Hi everyone!
I have a 9 year old daughter. She was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder, Sensory Modulation Dysfunction, Auditory Processing Disorder, and Developmental Dyspraxia this past fall. Can someone explain to me if these diagnoses put her on the spectrum, or if she might just have these features but not be on the spectrum?
Here is a link to her evaluation at the OT this fall:
http://bugeval08.angelfire.com/
Other than these diagnoses, we have noted some other things that we are concerned about, that make us wonder about a spectrum diagnosis. Some of this has just started to come to light recently. I guess a large part of it is her sensory modulation dysfunction, where she tends to react so often in infantile and toddler ways rather than anything close to age appropriate.
A. Self absorption and lack of ability to see things from another perspective. Everything is about her, and every time something does not go the way she wants, it's because we don't want her to be happy. I have other children younger than her who do not react in this way, or feel personally thwarted or overlooked or have a victim mentality about situations like this.
B. If I do X it will please Papa and I will get Y out of it. Her need to please others is for her own benefit, not because she wants to please them. Similarly, if her friend, sister, or parent is unhappy, it would not occur to her to try to cheer them up. Comforting someone who is hurt doesn't occur to her, but getting someone to help the hurt person does occur to her.
C. I recall her being 5, and her sister being 2, and us being in the car. I was overwhelmed at having been out with them at Home Depot and very pregnant. My 2 yr old told me I should have some juice when I get home because that always makes her feel better. My older daughter asked why I was "crying like a baby".
D. Self care tasks do not occur to her. She will wear the same pants for a week. She has one pair that she will wear. She needs to be reminded to brush her hair and look decent if we are going out of the house, and doesn't understand why that is necessary. My 6 yr old seems more average and aware about how we need to not look like an unmade bed when we leave the house.
E. When she hurts her siblings with her words or with her body, and we ask her how she thinks that made her sister feel, she answers broadly with words like sad or mad. When we ask her why her sister would feel that way, she clearly has no clue. She does not understand things from other people's perspectives at all in this way.
F. Her sensory issues, esp regarding clothes, have gotten much worse over the last year. Exponentially worse. SHe used to wear many different fabrics and styles of clothing. Maybe they were all pink and purple. But she was not always confined to track suits and leggings and yoga pants. She used to wear dresses almost every day, she liked tights, she had several different pairs of jeans and shorts. But now she wears 2 different track suits and 1 pair of jeans and 1 pair of leggings with different shirts, and does not say that the other clothes she has present sensory issues. She just doesnt like them. She used to have several different kinds of shoes. She has worn only crocs for a year. Before that, she wore only boots. She used to wear dresses and tights with dress shoes to church, and hasnt done that for over a year.
G. Her trouble with transitions was not even evident until she was about 5 or 6. She just didnt seem to have issues with transitions. They are also much worse now. They are especially bad in the last 6 months.
H. An example of an issue of rigid thinking would be if she asked us if she could have a corn dog for lunch at 10:30, and we said yes. She might go about her business, and at lunchtime, we discover that while she is allowed to have a corn dog, we dont have any. This causes her great distress. To the point where she thinks she will have to go hungry, staring at the space where the corn dogs usually are. She might even have to put her hands on her head and work really hard to think about how she can change the plan she had made without melting down. This is probably over the last year that I have noticed her having issues with this.
She started puberty in April of last year, showing secondary characteristics and gaining about 15-20 pounds of the course of the last year. My mother in law was the same way.
Socially:
She approaches other children she doesn't know and stars conversations. She plays well with other kids. She is good at cooperative play and is imaginative, if a little controlling. She does not appear to be misunderstood or an outcast among her peers, I would say her social skills in general are at least average. BUT.. she hasnt really had to "read people" yet.
My husband always had and still has great difficulty with that. Rob very likely would have had a diagnosis of Aspergers as a child, and still has some attributes that make me aware of that. He has the same auditory processing issues as Grace and many of her same sensory issues.
Grace also has issues with anxiety that have worsened over the last few years, whereas her father had issues with OCD. Grace is able to psychosomatically induce vomiting if she feels gassy or like she has eaten too much. Thunderstorms make her run for the bathroom as well, esp if they are in the middle of the night.
She was in OT and PT in 06/07, took a year off in 07/08, and resumed with OT and began Sensory Therapy in September of 08.
Comments? Ideas? I am reading a book on HFA and Aspergers right now, and googling to come up with some lists and inventories.
I appreciate any input you have. We are just trying to understand her and give her helpful parameters and structure. We've been reading about sensory issues and explosive children, and anxiety issues in children in the last few years.
She does not currently have a sensory diet given to us by her OT, but I think that will help a LOT. She is transitioning to a public school after being homeschooled, and they will be avaulating her and doing an IEP evaluation. We've never had an IEP done because of being homeschooled, so it is likely to bring to light some learning disabilities and differences that we didnt even know she had.