I had to join this forum because I really needed to share my experience. My DS is turning 7 at the end of the month and we have been on a roller coaster ride with him pretty much since he was born. A brief background: He was always different than the other kids his age. He was a fussy baby that had issues with noise, clothing textures, foods, etc. We couldn�t have music on in the car, in the house or he would cry bloody murder. He started talking in full adult sentences at the age of two. He was continually meeting milestones well before his peers. Later we took him for testing by a Child Psychologist and he was found to be gifted with an IQ of 127. The Child Psychologist said that she thought his IQ might be higher than was reflected during the test, as he shut down at the end of the test because he thought it was boring. She tried to get him to complete the test but he refused. She said we should retest in a few years. You think as a parent "Wow! Great! Problem solved!" NOPE! Not even close.
He�s had nothing but difficulty in school. He had a teacher last year that was pushing for an ADHD diagnosis. It is often the �go-to solution� for kids that are hyperactive and unfocused; particularly boys tend to be this way because they take longer to develop their frontal lobes. Anyway, we took him to a pediatrician who after a 15 minute observation decided it was ADHD. We thought, okay, perhaps we should try medication. It only made sense! We tried 3 different meds, and the poor kid was crawling out of his own skin. He couldn`t STAND being in his clothing (soft cotton, no tags! and he wanted to take his clothes off in Walmart because the clothes were hurting his skin!!) We went through absolute Hell last year. We took him off of the meds. Apparently if it is ADHD, meds are supposed to work right away. "Like a light switch" - my friend says who has a daughter with ADHD. She is now 14 and the meds continue to work beautifully for her. The meds worked immediately right from the start for my friends daughter. So, we were at a loss.
We couldn't figure out why our son was so hyperactive and unfocused. Then we started looking at the symptoms. He was tiptoe walking, sensitive to noise, touch, certain clothing and he had fine motor skill difficulty. We then discovered Sensory Processing Disorder. Autistic kids can have a Sensory Processing Disorder, as can ADHD kids, as can gifted kids, as can any kid. His Sensory Processing Disorder was appearing like ADHD, because often children with ADHD have a Sensory Processing Disorder! (of interest, it has been discovered that Sensory Processing Disorder can be �measured� during a brain scan.
http://thesensoryspectrumblog.com/2...or-sensory-processing-disorders-in-kids/ This shows that is indeed physiological and has a biological base and affects the Parietal, Temporal, and Occipital lobe, which is not the same lobe that is affected when referring to ADHD. ADHD is a frontal lobe issue).
That�s why the meds didn't work. If anything, they were making his already very raw sensitive nervous system even MORE aware of his surroundings! Ta Da! Problem solved. (Oh, if only it were that simple!) It still didn't make any sense. Why was he so hyperactive and reactionary? Why was he so unfocused? We did hours and hours of research trying to make sense of everything. That's when we discovered that our DS had a food dye allergy! And synthetic food dye can cause ADHD type symptoms! Couple that with a very sensitive nervous system, and you've got a mess of a kid. Since the summer, we cut out ALL food dyes (Tartrazine, Yellow # 5, being the absolute worst of them all!) And what a difference! It's been night and day with the ADHD symptoms! They are virtually gone! But we were still having issues with the fine motor skills, the frustration in class. Cutting out the food dyes was not enough.
We looked into various treatments for SPD, and decided on the Tomatis Method. I was like everyone else: Extremely skeptical. This just didn�t seem like it could work. There was no real research done. But, we thought if we don�t try it, we will kick ourselves for not trying and always wonder if it could have made a difference. We have done one loop (30 hours of listening) and are at the end of our 4 week �integration� period and will be starting our next loop this Saturday. Things we have noticed: Our DS is less reactionary. When he does react or get upset it is extremely brief, whereas before it would last for A LOT longer! His fine motor skills are improving. Are they perfect? No. But they are certainly better. He is more focused when he is reading and is less frustrated when he doesn�t know a word. Instead of giving up, he actually tries to phonetically sound out the word. Before Tomatis it would have ended in tears and him screaming. His teachers have said they have noticed a difference. He is no longer covering his ears when he hears loud noises. The tip toe walking has decreased by 95%! He used to always walk on his tiptoes when he was anxious! He has definitely changed. Is it perfect? No. But we still have another loop and we are hopeful that we will continue to see positive changes. I can say with certainty that we are glad we did it. We have definitely seen benefits. I just wanted to share this because this can be a very frustrating road to be on, and maybe our experience can help someone navigate through some rough terrain. Sorry for the long post but I just want you to consider our situation before you consider ADHD.
, being able to do jumping jacks, stronger posture, etc. It seemed to really help his coordination. Oddly (actually the director says it's not odd at all but I find it odd) his reading ability just sky-rocketed midway through... like some wall or something had been lingering/getting in the way was finally destroyed. His behavior is better, anxiety down. It's weird - it's like a bunch of little things but all together they make for a nice change and for a boy more comfortable in his body.