Hello everyone!

1. What brings you here? One of my dear friends gave me this link. I have been looking for support groups for me in dealling with my son's differences.
2. What is your relations to someone with SPD? Do you have it? a child of yours? Do you treat SPD kids as a professional? Oh boy, oh boy! I do work with a couple of SPD kids as a middle school teacher. That's the easy part. My DS8 is diagnosed PDD-NOS, SPD, ADHD, and dysgraphic.
3. Share a little of your journey if you'd like. We started at 3 with speech and OT. DS has never liked certain food because of texture. He also hates tags on clothes and grass and has since he was a baby. We treat most things with behavioral modification and therapy. We just started Focalin XR for the ADHD 2 months ago. My personal journey has had its ups and downs. There are times (even now with all I have learned) that I wonder what I could have done differently. I am an avid reader and am always fighting to get more help for him. I work in the same district that he attends. Usually that is good as I have made friends with all of his teachers except for this yearl. And that's a whole 'nother story!
4. Is there any immediate help you need? Nothing immediate. I am looking for people that have run into the same things I am dealing with. I have many friends who try to understand, but very few do. Any or families still don't get that we aren't going to find a cure, we just have to teach DS how to live a full life with his differences.
5. SPD doesn't run your life! What are you or your child's gifts? Interests? DS is a math whiz! Last year I taught middle school math and he was able to do the same work they were doing in 2nd grade! DS also has a very dry sense of humor already and he loves people. He is also great with computers. Often he can figure things out that I can't. Right now his obsession is Bakuban.
6. What do you like to do in your spare time? Any hobbies or interests?
I do try to make some time for myself late at night by reading. I read just about everything. I also enjoy scrapbooking and most sports (watching not playing).

I look forward to meeting and getting to know all of you.

Sheri

Hey welcome Glad to see another person joining the site for their kids, it's great to see that there are parents who truly believe their child and want the best for them. *hug*

Feel free to swing by the chatroom, while Dan is away tonight at a hockey game, I'm going to be around and I'm sure a few others will pop in too.

Oh you and Mawkinberd will get along very well, she's also into scrapbooking Myself I'm just a drawer really, not good enough to call myself an illustrator but I do enjoy what I do. x3

Hehe... I fear I am becoming infamous for my scrapping.

Nice to meet you, Sharon! I agree with Sila... it always makes me feel warm inside when I see parents of SPD children fighting to help their children get what they need. So many cases of SPD are like the invisible disability, it would be easier (and is easier for many people!) to blame the kid and not do anything to help. Makes me feel so good to know that there are people who care as much as you obviously do. And as far as blaming yourself for things that happened in the past, I have to recommend that you give yourself some slack. You did the best you could with what you knew *at that time*, and that is the best you could have done. It is tempting to give in to guilt for not being able to do, but too often, that guilt can keep us from moving forward fully and loving and accepting what we have now. And it sounds like what you have now is a funny, smart little boy who loves his mom very much and is moving toward a brighter future. And that is a wonderful thing.

I look forward to hearing more about your scrapping, of course! Are you digital, traditional, or hybrid? I'm guessing you love to scrap your loved ones. I look forward to seeing any projects you have, if you don't mind sharing.

Alright, I'll leave you alone now. Looking forward to getting to know you better!

Thanks y'all for the warm welcome. I didn't make the chat room last night, but will try soon.

I can honestly say that for the most part blaming myself usually comes when I'm feeling down in the dumps. Most of the time its fight, fight, fight for the boy. Another issue we have that I forgot to post yesterday is that he is huge!!! Dad and I are both very tall and that means he is very tall for his age. People expect him to act like an 11-13 yo when he is only 8.

My scrapboking is all traditional. I have a group of friends and we get together monthly for scrapping, talking, eating, and drinking. I do need to get it in gear and post some of my pages.

Thanks again for the welcome.

Sheri

Hi there Sharon. Welcome to SPD International.

I'm glad you've found your way over here. You boy sounds like a good kid. I was a bit of a math whiz myself, though it was easy for me to get frustrated when the instruction wasn't great. I was kind of the opposite height-wise too (very short, lol).

I hope you are able to get all the support and help you need here. Just feel free to post around or ask any questions if you have them.
Welcome again.

I'm new here and I believe I have SPD (maybe ADD too?), which is why I'm here. I'd like to get info. from the people who have experienced this disorder themselves. I'm a 42-y-o woman, and I've been dealing with this for almost four years. I've been researching it, and I have the tactile form, although I am easily annoyed by noises that most people don't notice, such as squeaks in my car or high pitched noises coming from the TV, etc.

Actually, I remember when I was a kid, I couldn't stand to have tags in my clothing (still cut them out), nor could I wear jeans because the knot of material in the crotch area irritated me, and I wore my socks inside-out to avoid the seams. For the last four years, I've been overly sensitive to the seams in my clothing, mostly on my right side when I wear shirts with ANY type of sleeve, and now I'm beginning to get irritated by waistbands or anything similar to a belt (even something so simple as the belt on my robe). I'm desperate to get treatment for this and start wearing clothes again - like a normal person! So glad to have found this site.