and on yet another day seem completely normal. For a more complete checklist of symptoms, click here.
Josiah's biggest challenge with his senses is modulation -- his brain can't seem to find the balance between being over and under sensitive to input -- and this system is no exception to that rule. He goes back and forth between being disturbed by loud noises (he hides when the blender is on, hates automatically flushing toilets, and quickly gets overwhelmed in noisy environments) and seeking them out (he loves to have music and movies playing loudly, makes tons of his own (very loud) noises, and sometimes seems very confused about where a sound is coming from).
From a parenting standpoint, this one is REALLY tough -- how do we know when he's not cooperating because he's struggling with auditory processing and when he's intentionally tuning us out (as kids often do)? We still don't have very good answers for that -- we just try to make sure we get his full attention before we give him directions (especially when he seems to be having trouble cooperating) to somewhat rule out the SPD issue, but it's not foolproof, for us or for him!
Don't forget to stop by Hartley's Life with 3 Boys to read 30 Stories in 30 Days, guest blogs from 30 different families about their experiences with an SPD child.
No comments:
Post a Comment