Categorically Speaking...

I had no idea that there were various categories and subtypes of sensory integration disorder (this book, the out of sync child, calls it sensory processing disorder). There are apparently 3 different types, with various sub-types.

1) Sensory Modulation Disorder:
-a- Sensory Over-responsivity
-b- Sensory Under-responsivity
-c- Sensory Seeking

2) Sensory Discrimination Disorder

3) Sensory Based Motor Disorder
-a- Postural Disorder
-b- Dyspraxia

The book also gave a great brief description of SID.... here's a quote from page 11.


"SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) happens in the central nervous system, at the 'head' of which is the brain. When processing is disorderly, the brain can not do its most important job of organizing sensory messages. The child cannot respond to sensory information to behave in a meaningful consistent way. He may also have difficulty using sensory information to plan and carry out actions that he needs to do. Thus, he may not learn easily.

Learning is a broad term. One kind of learning is called adaptive behavior, which is the ability to change one's behavior in response to new circumstances, such as learning to meet different teachers expectations. Adaptive behavior - or adaptive responses - is goal directed and purposeful.

Another kind of learning is motor learning, which is the ability to develop increasingly complex movement skills after one has mastered simpler ones. Examples are learning to use a pencil after learning to use a crayon, or learning to catch a ball after learning to throw one.

A third kind of learning is academic learning. This is the ability to acquire conceptual skills, such as reading, computing, and applying what one learns today to what one learned yesterday."


..... For Abbi, I see so much of this in her.... the learning problems. Developmentally she is skewed somewhere between about 12 mos in speech and cognative abilities, to just around 2 years old with motor skills. Bear in mind that she is 4 1/2 years old. Every day that passes, she gets further behind, and while she can never be a disappointment to me in any way whatsoever, I hurt for her, to see her struggle and be so frustrated... and to know that others, particularly kids her own age, see a difference and dont know how to play with or react to her. I hurt for her to experience all of this, and not be able to enjoy life as a "neuro-typical" child can.

I'm hoping that in learning more about this disorder, I can help her overcome a lot of her obstacles to at the least just work WITH her instead of what has often felt like, against her very strong will, to help her grow. I see hope on the horizon... as they say - knowledge is power.