We thought our greatest battle would have been helping our son to talk, but it seemed like other things were not falling into place as we would have expected. He still had frustration, his language and understanding was still limited and we had just moved from East Coast to West Coast to a new environment where we would need to continue his services. Once he aged out of the 0-3 system, we thought, now what? He's not in the public school system yet (or even private school). He was almost 4 and we thought maybe preschool would be a good option. Around that time we noticed he was not heeding our safety advice, even after hundreds of times. "Don't run across the street!" "Don't climb the table in the restaurant!" "Don't put that in your mouth!" (this one happened a lot, it seemed that my son was still exploring the world through his mouth). So, we thought, maybe Special Education services would help us and we had him screened for an inclusive preschool that would help, or so we thought. We were starting to learn more about sensory issues from the birth to 3 program and that some kids required more sensory input (called a sensory seeker, our son exactly), while others are overly sensitive to stimulus and their senses are heightened (called sensory avoiders-not our son at all). All children with a form of sensory processing disorder can easily experience sensory overload (visual, smell, sound) So, we had our son evaluated for the only area we could think of as pertinent, OT (Occupational Therapy). However, in the school system, occupational therapy focuses primarily on hand writing or coloring. They didn't see a need (not surprising) and found his interacting with his brother to be extremely surprising (of course he did know him since birth, so obviously he was comfortably with him socially). We left discouraged, not because he was screened as highly intelligent, but because we still didn't have help for our boy.
I started reading a book called The Disconnected Child to find answers. I honestly can't remember who recommended it, but things started to come to light and by way of observation and "evaluation" I was able to put a name to the things that were happening to my son. His vestibular was off, his proprioception was out of whack, and his right ear didn't process with understanding. Yes, those are big words so let me explain the best way I know how. If you have a normal vestibular function (which is an inner ear balance); as you spin and stop, you're dizzy and your eyes keep moving. If you have an under developed vestibular, when you spin your eye movement (flux) will only happen once or just a few times. My son could be spun 40 times and within seconds return to running in a straight line (a fun exercise, but concerning nonetheless). This means that the body's energy source is not computing in his brain(therefore, not getting tired). Proprieoception is the ability to see in appropriate depth (depth perception). So, when on a high playground set he would not realize how far off from the ground he was (posing a safety risk climbing on the outside of the playset), and he would often times run into walls (literally). This affected his ability to stay safe when climbing on anything, or be fully aware of his surroundings. These two things being under developed caused my son to not be aware of where he was in comparison to things around him, and also his brain didn't know when he had exerted himself to exhaustion, making him more likely to get sick. We were on constant alert, and become exhausted ourselves. That's when I found out about screening for sensory processing disorder, and thankfully there was someone in our area who specialized in OT for such children.
We were not giving up, we were going to help our son, and even if we had to wait to find out answers, we would fight to find them. Parents, don't give up the fight, keep searching. You are not alone, we get it, and the struggle is real.
Resources:
https://www.amazon.com/Disconnected-Kids-Groundbreaking-Neurological-Disorders/dp/0399535608
An occupational therapy for children with sensory processing/neurodevelopment integration
http://www.susanmcnutt.net/
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