Anyone have experience with Sensory Integration Disorder?

[Pithlet]

Our 4 1/2 year old son may have this. He's always been a very high energy child, and I've always noticed little quirky things about him. He hates loud noises, particularly low frequency noises like hair dryers, vacuum cleaners, etc. And he hates the sound of running water. When faced when any of these things, and many other loud situations, he'll clamp his hands over his ears, and often throw screaming fits. He also tends to repeat things a lot and avoid eye contact. He also sometimes flaps his hands when he gets excited. At a family gathering, two of my husband's cousins who are teachers noticed these things and told us he should be evaluated and mentioned SID as well as ADHD. Looking this up, I noticed he had a lot of the traits common with SID. I can't believe I never realized that something might be wrong. Early on, I guess I figured they were things he'd just outgrow. He always got a clean bill of health every check up. But, things have been getting progressively worse the older he gets. I had some similar quirks when I was growing up, including the hand flapping thing.

Anyway, we saw an occupational therapist who we just love, who saw signs of SID as well as ADHD, and she has referred him to a psychiatrist for further tests. I'm very worried. I've of course heard of ADHD, but I'm not as familiar with SID.

[phylny]

1. I work with many kids with SID.

I'm not an OT (I'm a speech-language pathologist) and have seen many kids helped by therapy. Some children with auditory issues I have worked with in the past have been helped by auditory integration therapy as well as occupational therapy.

Many kids I see with SID have other diagnoses as well, but some just the SID. I can't speak highly enough about occupational therapists and their knowledge in this area.

You're doing the right thing to speak to a neurologist (ask your OT and pediatrician about a referral to a developmental pediatrician as well). Also, if your child has any other difficulties - speech and language problems, such as difficulty communicating, repeating things or echolalia, social problems, etc. - call your local school district to set up a child study meeting to discuss whether or not he would benefit from testing for services (which are free through your district).

If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me.

[Pithlet]

2. Thank you so much.

I'm sure I'll take you up on that PM offer at some point. I didn't even think about a developmental pediatrician. We're in the beginning stages of all of this. We really lucked out with our first choice of OT; we really like her a lot.

He is slightly delayed in speech, as well as other areas developmentally, according to our OT.

[mzteris]

3. I think you're dealing with

much more than SID..... hand flapping and echolalia are usually found in an autism spectrum disorder (including Asperger's or other Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) (like Tourettes)

http://www.pediatricneurology.com/autism.htm

I think testing soonest is in order just so you know how to best help your child in his interaction with the world. :)

[TrogL]

4. I have personal experience

I have issues with water, strong smells (eg. perfume), certain textures (eg. slimy, gritty) and clothing (eg. can't stand regular underwear or non-Speedos swimsuits, love heavy jackets esp. leather).

I also have auditory issues. If two people are trying to talk to me at the same time, or one person trying to talk to me with background noise, I can't understand a damn thing. Until closed captioning came along, I used to have to have the TV on blaring loud to understand it at all.

Repetition, avoiding eye contact and flapping are definite pointers to something in the Autistic spectrum. Get him tested quickly. He may qualify for some school programs.

[Pithlet]

5. Thanks both to you and mzteris

We had insurance runaround type delays, but it's hopefully been settled, and now we're just waiting to hear from the office to schedule an appointment.

[Ilsa]

6. My son is autistic with SID. It's a part of his autism.

Hand flapping, touching, tasting everything (be careful), and sometimes an inability to determine that something might hurt (be careful here too). The other things you describe fit my son also.

[mzmolly]

7. Yep, I think my daughter has/had it. The good news is that many

kids outgrow it by the age of 8.

She is 7 and still hates the sound of toilets flushing - but she can tolerate most noises quite well.

She said not long ago "I can hear better then I could when I was a baby" she explained that our voices were muddled at times?

I wouldn't worry too much really. You can get occupational therapy to help, but as I said - I understand many kids outgrow it anyhoo.

Best wishes.