Hi! I'm new to this discussion board, so just alittle about us and then our problem.

My daughter Audrey was diagnosed with SID at a 3yrs. We have been going to an OT almost weekly ever since. She is 6 yrs this month. Her primary SID is proprioceptive, and her secondaries are auditory and vestibular. I am a SAHM with a 20 month old at home as well.

We send her to a private school that we hope will be able to challenge her academically in the future as well as help us develop her self control and discipline. Her teacher, school administrators and I are in a predicament with lunch time.

The cafeteria is your standard white, bright and loud environment and it's very hard for Audrey to filter all the sensory input and it plays out with "wild, uncontrolled" behavior that ends up disrupting her friends and disrespecting her teachers. Her Dean of Students sees a great improvement in her behavior if she is taken out of the cafeteria and made to eat lunch in the school office, however they have decided this can not be a permanent solution and want her to go back to eating in the cafeteria.

They are asking for solutions to this problem. I have an email in to her OT, but thought I would see what others with gifted SID children would do in our circumstance. One suggestion made by the DOS is that I eat lunch with her every day... this could be difficult since my toddler is in that won't sit still stage. I also wonder if this just would prolong Audrey from learning these skills sooner and possibly reward disruptive behavior if it brings mommy to school every day.

TIA!

Mrs. A

My SID DS8 has problems in the cafeteria as well. Pretty much the same thing...in fact in many situations that involve lots of lights, talking, extra kids he gets set off and then acts so annoying that even his friends don't want to sit near him. Last year his third grade teacher came up with one solution that helped him quite a bit. If he was able to keep his wild behavior out of the classroom and off the recess field he was allowed to choose one friend and eat in the teachers area. This helped the other kids be more accepting of his behavior and also helped him learn to self monitor his behavior better. This option occured every day for the first half of the year then she stretched it so he had to go two days before getting the "reward" lunch in the teacher's area. This was tough since the cafeteria days still set him off...but he has learned a bit more tolerance and this year he eats in the cafeteria everyday although he still is more likely too act up at lunch than any other time.

Ear plugs (or muffs if child isn't concerned about looking different) worked for us. One of my children's friends used to wear sunglasses in bright rooms.

Our DD (8 at the time) learned to sit as near the corner, or wall, as she could. She tried to choose seats which placed her back to the crowd as well. I love the earplug suggestion- we have used them for concerts, etc, but didn't need them at lunch. We also packed small notes with brain-teasers, jokes, etc, in her lunch, which helped distract her from the environment- she and her friends would read them out loud and discuss the answers. She always brings her lunch so that she doesn't have to wait in the crazy, long line to buy it. Our school also had a great program where the kids could sign up for a lunch session with the school counselor and eat with her and a small group once a week- a relief to be out of the noise and commotion.

My ds hates the noise as well, he has gotten more used to it, but he was at the school field day about two weeks back and a good chunk of it was in the cafeteria/gym. The noise levels were just atrocious! I was there to help out, and by then end he was very withdrawn and seemed to actually be in pain. I took him out after watching this for a while, I had hoped he would get into one of the games and feel better. I thought he was coming down with something, but later he seemed ok.
Frankly it was grating on me as well! Fortunately the lunch breaks are very very short, and normally he is in and out quick enough that it doesn't become a problem.