Any advice regarding SPD

skmac05

We are coming up on my little man's 24 month check up and his EI teacher suggested that I discuss being evaluated by OT for sensory processing disorder. She said she sees a lot of signs in him such as constant running, running and slamming into things, extremely short attention span. Also he gagged when he touched the fake snow she brought and refused to touch it again.

Any advice? What should I expect from the OT eval? Where do I go for resources? 

Also, I read that insurance doesn't pay well for SPD since it is not yet considered a stand-alone diagnosis. Anyone have any luck with insurance in that regard??

mjsweetgirl

Go online and look for your local Child Find, they do evaluations and more than likely your DS will qualify for state funded services since he's not yet 3. The Child Find office is usually associated with a school district. So you could contact your local school district office and find out how you can go about get your son evaluated. We had DS evaluated through ChildFind and it eventually led us to get him evaluated through our local Children's Hospital for Autism. Its great resource and we haven't had to pay (for now at least until he turns 3) for services. He gets a Speech Therapist, OT and Special Education Preschool Teacher). GL and I hope this information is helpful! Your pediatrician should also be able to direct you.

robynlesley

My DS is having his sensory issues handled by Early Intervention. He was not diagnosed with SPD (he did see a developmental pediatrician) and his EI team believes he will outgrow it (he also slams into things, freaks when he gets food on his hands or spills water) and added OT to his services.  So I would think your son would get OT under EI as well, assuming he qualifies for services.

 

jsugrin

At his age most of the eval is going to consist of a survey given to you by the OT, mine was about 5 pages (10-15 ?'s per page I'd say).  It was rating varies things on a scale from 1-5 (or something like that). The OT has him do some things, jump, hop on one foot, a few other things I don't remember.

If he qualifies they will just add it to his IFSP with EI.  If he's not able to get services through EI and you need insurance then I would think that you'll find the OT will code it in a way to get him services and not under SPD.

I really like this website for a good overview of the components of SPD/SID.  Also a lot of good advice for "heavy work" which is an approach to get his energy out in positive ways and providing the right amount of input at the right times of the day.

https://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processing-disorder-checklist.html