What is SPD anyway? Post #1

I could go on for about 3 days and still not convey all of the information there is out there!  This will be a series......

First off SPD is Sensory Processing Disorder.  It is a neurological condition where the senses and the brain don't communicate properly and that causes a host of secondary conditions.  My son was diagnosed as Sensory Defensive at the age of 4.  I had that feeling that something was wrong by the time he was about 15 months, but couldn't find answers.  His pediatrician didn't see anything wrong as he hit all of his milestones, just at the oldest end of "normal".  As a mom and early childhood educator, my instincts told me something was off somewhere.  I took him to our local public school for a screening and he was recommended for a full motor evaluation with an Occupational Therapist, or OT.  Unfortunately, he didn't have enough of a delay to qualify for services :(  I was so frustrated!!!  Thank goodness for social media.  I was able to voice some frustrations on Facebook and received responses from friends that pointed me to private therapy.  After meeting with his pediatrician I called one of the pediatric rehab centers of a local hospitals and was in for another eval within a week. When the OT told me that my son was "sensory defensive" I nearly cried, in fact I cried the whole way home.  How could I not know?  Truth is the only kids I had ever heard of having "sensory issues" were children who had Autism.
The OT described defensiveness as being on "flight or fight" response all the time.  Even the same repeated sound caused the same fear reaction in my son EVERY time.  Most of us "habituate" or learn to live with a sound, or other sensory information.  We learn that the sound of a timer is harmless and after the second "ding" we can tune it out.  My son couldn't! He had issues with all 7 senses.  Yes, you learn about 5 in school, but there really are 7.  Like I said this will be a series as there is so much information out there.  I am also into spreading the word about this disorder as current estimates figure that 1 in every 20 children are impacted by this disorder.

On another, relevant note.  We are meeting with our son's Kindergarten teacher tonight.  She has had concerns about his development and we are putting "benchmarks" in place to decide if he is ready to move to 1st grade at the end of the year. She is a friend and former colleague of mine, which makes this tricky.  I value her many years of experience, but also concerned that she isn't aware of all of the "new" research in brain development. He is in a Christian school as that is very important to us. But if we, his parents, feel that he is ready to move on, and the school has decided not, we will move him to a new school.  His father and I are both educators, and know what he needs as far as minor support services to succeed in school. We shall see how this turns out tonight!