Sensory Integration Disorder

I am going to be delving deep into the study of my daughter, Abigail. She was diagnosed with sensory integration disorder when she was 18 months old. Now at 4 1/2 she has undergone years of occupational and physical therapy, speech services, and neurological services. She has had testing of all kinds to determine what caused her to experience her epilepsy and delays including CT scans, MRI's, an EEG, biopsies of her lymph nodes, a spinal tap, and endless blood and urine tests on top of dozens of evaluations by experts. 3 years after her diagnosis she is still struggling, and most of her doctors dont know what more to do beyond her diagnosis and therapy, which essentially *is* helping, though mildly.

I've studied Sensory Integration Disorder as much as I have been able to online, and have recently picked up a slew of books on the topic, and on Autism, which I also believe Abbi has (and will be pushing the doctor for a formal test soon).

So... What is sensory integration disorder? Well... that's a big part of what I'll be examining over the coming weeks & months (maybe years). In short, I will share some information from the forward of the book "The Out of Sync Child."

"Individuals with these changes look typical. Yet, subtle areas of their nervous systems are not functioning as they should. These changes result in behaviors that confuse, frustrate, and anger parents and teachers. They wonder why these children lack self help skills, become agressive or withdrawn in a group, or refuse to participate in activities or sports"

Some of the problems SID kids experience include learning, language, and the inability to process information through the senses properly (sights, sounds and senseations of touch and movement). For example, it might upset someone with SID to experience bright lights or loud sounds, or to be touched or moved unexpectedly.

People with SID also often have motor skills problems, and have a hard time controlling and orchestrating their muscles effectively. Essentially it is a problem for them to get their body to do what their mind is thinking.

I truly cant imagine what it would be like to be sending the message to my brain for my foot to move forward in a step and it just not "work"... i imagine it would be something similar to like when my leg falls asleep and i just cant seem to get it to move correctly no matter how hard i try. my whole body being like that 24-7 is something i cant even begin to fathom.

The authors of this book, "The Out of Sync Child" state that it isnt that the child needs to change behaviors even though they may sometimes be destructive. Rather, it is the probable underlying reasonf ro those behaviors that we must learn to understand. Behavior is a symptom - not a diagnosis.

"Our task is to not react tot he behavior with the same frustrations and feelis of failure the child experiences. Our job is to understand the behaviors."

That is what my goal is... to understand Abbi. I want to know what makes her tick... what causes her to do (or not do) the things that she does. I think that the more I understand her, the more I can help her to grow into the person that I know she can be. We can work together to help her get through what she struggles with. I hope this journey benefits us both.