What is Sensory Processing Disorder and How it Affects Us
Most people have never heard of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Currently, it's not even classified as an actual disorder according to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
But it exists, and most psychiatric professionals do use and have a standardized description of it.
So what is it?
According to WebMD:
Sensory Processing Disorder is a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to the information that comes in through the senses. Formerly referred to as sensory integration disfunction, it is not currently recognized as a distinct medical diagnosis. Some people with sensory processing disorders are oversensitive to things in thier environment. Common sounds may be painful or overwhelming. The light touch of a shirt may chafe the skin.
My Definition:
Sensory Processing Disorder is a condition in which the brain has trouble integrating the information through the senses in a typical manner. As such, the sensations received may be exagerated, diminished or even ignored as inputs. These include the classic 5 senses: taste, touch, hearing, sight, and smell. They also include: proprioception (where your body is in space), temperature perception, \, kinesthetics, balance, vibration, chemoreceptors (internal receptors for salt, CO2 in body, hunger and thirst).
Any stimuli or changes, internal such as hunger cues or external such as something touching them may be impacted by sensory processing disorder.
It is often recognized in young children as excessive pickyness. Refusing certain food tastes or textures, or being unwilling to wear certain clothes. Like many other mental health disorders, it is a continum, with some of the behaviors and reactionsbeing expected and normal, as every child has food and clothing preferences.
It ends up being considered an issue when the behaviors and reactions begin interfering with daily living. When the willingness to eat drives what a parent makes for dinner. When the child would rather go naked in the snow than put on a specific fabric.
Unlike normal childhood behavior, because this is a negative or even painful feeling when those senses are encountered, the child won't eat the food when they get hungry. They won't put on the clothes when they get cold. The alternative is what we would translate as pain.
Sensory processing disorder may impact different senses in different ways, and some not at all. While the sensation of some inputs may be exagerated, giving excessive inputs and pain from overstimuli, other sensations may be diminished or ignored. This is also an issue, because there are reasons people receive the stimuli.
Children may not recognize certain sensastions as even being present. They may not hear certain noises, or volumes. They not may feel certain kinds of touch, or recognize specific tastes. They may not feel certain kinds of pain. This leaves them prone to minimize risks. These are not damaged senses, but a misinterpretation between the sense and the brain. If a child does not know that poke with a needle can hurt, they can't empathize with someone who is hurt by it.
Finally, the reception levels of the senses, whether they are over or underreactive, can change with environment or other conditions. A child with SPD may be more sensitive, or not even recognize a sense when they are having a hard day from other issues.
What is means for us:
MadStyle has severe Sensory Processing Disorder. Many of her senses exist only in binary, or in an on/off capacity. It is exagerated when she is having a hard day due to physical or emotional upsets, when her eating habits are off, when she hasn't slept well or even when she is having a really good day.
Many of her senses have severely limited perceptions. She only tastes very strong tastes, and cannot abide touching, mixed or flavored foods. Foods cannot have more than one texture or taste. Broths are acceptable soups, along with pureed blends. Chunkies are out. Flavored yogurt is acceptable as long as there are no fruit bits. Stews, casseroles and stir frys are out. Even with items such as cake, the icing must be eaten separately from the cake, and she will not touch the bits with cake crumbs in the icing. She will eat every sweet and sour food in the house, even unprepared, but will not touch salty or bitter tastes at all.
Her pain and hearing are exceptionally binary. She doesn't recognize the difference between quiet and loud. She can hear a noise or not. She can't recognize if you turn the radio or televion up or down. She doesn't recognize the difference between bumping her hand on the table and breaking her foot. Both are equally painful. If distracted, she may not know if she got hurt, even severely. She frequently comes home with unexplainable bruises after school. We had an incident where we noticed blood coming from her ear when we picked her up from the bus. She had no idea where it came from. Off to emergency we went. On the other hand, combing her hair has always resulted in tears of pain, to the point her hair was very short for a number of years.
Because her pain perception is atypical, she doesn't know that things she does may be painful to other people. She has trouble playing with others, because she can be rough. She doesn't understand that physical contact may harm others, because it doesn't hurt her. She can't empathize with them over it.
Her kinetic senses, proprioception, kinesthetics, balance, and vibration are also significantly impacted. She gets ill if she doesn't move enough. Similar to people getting carsick in moving vehicles, she gets nauseated if she cannot move sufficiently.
Finally, her chemoreceptors and temperature perception are impacted. She cannot tell the difference between hungry, thirsty and full. She refuses anything with the slightest hint of salt. She can't tell the difference between cool and warm water, and will frequently mix being warm and cold. She may be sweating when it is very cold outside, or wear a sweater and long pants when it is swimming weather.
As you can see, this requires us to give her a wide berth, and to be very understanding. I've tried forcing her to conform, but it does no good. Would you force your child to step on nails just because everyone else does? That's what many things feel like to her. Forcing her into those sensations cause meltdowns, not temper tantrums. (I'll discuss in another post).
The best approach has been to recognize and work with her limitations. It has preserved her sense of self, and our family. It is extra work, and a bit of a pain in the rear, to accomodate her needs, but it's a lot less painful than seeing her being over or understimulated, feeling the extreme pain or losing control. Trying to force family meals on her caused her to go on an eating strike. No she didn't cave when she got hungry. She lost weight, became lethargic. Being a good mom in this case means working with the child you have, instead of attempting to make them conform to social requirements.
And for the record, I still can't wear socks with ridges, jeans or wool. I don't like chunkies in my yogurt, and I can't stand mixing fruit and sweets. I get very cold very quickly in the summer, and am cold all winter. I can't stand socks most of the time, but frequently wear gloves regardless of the temperature.
But it exists, and most psychiatric professionals do use and have a standardized description of it.
So what is it?
According to WebMD:
Sensory Processing Disorder is a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to the information that comes in through the senses. Formerly referred to as sensory integration disfunction, it is not currently recognized as a distinct medical diagnosis. Some people with sensory processing disorders are oversensitive to things in thier environment. Common sounds may be painful or overwhelming. The light touch of a shirt may chafe the skin.
My Definition:
Sensory Processing Disorder is a condition in which the brain has trouble integrating the information through the senses in a typical manner. As such, the sensations received may be exagerated, diminished or even ignored as inputs. These include the classic 5 senses: taste, touch, hearing, sight, and smell. They also include: proprioception (where your body is in space), temperature perception, \, kinesthetics, balance, vibration, chemoreceptors (internal receptors for salt, CO2 in body, hunger and thirst).
Any stimuli or changes, internal such as hunger cues or external such as something touching them may be impacted by sensory processing disorder.
It is often recognized in young children as excessive pickyness. Refusing certain food tastes or textures, or being unwilling to wear certain clothes. Like many other mental health disorders, it is a continum, with some of the behaviors and reactionsbeing expected and normal, as every child has food and clothing preferences.
It ends up being considered an issue when the behaviors and reactions begin interfering with daily living. When the willingness to eat drives what a parent makes for dinner. When the child would rather go naked in the snow than put on a specific fabric.
Unlike normal childhood behavior, because this is a negative or even painful feeling when those senses are encountered, the child won't eat the food when they get hungry. They won't put on the clothes when they get cold. The alternative is what we would translate as pain.
Sensory processing disorder may impact different senses in different ways, and some not at all. While the sensation of some inputs may be exagerated, giving excessive inputs and pain from overstimuli, other sensations may be diminished or ignored. This is also an issue, because there are reasons people receive the stimuli.
Children may not recognize certain sensastions as even being present. They may not hear certain noises, or volumes. They not may feel certain kinds of touch, or recognize specific tastes. They may not feel certain kinds of pain. This leaves them prone to minimize risks. These are not damaged senses, but a misinterpretation between the sense and the brain. If a child does not know that poke with a needle can hurt, they can't empathize with someone who is hurt by it.
Finally, the reception levels of the senses, whether they are over or underreactive, can change with environment or other conditions. A child with SPD may be more sensitive, or not even recognize a sense when they are having a hard day from other issues.
What is means for us:
MadStyle has severe Sensory Processing Disorder. Many of her senses exist only in binary, or in an on/off capacity. It is exagerated when she is having a hard day due to physical or emotional upsets, when her eating habits are off, when she hasn't slept well or even when she is having a really good day.
Many of her senses have severely limited perceptions. She only tastes very strong tastes, and cannot abide touching, mixed or flavored foods. Foods cannot have more than one texture or taste. Broths are acceptable soups, along with pureed blends. Chunkies are out. Flavored yogurt is acceptable as long as there are no fruit bits. Stews, casseroles and stir frys are out. Even with items such as cake, the icing must be eaten separately from the cake, and she will not touch the bits with cake crumbs in the icing. She will eat every sweet and sour food in the house, even unprepared, but will not touch salty or bitter tastes at all.
Her pain and hearing are exceptionally binary. She doesn't recognize the difference between quiet and loud. She can hear a noise or not. She can't recognize if you turn the radio or televion up or down. She doesn't recognize the difference between bumping her hand on the table and breaking her foot. Both are equally painful. If distracted, she may not know if she got hurt, even severely. She frequently comes home with unexplainable bruises after school. We had an incident where we noticed blood coming from her ear when we picked her up from the bus. She had no idea where it came from. Off to emergency we went. On the other hand, combing her hair has always resulted in tears of pain, to the point her hair was very short for a number of years.
Because her pain perception is atypical, she doesn't know that things she does may be painful to other people. She has trouble playing with others, because she can be rough. She doesn't understand that physical contact may harm others, because it doesn't hurt her. She can't empathize with them over it.
Her kinetic senses, proprioception, kinesthetics, balance, and vibration are also significantly impacted. She gets ill if she doesn't move enough. Similar to people getting carsick in moving vehicles, she gets nauseated if she cannot move sufficiently.
Finally, her chemoreceptors and temperature perception are impacted. She cannot tell the difference between hungry, thirsty and full. She refuses anything with the slightest hint of salt. She can't tell the difference between cool and warm water, and will frequently mix being warm and cold. She may be sweating when it is very cold outside, or wear a sweater and long pants when it is swimming weather.
As you can see, this requires us to give her a wide berth, and to be very understanding. I've tried forcing her to conform, but it does no good. Would you force your child to step on nails just because everyone else does? That's what many things feel like to her. Forcing her into those sensations cause meltdowns, not temper tantrums. (I'll discuss in another post).
The best approach has been to recognize and work with her limitations. It has preserved her sense of self, and our family. It is extra work, and a bit of a pain in the rear, to accomodate her needs, but it's a lot less painful than seeing her being over or understimulated, feeling the extreme pain or losing control. Trying to force family meals on her caused her to go on an eating strike. No she didn't cave when she got hungry. She lost weight, became lethargic. Being a good mom in this case means working with the child you have, instead of attempting to make them conform to social requirements.
And for the record, I still can't wear socks with ridges, jeans or wool. I don't like chunkies in my yogurt, and I can't stand mixing fruit and sweets. I get very cold very quickly in the summer, and am cold all winter. I can't stand socks most of the time, but frequently wear gloves regardless of the temperature.
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