Thursday, April 11, 2013

Excellent article on Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) from Parents Magazine:

Treatment consists of carefully designed, multisensory activities that challenge one or more sensory systems simultaneously -- such as swinging while throwing beanbags at a target, which presents both a vestibular and a visual challenge. The goal: to help build neural pathways that can lead to appropriate responses to information that comes into a child's brain through the senses. This is time-consuming and requires frequent repetition, but it's necessary. "Nerves that fire together wire together," explains Biel. "So each time you practice something, you strengthen the neural connections so that it eventually becomes automatic."

http://www.parents.com/health/kids-who-feel-too-much/?page=2



"It's not an obvious diagnosis," says Dr. Miller, who adds that the behavior of a child with SPD can be confused with that of a kid who may have overlapping behaviors and a different diagnosis, such as ADHD. A child who doesn't get enough proprioception will seek ways to stimulate his muscles and joints -- continuously moving, or chewing constantly on non-food items such as straws and pen caps, she says. What's more, roughly 40 percent of the time kids have both SPD and ADHD, found a study by Dr. Miller and her colleagues.

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