Hello, my name is Kristen. My son is William. He is 5. He has been in a program through the high school for high school students considering a career working with children. For most kids this might be great, but it isn't working out for my son. The high school students design and teach their lesson plans to the preschool children, and the preschoolers have 3 high school helpers each day, which I thought would be great for the one-on-one interaction. Last semester, the adult teacher of the class approached me and told me she thought my son might have a behavior disorder and advised me to contact the school districts special education school. My husband and I didn't agree with that at the time. We thought (especially after I went and observed him at school the next day) that it was due to his poor eyesight. He's worn glasses since before he turned 4. We've been seeing a specialist at the local childrens hospital for Amblyopia (one eye is weaker than the other, causing the weak eye to turn in and cross. His brain was essentially shutting down his weak eye. We have used eye patches on the strong eye to force the weak eye to work, but when we decreased the hours/day, his eyesight worsened. We've resorted to eye drops in the strong eye to blur the vision in that eye, forcing the weak eye to work. We recently discovered that when one eye is covered, the other jiggles back in forth and makes it hard for him to focus on anything, which is why we have resorted to the drops instead of the patch.)
We have had him evaluated with the SPED school and are currently awaiting their decision of whether or not he qualifies for services there. He scored in the 88th percentile of 4-6 year olds, right after turning 5 in his communicative status category. He seems to be incredibly smart, understanding things and concepts most older kids don't understand, like sonar, elasticity, and other scientific ideas, as well as having a fairly advanced vocabulary.
What he's currently having problems with at the preschool is that he seems to get overstimulated easily, especially in large open rooms with more than 10 people in the room. During the lesson time, he will run laps around the classroom. If everyone else is sitting at the table doing science, he will log roll across the floor. He seems to gravitate towards a sit 'n' spin toy and pushing a shopping cart around. They will sometimes take the children into the hallway to work on gross motor skills, and 9 times out of 10, he will take off running down the hallway and ignore requests/commands to come back or stop. He has had to be physically carried inside from outside recess because he wouldn't/couldn't keep his hands to himself and was bumping into people on purpose. He loves to play in water and dry dirt/sand, but for the longest time, wouldn't get his hands messy with wet and gooey things. Fingerpainting is only fun for him in the last couple of months. We had a "smash cake" for his first birthday and he cried when we put icing on his hands and face for the fun "smash cake" pics. He had absolutely no interest in smashing it like most kids. He is a terribly picky eater and if forced to try new foods, will often gag, if not throw up, what little food he has eaten. Casseroles and soups are out of the question because everything is mixed and touching. He won't dip food (like chicken nuggets, which he loves) in sauces or dressings. He loves fruit and some vegetables. If I serve spaghetti, I have to serve the sauce separate from the noodles. Its the only way he will eat it.
He has recently resolved to hitting when he gets frustrated (like when a helper has told him its time to clean up toys, he recently hit the helper with a train track, and supposedly "hurt" them, although not seriously.) He also seems to have trouble recognizing people's "bubbles" or personal space. He will run right through a crowd of people instead of going around or waiting for them to move. In a store, he touches everything (which admittedly, drives me nuts!). Its only in the last few months that I feel confident enough in him to let him walk while in a store. Before that, I would always, always, always put him in a shopping cart to avoid having him run off or break displays or run into people.
We have him enrolled in karate twice a week to help with his motor skills, self control and other discipline things that karate can help with, and he really does well with it and seems to thrive there. He really loves and respects his teacher and tries hard to please him. I am one proud mommy when its my turn to take him to karate! (My husband and I take turns taking him)
Some of his strengths are that he can recognize all letters pretty reliably, and is pretty reliable with numbers to 20. His vocabulary is above average and he seems gifted in some areas.
Anyway, I know I'm leaving a lot of stuff out, but I am just hoping for some other parents who are experience in this disorder to tell me if they think I'm on track thinking SPD might be the issue or if I'm off base. A family member was the one who initially brought the idea up and suggested I look into it.
So what do you all think? SPD? ADHD? Something else? I'd love to hear what you have to say!