Those with sensory processing disorder

oandmplus1

How often do you work with OT? We just got this diagnosis, and I am so worried she isn't going to get enough therapy.

She only has mild global delays, but I can't get her to eat anything other than purees, she isn't saying any words yet because they said she has auditory processing issues, and I am concerned we will just keep falling further behind.

EI is just not starting to come twice a month, but we are only seeing a PT with experience with sensory processing, is this enough?

ToastieSimons

DS is globally delayed.  He is still on purees and textured purees (stage 2 and 3 foods) he still does not chew and he has no words.  

He only has OT 1x/month and ST 1x/month.

For us they don't really seem concerned with feeding skills as long as DS is eating and he isn't tongue thrusting.  I really felt our EI dropped the ball on feeding skills.  He developed a huge aversion when he was sick a lot because of all the medicine and they just kind of took an "oh well" approach.  It took a lot of work on mine and DH's part to break it with no help from them.   Since he is still so new to speaking ST is pretty basic.

 For now since he can't be prompted to form letter shapes or vowel sounds she just monitors that he is making progress continually.  We asked her about his oral motor skills because he takes a spoon funny.  She evaluated and showed me how to discourage it, but since it works for him and it's not affected his tongue movement to not put too much of an emphasis on it.

Are you seeing an OT at all or just a PT?  They may not consider 10 months delayed enough for only eating purees to warrant services.  We didn't qualify for speech until 12 months because there is such a small list of what they need to be speaking at that age that they kind of have to wait and see.

kcisthebombdotcom

I'm guessing it's more age related. I have OT once a week, but my son is 2 and they're using the OT to help him get the most from his speech therapy. That's not really something they need to do with a 10 month old.

oandmplus1

ToastieSimons:

DS is globally delayed.  He is still on purees and textured purees (stage 2 and 3 foods) he still does not chew and he has no words.  

He only has OT 1x/month and ST 1x/month.

For us they don't really seem concerned with feeding skills as long as DS is eating and he isn't tongue thrusting.  I really felt our EI dropped the ball on feeding skills.  He developed a huge aversion when he was sick a lot because of all the medicine and they just kind of took an "oh well" approach.  It took a lot of work on mine and DH's part to break it with no help from them.   Since he is still so new to speaking ST is pretty basic.

 For now since he can't be prompted to form letter shapes or vowel sounds she just monitors that he is making progress continually.  We asked her about his oral motor skills because he takes a spoon funny.  She evaluated and showed me how to discourage it, but since it works for him and it's not affected his tongue movement to not put too much of an emphasis on it.

Are you seeing an OT at all or just a PT?  They may not consider 10 months delayed enough for only eating purees to warrant services.  We didn't qualify for speech until 12 months because there is such a small list of what they need to be speaking at that age that they kind of have to wait and see.

 We have only gotten a PT, we were seeing her before we got the recent diagnosis because of vision issues and mild delays, and with the recent diagnosis of SPD the PT said she had training with sensory issues and that she would just work with us, so I am concerned we won't get the help we need.

The neurodevelopmental physician said she made the "perfect 8 month old", so she is only a few months behind I guess. But she still does the tongue thrust, and spits out even the chunks in stage 3 foods. I guess I am more concerned with the feeding issue than the delayed speech issue, because you're right about the very small vocab at this stage.

 

ToastieSimons

kballou:

ToastieSimons:

DS is globally delayed.  He is still on purees and textured purees (stage 2 and 3 foods) he still does not chew and he has no words.  

He only has OT 1x/month and ST 1x/month.

For us they don't really seem concerned with feeding skills as long as DS is eating and he isn't tongue thrusting.  I really felt our EI dropped the ball on feeding skills.  He developed a huge aversion when he was sick a lot because of all the medicine and they just kind of took an "oh well" approach.  It took a lot of work on mine and DH's part to break it with no help from them.   Since he is still so new to speaking ST is pretty basic.

 For now since he can't be prompted to form letter shapes or vowel sounds she just monitors that he is making progress continually.  We asked her about his oral motor skills because he takes a spoon funny.  She evaluated and showed me how to discourage it, but since it works for him and it's not affected his tongue movement to not put too much of an emphasis on it.

Are you seeing an OT at all or just a PT?  They may not consider 10 months delayed enough for only eating purees to warrant services.  We didn't qualify for speech until 12 months because there is such a small list of what they need to be speaking at that age that they kind of have to wait and see.

 We have only gotten a PT, we were seeing her before we got the recent diagnosis because of vision issues and mild delays, and with the recent diagnosis of SPD the PT said she had training with sensory issues and that she would just work with us, so I am concerned we won't get the help we need.

The neurodevelopmental physician said she made the "perfect 8 month old", so she is only a few months behind I guess. But she still does the tongue thrust, and spits out even the chunks in stage 3 foods. I guess I am more concerned with the feeding issue than the delayed speech issue, because you're right about the very small vocab at this stage.

 

tongue thrusting and spitting out the chunks are completely different.  tongue thrusting is the automatic reflex which newborns are born with.  It may look like a tongue thrust but in fact just be her spitting it out.  When she's not eating you can do a lot of oral motor exercises to differentiate.  One method is rubbing the sides of the tongue, but not the tip.  If she's pushes her tongue out it most likely is still a reflex, but if she moves her tongue away or pushes it against your finger then it's a intentional movement.

DS is 21 months.  He is JUST taking stage 3 foods.  This has only been since Thanksgiving.  

Does she bring food to her mouth?  If so, have you tried baby led weaning?  Some kids just HATE purees.

I also try to remember that DS is at a 9-10 month old skill level wise in PT, he's sitting, crawling and pulling up on his knees.  He's also going to eat like a 9-10 month old.  

carlinlp

My dd is 6. She has OT once per week and then she does OT combined with horseback riding an additional one day per week. We also do yoga 3-4 times per week to help build her core strength. 

oandmplus1

-auntie-:

kballou:

She only has mild global delays, but I can't get her to eat anything other than purees, she isn't saying any words yet because they said she has auditory processing issues, and I am concerned we will just keep falling further behind.

Who said she has "auditory processing issues". That's the weirdest thing I've read today. She's 10 months old. All 10 month old people have limited abilities to process auditory information. Auditory processing- discrimination, memory, and undersatnding- is an emerging skill until puberty even in well developing kids.

Auditory processing is a "real" dx that can be made by an audiologist using specific testing. It is a dx that would be given only once hearing and cognition (IQ) was deemed adequate. By 8 months most babies know "no", their name, who mom, dad, cup/bottle, sibs and pet are by name.

 

EI is just not starting to come twice a month, but we are only seeing a PT with experience with sensory processing, is this enough?

Poor eating is sometimes a function of SPD but can also be related to physical issues like apraxia or hypontonia. Feeding as a goal is usually under OT for SPD or hypotonia and/or an SLP for physical motor issues related to apraxia like conditions. PT would not ordinarily enter into feeding issues unless there were truck tone issues that prevented sitting up.

 

Thank you all fo the helpful infomation, this is all so new to me and I am just trying to understand it. We were given a profile to fill out and the PT mailed us back infornation saying that based on the profile she measured below normal for auditory processing etc.

Part of the issue I am having is that no one was there to explain it to us, they just mailed us the information and now we have to wait weeks until we see a doctor or our PT again. I am sorry if I offended anyone, I am just overwhelmed by all the infornation doctors and the PT are giving us becaues I feel like no one is really explaining it to us. They are all so vague.

AgrippaRidesAgain

Is no words at 10 months really behind?  Neither of my kids had words at 10 months, and DD had 12 by her first birthday.  My pedi asked if the kids were saying one word other than mama or dada at the 12 month appointment, but also said that if they were not, that it wasn't anything to be concerned about (DS only had one at that point).  At DD's 15 month appointment, she only had to know 3-5 words.

I can see the issue with the purees, but the words/auditory processing thing seems weird.