I have found WebMD.com to be a very helpful site in finding more information about Sensory Integration Dysfunction. According to WebMD.com “children with sensory integration dysfunction have difficulty processing information from the senses (touch, movement, smell, taste, vision and hearing) and responding normally to that information.” (Sensory integration dysfunction, 2008)
There is no one cause of sensory integration dysfunction though it has been associated with “premature birth, brain injury, learning disorders and other conditions.” (Sensory integration dysfunction, 2008)
WebMD also lists symptoms children can have:
- Do not want to be touched
- Not eating certain foods because of their textures
- Oversensitive to odors
- Oversensitive to certain fabrics (clothing)
- Do not like being dirty
- Difficulty calming themselves
- Overly jump, swing or spin
- Poor balance
- Oversensitive to sounds
(Sensory integration dysfunction, 2008)
Usually an occupational and physical therapist will be recommended to help these children. The occupational therapist has the child participate in activities that challenge them with sensory input. The physical therapist helps the child respond appropriately to the sensory stimulus. (Mental health: Developmental disorder, 2008)
Some other disabilities similar to Sensory Integration Dysfunction children can have that I will discuss later in this Blog are:
- PDD
- Autism
- Asperger’s syndrome
What I think:
I must say I complete agree with everything WebMD has listed. J.C. exhibited many of these symptoms.
My family and I were frustrated when J.C. did not want to start eating new foods. Even just regular baby food could be an issue, especially if it had any sort of lumps in it. When J.C. was old enough to eat SpaghettiO's we would have to pick out the tiny meatballs before giving it to him. If he felt a meatball in his mouth he would try to spit it out or nearly choke on it. It was quite scary, especially with me being a first time aunt.
J.C. had a lot of trouble being dirty and still does. Just a few weeks ago we were playing in the backyard after it rained and he was in his play house "making me something in the kitchen". He wasn't paying attention to what he was doing and put his hand directly in mud. J.C.'s younger brother, Jared, also put his hands in the mud except he loved the sensation. J.C. told me he needed to clean his hands (obviously not using those words) and had to be taken inside immediately to be cleaned or he was going to throw a fit. I thought it was crazy that his younger brother could handle something J.C. could not.
I wanted to talk about the occupational and physical therapist for a minute. They were both extremely helpful for J.C..
I specifically remember one of the occupational therapy activities because she had him play with play-doh. Now you would think all kids would love playing with play-doh, but it took J.C. a few sessions to get used to the feeling of it. At first he would poke it with his finger and then clinch his fists and shake. It seemed as though his brain didn’t understand how to process this sensation. When he got to the point where his could touch it without shaking is when the therapist would ask him to go further and make a ball with the play-doh. She gradually got J.C. to love playing with play-doh and he is creating pizzas or blueberry pies (obviously with some assistance).
The physical therapist was a little bit harder to deal with. The sessions that I did get to see it seemed as though all she did was tell him no or to calm down. I soon learned that if you don’t tell him not to do something he was going to keep doing it. When J.C. first started his “shaking” we just simply ignored it because we thought that he could not control it. After about a year of therapy his “shaking” was down to a minimum though he still does it on occasion.
References Senosry integration dysfunction. (2008). WebMD. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from http://children.webmd.com/tc/sensory-integration-dysfunction-topic-overview
Mental health: Developmental disorder. (2008). WebMD. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/development-disorder
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