By Teresa Currivan, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Parent Coach
This is an excerpt from the book, My Differently Tuned-In Child: The Right Place for Strength-Based Solutions, by Teresa Currivan, LMFT.
Sensory processing issues can be misunderstood and misdiagnosed as a number of things, most commonly ADHD and anxiety disorders. As with all things differently wired, it can be so helpful to distinguish between the two.
Does your child seem agitated and is he agitating to be around? Or conversely, does she avoid being with others, and seem to shut down when she would really like to connect? Usually our kids want to do things right — to listen, sit still, control their impulses, be a member of the group — but sometimes they’re unable to. This can be frustrating for children, especially when they are blamed for such behavior.
In my practice, I see many kids like this. They appear to have signs of ADHD, but it could be something entirely different. Some of the behaviors may be part of these children’s hard wiring, but the sudden outbursts, the inability to control impulses, or the intolerance of any noise in the room could indicate sensory processing issues. I highly recommend getting children checked for sensory issues before anything else. (If they do have ADHD, for example, it’s best to understand the distinction between the two. If they have anxiety, you may see that cut down by thoroughly addressing the sensory issues.)
Sensory processing issues are often misunderstood. They have more to do with how the brain processes the senses rather than the senses themselves. Children with sensory processing issues can be either sensory seekers or sensory avoiders. For example, a child may make loud sounds in order to hear the reverberation in her head that she is craving because her brain has not registered certain pitches of sound. Alternatively, a child might find the seams in her socks are intolerable because her brain is receiving too much stimulation. Both of these could be going on within the same child….
© 2017 Teresa Currivan
For more information, see the book by the same author. My Differently Tuned-In Child: The Right Place for Strength-Based Solutions,
Teresa Currivan is a mother, licensed marriage and family therapist, school therapist, and offers parent support groups, and coaches parents by phone at Help My Child Thrive Coaching. She designed the Currivan Protocol™ Assessment Tool to assess and address the needs of differently wired learners. This tool is being adapted and used in public schools. Teresa has been published on sites such as Mother.ly, Filter Free Parents, and is a blogger at GHF and Hoagies Education. She specializes in giftedness, twice-exceptionality, educational fit, and family dynamics, as well as gifted adults. She lives in the San Francisco, California Bay Area. You can find more articles on this website. Follow her on her Facebook at fb.me/TeresaCurrivanCoaching.
Click here to find out about my coaching services: https://helpmychildthrive.com/
***I offer free 20-minute phone consultations. Contact me at TeresaCurrivan@gmail.com to schedule yours. I’d love to hear from you. ***
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