Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional SPD and gifted

Lori, I PM'd you re: Scouts.

~S

At my new job I am shocked by how many children are sent to me for an OT evaluation with suspected SPD and then they turn out to be gifted. And often no one realizes they are gifted. I have, in just two months time, lost track of how many 4 year olds I've seen for assessment where the mom mentions things like he does math in his head or she's been reading since she was three or she talks like a little adult.....

Some of the kids I see DO have signs of SPD. They show low muscle tone or dyspraxia or problems with bilateral integration and coordination. But some of them are just on the end of the spectrum. Sort of out there - extreme sensitivity, quirks and unique sensory preferences, etc. I feel like I'm on a mission to help parents understand the "problems" in the context of the giftedness.

I'd like to see much more research on giftedness and SPD....I have some ideas....maybe someday.....

I think I understand some of my son's sensory issues better than my husband or the scout leaders because I think I have similar sensory issues when I have a migraine--at least the sensitivity to sound and lights and I have a hard time dealing with that. I am not fun to be around when I have one of these headaches. The pain medication makes the pain bearable but it does not take away the sensitivity to light and sound. I even get chills sometimes with my headaches like I did this morning and my son said he often gets chills. Just dealing with the low level pain and sensitivity makes me tired. It just takes away all my energy. There is no way I would want to be tent camping right now, so I think I understand how my son feels about it.

He gets really bad headaches when there is any change in the weather. There have been times when he started to get a headache and it didn't look like there were any weather changes but a few hours later, it started storming. We even have a dog that is sensitive to weather changes. I sometimes get headaches with weather changes too but I am not as sensitive as my son.

I can't imagine having to live with sensory issues all the time. I think the fact that he can learn as well as he does while compensating for these issues is amazing.

My son's half-brother is highly gifted and gets migraines but never had any coordination problems. I think all or most of my husband's side of the family are probably highly gifted. There are gifted people on my side of the family too but nobody on either side has ever had SPD that we know of. I still wonder what caused my son to have this when nobody else in the family has it.

Debbie, I pm'd you.

I agree with you Lori. I have a lot of sensory defenses that make me very uncomfortable if I were forced to deal with them every day.

Debbie,
I'm curious - do you see the SPD as something that may go with giftedness from birth. Or, with any of these kids do you see that their focus on intellectual development has come at the expense of needed sensory and motor skills play? I ask because I felt like with our son there was clearly sensory defensiveness from birth (I have it too so that wasn't a total surprise) but the very intense drive toward sedentary intellectual activity (early reading, focused playing of board games) didn't help. Those activities were just so much easier and more satisfying for him so it required concerted effort to push sensory and motor play. Knowing that was part of why we made him go to the park daily and why we chose a developmental rather than academic preschool. I feel like if he'd been in a full time academic school or if he'd had access to TV and computer it would have been much worse.

As a sensory defensive person parent to another sensory defensive person... I see a strong relationship with anxiety. It can be a cycle that feeds and feeds off itself unless you learn how to stop it. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been helpful to us with this a has learning sensory coping techniques.

PTP: that's a great question. It seems that most kids are "hard wired" in terms of sensory processing - meaning it's just the way we are. But lately I've been wondering if the whole theory of neurotoxins and autism applies to SPD as well. Just my intellectual queries....so much to ponder.

In terms of SPD, Jean Ayres theorized that in the absence of any frank neurological pathology the central nervous system was just hard wired differently when sensory integrative dysfunction was present. The thing is though that she also theorized that disruptions in sensory integration were also part of the problems that resulted in learning disabilities. Your question about the drive for sedentary activities is certainly appropriate, as it takes participation in movement activities to stimulate the vestibular system and facilitate the sensory integrative process. I think its a question for more research...the chicken or the egg?

My son didn't go to preschool. He stayed home with me, because he was already reading well and doing math in his head and sometimes talking like a little professor and collecting new words to use in making puns and jokes that the other kids his age didn't get but his sister and his older friends and his parents got them and he loved to make us laugh. While other kids begged their parents to let them play outside, my son begged to be allowed to stay inside because it was too hot or too cold or the sun was too bright or some smell irritated him or it was too windy. We live in a rural area next door to my parents with a total of six acres of land where he could run around and play but I had to "make" him play outside because that was not his idea of fun. His athletic cousins stayed with us in the summer and they couldn't even get him to stay outside very long. They liked to ride bikes, he couldn't ride a bike. They could play games with balls, he wasn't any good at this either so it was difficult to find things they could do outside together.

I never made my son sit at a desk or table as a preschooler (except to eat) because he had so much energy then. He had so much energy that it sometimes looked like he was trying to fly when he got excited about something. He had to do something with this energy. This is one reason why grade skipping would not have worked for him. I knew there was no way he could sit at a desk for hours. When I read to him he was often bouncing around and doing something physical and I even encouraged him to do this. I found that he learned better if I let him move around while I read to him. When he was six and practicing spelling or multiplication facts he jumped on his trampoline or swing. I let him climb on furniture because I thought he needed to. When I told the developmental pediatrician about this she said I should make him sit at a desk, but when she saw the results of the achievement test the educational psychologist gave him the month he turned seven and she saw that he was grade levels ahead in all subjects, she didn't say another word about making him sit at a desk and she decided he was doing well enough that he didn't need OT or PT or anything because we could work on physical things at home. We told her about his difficulty with learning dance routines for musical theater but there was no advice for us. We told them about his difficulty with handwriting (the slowness and the fatigue issues and the difficulty with drawing and the letter reversals, but we got no answers except confirmation from the educational psychologist that he was probably highly gifted but he couldn't tell us how highly gifted unless we had him take an IQ test which we couldn't afford. I felt that my son didn't get help because he was smart and was able to compensate just well enough that he was not eligible for help of any kind.

A few years later, when we finally got our insurance to authorize OT (sensory integration therapy but she had to code it as something else to get it paid for) he only got a total of six sessions and he thought it helped him and his piano teacher noticed a difference. We couldn't afford to continue OT without the insurance and I don't have all the expensive OT equipment the OT has. We did put up a tire swing and the last time I talked to the OT, she told me I need to keep him walking because his ankles are very weak.

Now that he just turned 11 and is in the early stage of puberty I am noticing that he has more of a problem with sensory issues. He is not the active little kid he once was and has started gaining weight. He is not overweight yet but he could be if he doesn't watch it.

Last night, during a thunderstorm our power went out and while my husband and I have no trouble dealing with no air conditioning and no lights except for flashlights, for hours, my son thinks it is a big ordeal. My husband and I used to go camping. Not any more. We rarely take the jet ski to the lake because it just seems like more trouble than it is worth. He has trouble getting ready. He takes longer to get ready than his sister who manages to put on her makeup and do her hair in less time than he can find his shoes and socks and find just the right shirt and pants. No matter how much time we allow him to get ready, he manages to make us a few minutes late. When one member of the family has SPD it affects the whole family. But I'm not complaining really, his personality and the way he sees things I would have never noticed, especially his ability to point out humor and irony in things that I am having trouble dealing with, and just the way he thinks are so worth any problems the sensory issues cause. Once again I am trying to get help for him but it takes many months of being on waiting lists.

I would love to talk to a neuropsychologist about his differences. I am going to have a list of questions a mile long, but I will probably be allowed 15 minutes because they are so busy and won't really get all the answers, but if I get answers to a few of my questions, then I will be making progress.

http://www.performanceorthopedics.com/files/ProcProtocols/AnkleRehab.pdf Ankle strengthening doesn't require an OT and it isn't expensive. A wall, a towel, perhaps a theraband and those cost less than $10.

Just five minutes a day and remembering to do it. I wish someone had given me this before I sprained my ankle so many times. Not to discount the value of OTs and PTs, but really so much of what happens in sessions can be done be done at home if you simply focus on it. Half of the value of therapy is just that it makes people stick with it better. The fancy equipment is great and fun, but really for less than $50 you can get a therapy ball, bands, free weights, etc.

For younger kids for sensory activities there is The Out of Sync Child has Fun.

Just an anecdotal bit of support for PtheP's ankle suggestions:

I have weak ankles, too. I was in Ace bandages or an air cast more than I was out of them between jr. high school and grad school.

But after a particularly nasty sprain/stress fracture, I was told by a doctor to start doing the "standing on one leg" exercise in PP's link whenever I happened to think of it, including a bit of wobbling to challenge my balance and work the ankle harder. I often do my one-legged wobble when talking on the phone or washing dishes, or even when standing in line at the bank. It's totally free, ridiculously easy, and it WORKS!

I can't remember the last time I sprained my ankle. It has been over a decade. (20 years, even? Not sure...) That's serious progress! Plus it improves one's balance.

I have long since dropped the other exercises suggested to me, I'm afraid. But the "one-legged wobble" keeps my ankles safe and strong.