Hi, my name is Lynn. I'm a freelance editor and a mom to 2 boys, 9 years old and 6 years old. My older son was diagnosed with SPD when he was 6. Since then we've had a *lot* of help from his school and therapists. I've read Out-of-Sync and a few others. My older son is mostly a sensory avoider and has low muscle tone, as well as a few other things I can't remember or pronounce!

My older son has always been shy, inward, slow to warm up, etc. We just thought that was his personality. He was born a month early at 36 weeks, but didn't have to stay longer at the hospital. We were lucky that he had no medical issues, except jaundice. He hit all his milestones later and didn't say more than a handful of words until he was 3. Again, we just thought it was from being a preemie, being a boy, and part of his personality. I saw that my two nephews talked later as well, so I looked into sign language. We did sign language with him for about 2 years until he was talking a bit more. Skip ahead to Kindergarten. He did fine academically, but the teacher was concerned because he was still parallel playing and not really interacting with the other kids in the class. The school social worker was brought in and did modeling behavior with him. I talked with his doctor to figure out what was wrong. ADHD/ADD didn't fit exactly. We had him evaluated for autism. He had some of the symptoms but not enough to be on the spectrum. In the meantime, an IEP was set up for him and he started doing OT at school and having motor breaks. I had my aha moment about halfway through 1st grade. I had edited the revised edition of The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun. I realized that the activities suggested in the book were the same ones the OT was doing with my son at school. And it was working! So I looked up SID/SPD and found the checklist. Yes, yes, yes, yes! The list described my son! I found a pediatric OT center that did evaluations and got the confirmed SPD diagnosis.

Over the last year or two, I've been noticing a few SPD things with my younger son as well. He seems to be mostly a sensory seeker. I haven't brought him to be evaluated or done any therapy with him yet (though I did buy him his own weighted blanket because he loved his brother's weighted blanket so much). I'm torn since it doesn't seem to be affecting him enough to give him troubles in school. But I do worry that it might affect him more down the road. On the one hand, I say to myself he's fine, it's mild, leave well enough alone. On the other hand, what if I can avoid future problems by getting him diagnosed now? Sigh.

Then in the last 6 months, I've seen a lot of similarities between myself and my older son. And I'm just now wondering if I'm SPD. I'm trying to find someone in my area who can help adults with SPD.

Looking forward to getting to know you all!

Hi Lynn! *waves* Sounds like you've had a whirlwind time with your boys (and yourself!). It sounds like you had to do a little sleuthing to get things going for your older son. I think it's awesome that your school was so on top of things early on. So many people I've seen here have had to fight tooth and nail to get that sort of attention for their children. What a blessing to have such a good support system there!

I'm rather of two minds about your younger son, myself. I have the same two hands in my mind, as well. lol I rather agree with your first hand. It's more quirks than serious problems at the moment, and I kind of think that instilling awareness in him would help minimize possible problems in the future. As long as he's not fighting an uphill battle with trying to deny or minimize them, I would think that lesser is better. But of course, I'm not an OT or any kind of professional. I just tend to err on the side of "less is more" with diagnosing unless one's life is being seriously affected. I'm sure there will be other strong opinions here, too, and some will probably disagree with me. Remember, you know him best, and whatever decision you make is based on knowing him best and having his best interests at heart. Oh, and a short time-out with your older son's OT just to feel him out might get you a professional opinion on that.

As for you coming to see SPD symptoms in yourself, yes, yes, and yes. lol I can't tell you how many parents of SPD children I've heard say the same thing. There seems to be a strong genetic component to SPD. I know there are several people in my family with sensory disorders of various kinds. And you now have so many tools at your disposal for pursuing it, if you so choose. Again, you don't have to have a diagnosis if it just doesn't make sense for you where you are in life. But if it is something that causes you difficulties that you feel are significant, then heck, get yourself a weighted blanket! Get on that therapy ball and roll. And I'm sure the kids would so get a kick out of Mommy doing their sensory diet with them. I know my son loves to roll on his ball while I do.

Anyway, welcome to our happy home. Hope you stick around for a while!

Hi, Sarah! Thanks for the nice welcome! *waves back*

My younger son is having more and more food issues, so I'm starting to lean toward getting an OT evaluation. And hopefully some tips for getting him to eat. My older son just had a couple of food aversions, but he's gotten better and better about trying new foods as he gets older. Younger son seems to be eating fewer foods rather than more. Sigh.

Ach. Yeah, the oral defensiveness can be a bear to deal with. For a start, you might try getting him some of the mouth exercise toys. Include him on picking them out; he will have valuable input on what looks fun and what doesn't. I have oral defensiveness, and when it's bad, there's a LOT I can't eat. It tends to get worse when I'm under stress, too, so that's something to consider. For me, it's textures. I have trouble swallowing things when the texture is "wrong," for whatever reason. Meat is a big culprit for me, because it begins to feel "dry" after you chew it for a while. Also oatmeal, grits, and eggs. The texture of those have made them almost impossible for me to eat for years, even when I like the flavor. Getting more mouth input from oral toys can be a help for this. It gives him the input he needs to "organize" how he feels, and it helps him relax and deal with the changes in texture and such better. It's a tough nut to crack, though, so it goes without saying that the nutrition value of food is going to be very important for a while. The big thing, though, is to know that it does fluctuate, so it probably won't be the same all the time, and it can get better with some therapy. And if you lower some of the stressors in his life, that can also be helpful.

One nice thing about treating SPD is that when you help one sense, often there is some improvement in others, as well. So when you have several things you treat at once, you can often get a cumulative effect that spills over into senses that are harder to treat. So I'm sure that weighted blanket you got him is helping, and if he's after his brother's therapy ball with a vengeance, well, it can't hurt.

Sounds like things are a bit difficult right now. Hope they start doing a bit better soon for you!

Yay, we had success with scrambled eggs! My younger son tried some plain scrambled eggs and actually liked them! I thought for sure that he would say he hated them. I was also able to get him to eat jelly sandwiches again. He's never been a fan of PB&J but would eat a jelly sandwich. Then he stopped eating them for a while. We went on vacation last week (rented a house near the beach) and packed PB&J's for us and a jelly sandwich for him to eat on the beach...and he ate them!

We went with hubby's brother and his family, and their sister and her husband. I heard my BIL saying, "When I was growing up, you ate what your parents gave you or you went to bed hungry.". Sigh.