Friday, August 15, 2014

GG & SPD

What person anywhere can justify being normal?

Our son is not normal, he is beyond normal. He is advanced and intelligent. It shows in all the milestones he hits well ahead of time. He catches on so fast. He is such a happy little one the majority of the time. However, there's a very fine line between GG being okay and GG not being okay.

GG has SPD Sensory Processing Disorder (sometimes called "sensory integration" or SI). Sensory Processing
is a term that refers to the way the nervous system receives messages from the senses and turns them into appropriate motor and behavioral responses. Whether you are biting into a hamburger, riding a bicycle, or reading a book, your successful completion of the activity requires processing sensation or "sensory integration."

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD, formerly known as "sensory integration dysfunction") is a condition that exists when sensory signals don't get organized into appropriate responses. SPD is likened to a neurological "traffic jam" that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the information needed to interpret sensory information correctly.

GG is hypersensitive, his brain receives the information from the senses and misreads it. Much of the time he feels as if he is in danger. Other times, it’s too much stimulation all at once. Think of how you feel when you have a pounding headache and every little thing bothers you, making your pain worse and your temper short. Most of us don’t notice the hum of a fluorescent light, but a child who is hypersensitive does. Children with hypersensitivity can become afraid or aggressive if someone touches them.

Most children with SPD are just as intelligent as their peers. Many are intellectually gifted. Their brains are simply wired differently. I believe that GG is already showing signs of being gifted even though he is still so very young.

Due to his SPD GG cannot handle too much stimulation in the form of too many new things (places and/or people) and cannot deal with being handed around from person to person too much. He gets over stimulated, sometimes easier than other times, and has a break down in the form of screaming, crying fits. At times these fits can last for a day or more, but mostly just hours upon hours. Sometimes he can be comforted, sometimes nothing seems to help other than just giving him some alone time.

Those with SPD feel things much more intensely than others.

So if you see us and we don't hand him over, please remember that it's nothing against you. He comes first; his health; his well being; his happiness - these are more important to us than the possibility of hurting your feelings.

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