sensory difficulties

[heaven2002]

if your child doesnt like being touched, or hates noise, refuses to wear socks or have hair washed, walks on tiptoe, hates wearing clothes, doesnt hear ur voice at times, hums alot to themselves, dislikes messy activites like playing with playdough

or if ur child is clumsy, crashes in to things alot, likes making loud noises, talks too loudly, hugs and squeezes things alot, has poor balance, cant catch/throw effectively

then it could be that they have 'sensory processing' difficulties. this is when the brain gets confused messages from our senses. so what is a normal sound for a child may be too loud for a child with SPD or what may be a gentle hug from someone may not register with a child with SPD

ask ur doctor to refer your child to a physiotherapist who will plan lots of sensory activites and motor activites to help them.

[perfectpearl]

I thought that stuff was normal for kids! ...their kids! :rubeyes:

[.: Anna :.]

no pp that's not totally normal... some aspects like clumsy and stuff may be common with some kids but all these things together obviously that is something..
neway thanks for the info heaven, i didnt really hear much about that before

[dhakiyya]

The bit about clumsiness reminded me of anther condition:

A clumsy kid that crashes into things n constantly injures themselves, knocks stuff over, spills food etc on the floor past the normal age that other kids do that (i.e. they can use a spoon and fork well but still manage to knock their food flying) could have dyspraxia. Other signs in older children is not socialising well at school, especially if its because the other kids think they are stupid, being bad at sport, particularly stuff like throwing and catching, still managing to drop, crash into, spill, knock over stuff frequently even when they are in upper primary or secondary school. Sometimes children with dyspraxia are late in becoming toilet trained, or may have more "little accidents" than other children. They are often slow in dressing themselves (both slow learning to do it in the first place, and slow at getting dressed once they can do it, and prone to getting stuff on back to front, wrong shoes on feet etc long after other kids master it)

This condition is often associated with dyslexia (the child may also have dyslexia or others in the family may have dyslexia or dyspraxia) - it affects co-ordination mainly and sometimes affects muscle tone too (hence poor bladder control) and used to be called "clumsy child syndrome". A friend of mine from school was diagnosed with dyspraxia after she left school. She was bullied mercilessly throughout school, considered to be sub normal and totally stupid by some of the kids in our year. Quite a few teachers were really horrible to her as well, treating her like a moron and/or completely unsympathetically because of some of the clumsy and inept things she did from time to time.

There are quite a few conditions - which in some cases, like dyslexia, should be considered as "alternative brain wiring" rather than a disorder - which can hinder a child's progress through school, or put them on a different "wavelenght" to their classmates, and make it hard for them to progress.

I'm not in favour of labelling children, but I am completely in favour of recognising such differences in brain processing, and helping children to overcome problems associated with them, and where applicable, use the strenghts and abilities that come with them to maximum benefit. Teachers in particular should be aware of all these conditions, and the learning styles that children with them respond well to. Parents need to be aware of them too, especially if there are others in the family with similar conditions as they often have genetic components.

[dhakiyya]

no pp that's not totally normal... some aspects like clumsy and stuff may be common with some kids but all these things together obviously that is something..
neway thanks for the info heaven, i didnt really hear much about that before

Its also a matter of what is age appropriate. For example its normal for a two year old to get their food on the floor and all over their face and hands frequently, its not normal for a five year old so you would start to question whether they had a co-ordination or sensory problem.

[heaven2002]

things like introducing activities on a trampoline, getting them to find small objects in a tray of sand, using one of those space hoppers for jumping, can help with a child who doesnt have good senses.

with a child who has senses which are very sensitive then rolling them in a blanket tightly, giving them a head / foot massage , introducing them to different textures to walk on or feel can also help.

'brain gym' activities which help the right side and left side of the brain to work together more activiely can also help for children with poor co-ordination, messy handwriting, dyspraxia or dyslexia and can also improve concentration, memory and motivation

[neelu]

Many of the symptoms in the first post remind me of either autism or OCD. My cousin is dyspraxic but cos he comes from a posh family in Pakistan- they completely deny it and sweep it under the carpet:rolleyes:

[heaven2002]

Many of the symptoms in the first post remind me of either autism or OCD. My cousin is dyspraxic but cos he comes from a posh family in Pakistan- they completely deny it and sweep it under the carpet:rolleyes:

yes children with autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia often have sensory perception difficulties too

[Te'oma]

I have 2 daughters that could fit into the categories described. One is high functioning autistic aka asperger's syndrome while the other one is textbook ADHD. I suspect that there is a lot of overlap in these "syndromes" that doctors like to use to label kids that don't fit into a tightly defined idea of normal. This is why we have elementary schools full of kids on prescribed anti depressants and speed. We are raising an entire generation of junkies and the doctors and pharmaceutical companies are getting rich off of them.
Incidentally, the child with aspergers does not take any meds for her condition. We also found that with our youngest daughter, a good cup of coffee at breaks works better then ritalin or any of the other meds that the doctors tried and no side affects

[heaven2002]

ritalin is no longer prescribed widely in the uk
and all it does is surpress not cure ADHD

in the uk there are no drugs for autism/aspergers used. just speech and language therapy, sensory stuff as above and techniques such as TEACHH and PECS to develop vocabulary and organizational skills.

i love working with autistic and aspergers children.

and what u said uncle jee is right, scientifically there have been links proven that show dyslexia, autism and ADHDD and other areas are linked, so if a child has autism if you look into their family history you will usually find some of the other conditions too

[Te'oma]

ritalin is no longer prescribed widely in the uk
and all it does is surpress not cure ADHD

in the uk there are no drugs for autism/aspergers used. just speech and language therapy, sensory stuff as above and techniques such as TEACHH and PECS to develop vocabulary and organizational skills.

i love working with autistic and aspergers children.

and what u said uncle jee is right, scientifically there have been links proven that show dyslexia, autism and ADHDD and other areas are linked, so if a child has autism if you look into their family history you will usually find some of the other conditions too

Over here the doctors are only to happy to prescribe meds for aspergers. They tried putting my daughter on prozac and valium to mediate some of her innapropriate outbursts. Yes she was depressed but it was because other kids didn't understand her and made fun of her. Medicating her wasn't going to change that. As it turned out, her "innapropriate" outbursts had been her lashing out at the kids that tormented her.
She's 19 years old now, graduate high school and is about to move into her own house

[heaven2002]

Over here the doctors are only to happy to prescribe meds for aspergers. They tried putting my daughter on prozac and valium to mediate some of her innapropriate outbursts. Yes she was depressed but it was because other kids didn't understand her and made fun of her. Medicating her wasn't going to change that. As it turned out, her "innapropriate" outbursts had been her lashing out at the kids that tormented her.
She's 19 years old now, graduate high school and is about to move into her own house

mashallah for ur daughter's success
im curently studying for a postgrad in autism , and have learnt that some adults with autism/aspergers are prescribed medication for depression in the uk, however not majority of kids. although i know one child who has to take something to help him sleep.
i think its really hard on parents and children as it isnt a condition which can be recognised just by looking at the child (i.e like with Downs, although im not saying thats any easier or harder) and therefore people put down alot of things to bad behaviour
hope the move goes well:up: