I hope nobody is getting annoyed about all my awareness threads about different disorders. This one is about something that effects me personally..

Ten Fundamental Facts About SPD

* Sensory Processing Disorder is a complex disorder of the brain that affects developing children and adults.
* Parent surveys, clinical assessments, and laboratory protocols exist to identify children with SPD.
* At least 1 in 20 people in the general population is affected by Sensory Processing Disorder.
* In children who are gifted and those with ADHD, Autism, and fragile X syndrome, the prevalence of SPD is much higher than in the general population.
* Studies have found a significant difference between the physiology of children with SPD and children who are typically developing.
* Studies have found a significant difference between the physiology of children with SPD and children with ADHD.
* Sensory Processing Disorder has unique sensory symptoms that are not explained by other known disorders.
* Heredity may be one cause of the disorder.
* Laboratory studies suggest that the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are not functioning typically in children with SPD.
* Preliminary research data support decades of anecdotal evidence that occupational therapy is an effective intervention for treating the symptoms of SPD.

– from Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children With Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) by Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR
It's hard for me to explain it. So i am going to do my best to explain it..

When thinking about the senses you automatically think about the main four senses.. touch, smell, hear, and taste. Well there is a 5th sense people don't think of that is body awareness.

Now a person with a normal functioning neurological system can deal with the day to day senses (which are never ending) just fine. People with SPD or as it's sometimes referred to sensory integration dysfunction, have trouble dealing with this because it's just over whelming.

SPD is a disorder with subgroups. Here's a pretty generic description I found on wiki although the actual sub disorders are a bit more complex. However i have read 3 books on it and still don't know how to begin to describe the different variations of this.

Hyposensitivities and hypersensitivities

Sensory integration disorders vary between individuals in their characteristics and intensity. Some people are so mildly afflicted, the disorder is barely noticeable, while others are so impaired they have trouble with daily functioning.

Children can be born hypersensitive or hyposensitive to varying degrees and may have trouble in one sensory modality, a few, or all of them. Hypersensitivity is also known as sensory defensiveness. Examples of hypersensitivity include feeling pain from clothing rubbing against skin, an inability to tolerate normal lighting in a room, a dislike of being touched (especially light touch) and discomfort when one looks directly into the eyes of another person.

Hyposensitivity is characterized by an unusually high tolerance for environmental stimuli. A child with hyposensitivity might appear restless and seek sensory stimulation.

In treating sensory dysfunctions, a "just right" challenge is used: giving the child just the right amount of challenge to motivate him and stimulate changes in the way the system processes sensory information but not so much as to make him shut down or go into sensory overload.

The "just right" challenge is absent if the activity and the child's perception of activity do not match. In addition, deep pressure is often calming for children who have sensory dysfunctions. It is recommended that therapists use a variety of tactile materials, a quiet, subdued voice, and slow, linear movements, tailoring the approach to the child's unique sensory needs.

While occupational therapy sessions focus on increasing a child's ability to tolerate a variety of sensory experiences, both the activities and environment should be assessed for a "just right" fit with the child. Overwhelming environmental stimuli such as flickering fluorescent lighting and bothersome clothing tags should be eliminated whenever possible to increase the child's comfort and ability to engage productively. Meanwhile, the occupational therapist and parents should jointly create a "sensory diet," a term coined by occupational therapist Anna Jean Ayres.

The sensory diet is a schedule of daily activities that gives the child the sensory fuel his body needs to get into an organized state and stay there. According to SI theory, rather than just relying on individual treatment sessions, ensuring that a carefully designed program of sensory input throughout the day is implemented at home and at school can create profound, lasting changes in the child's nervous system.

Parents can help their child by realizing that play is an important part of their child's development. Therapy involves working with an occupational therapist and the child will engage in activities that provide vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile stimulation. Therapy is individualized to meet the child's specific needs for development. Emphasis is put on automatic sensory processes in the course of a goal-directed activity. The children are engaged in therapy as play which may include activities such as: finger painting, using Play-Doh type modeling clay, swinging, playing in bins of rice or water, climbing, etc.

If anyone has any questions about it I can probably answer them. But it is really difficult to get into the specifics of it because it varies from child to child.

One child may like to wear super tight clothing while the next child may absolutley be tortured by the feeling of clothing that is even slighty tight.

They don't get into sensory seekers on wiki, which is kind of my expertise in this. A sensory seeker is the kid who can't sit still and throws themselves against the wall.

There is also poor body awareness, people who walk into walls without realizing it.

Any questions class..
I am also going to post some links.