Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How has everyone's summer been and question

My DS9 is not diagnosed with anything....I don't even consider him to have sensory processing *disorder* but rather to have sensory differences. He is definitely highly sensitive to tactile input and also a sensory seeker.

When he is bored, sometimes when he is extremely focused and sometimes when excited he will make weird noises, repetitive movements and even head "bang" (although he isn't doing it hard enough to hurt himself). Just tonight while playing Tri-ominos he was making strange noises and lots of movement while thinking and studying the pieces during his turn.

Debbie,

I wonder if a parent could confuse like, a sensual overexcitability or something like that to a sensory processing disorder?

I think of sensory processing disorder as a person who has a taste sensation when they think of numbers, or feels sun on their skin like a prickly sensation or something along those lines.

Would you clear this up for me. My little one has exhibited hand flapping, also, but only when she's very excited about an activity that she is extremely engaged in.

Sorry I havn't written back in so long. I think the hand flapping thing is dying down a bit. And now thinking back on it, she was very excited while doing it, I was just attributing it to being bored. I read up on over-exitability with gifted kids on Hoagies and it was really enlightening, actually made sense.

I wonder how many children who are gifted are labeled with ADHD?

Here's a good description of SPD:
http://www.spdfoundation.net/about-sensory-processing-disorder.html#lookslike

Hand flapping isn't typically considered to be a "sensory processing disorder" but more a behavior related to overexcite-ability or hypersensitivity. At least in my experience. I once saw a child who came in for an OT evaluation with hand flapping as the primary concern from his parents. But he only did it when he was intensely concentrating on something or excited about what he was doing. I watched him do it while he was sorting and organizing some toys during the evaluation. Then he instantly stopped the behavior when I called his name and asked him to sit at the table. But then started again while he was looking at some pictures for me and concentrating. The child was obviously gifted. And his dad said that *he* does the same thing! Apparently the mom just wanted them BOTH to stop!


And yes a parent, or professional for that matter, can easily confuse sensitivities and a disorder. As I've said before on this site and others, it's really only a disorder if it disrupts development or life! If it ain't broke, no reason to fix it!

Thanks for posting that link. Good advice on when to seek treatment.

I had to update you all about our catepillars. We just spent the last 1/2 hour watching the first 2 moths emerge from their pupa! They crawled their way out of the dirt (good thing we kept the cover on the container )- it was really cool. They pretty quickly emerged from about 5 inches of dirt, with long spotted bodies and little grey moltted wings. We put them into a large clear plastic container with a few sticks and watched them pump their wings up and unroll their probiscus and about 5 minutes later watched as they spread their wings for the first time.
I don't know who was more excited about it DD7 or DH ! There are 4 or 5 more in the dirt still, so we could be busy over the next few days.

Of course, DD wants to keep them and start a moth farm but DH is intent on letting them go this evening when it gets a bit cooler so that they can live out their days the way they are suppose to (his exact words).

DD is now going to make both a power point book about the experience as well as a written book about the life cycle of the tomato horn worm. (I can't wait to see the final product.) I'll let you all know how it goes