I didn't know that my son had sensory issues when he was 5, or I guess I did, but didn't have a name for it and didn't know anyone else with these issues. I just thought some of his problems were caused by overexcitabilities. Pediatricians couldn't see the problems and told me that my son would do very well in school because he was reading so well when he had just turned 4 and he was also very articulate. I wonder if they even knew anything about SPD.
I only knew that he had mild hypotonia that caused him to not be able to write very much without his hands getting tired. He hated coloring in the lines and everywhere he went it seemed that people wanted him to color. They do a lot of coloring in our public kindergarten.
He was so excited about starting Kindergarten because he really wanted to learn but he told me a few months later that school was not very educational. I didn't have him tested then. I didn't know testing was available in the school. He wasn't eligible for any kind of therapy in school anyway because he was above grade level in reading and math.
I was told by the principal and a first grade teacher that I asked for advice that I needed to homeschool or put him in private school which I couldn't afford. So having no real choice, I homeschooled.
It wasn't until after we had homeschooled for a year that I had him tested by an educational psychologist at the developmental pediatrician's office. He only gave him the WIAT. He recommended giving him an IQ test but he said he would have to break it up over several sessions because of my son's fatigue issues. We couldn't afford any more testing. He told us what he thought my son's IQ might be based on the achievement test and I thought that was good enough. That estimate fit in with what I thought my son's IQ would be based on things I had read about levels of giftedness and mental age. I thought the main purpose of IQ was really just to predict achievement and ability and I felt like I already had enough proof of both so I didn't see a need to do it. I also read that a lot of kids with fine motor problems were scoring low on the performance section of IQ tests and I was sure that my son, whose motor skills were more like a kid two years younger would score low on this, so I would be wasting my money.
My son's sensory issues caused him to be very fidgety and he would would shake his hands as if he had water on them and he was trying to shake off the water. He later told a doctor that it was like he had excess energy that he had to get rid of. He needed breaks after ever 20 or 30 minutes because he just couldn't focus as well any longer than that. He needed to move. We ended up doing a lot of work orally while he jumped on a trampoline or played with something. I did not make him sit at a desk to do his work. I think he would have really had a problem sitting at a desk all day in first grade, but by allowing him to learn his way which meant a lot of moving around, he tested grade levels ahead of agemates the month he turned seven.
I think it would have been hard to get an accurate IQ score for my son with SPD, especially at age 5, but if I had paid for all the subtests, I would want to have him do all of the subtests.
The weird thing about my son's SPD is that he can be very good at something one day and the next day not that good if motor skills are involved at all. I can really see this in piano. It never made sense to me how he could play so well at his lesson without practicing that much one week and then the next week when he did practice, he didn't play as well. We just alsways joked about it and said it must be "misfiring neurons." Since kind of thing is not predictable I don't know how he could get an accurate test, but if I did have him tested I would want him to complete every subtest.
