There have been a lot of articles on Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) are out this week and I posted links via previous posts to a couple of good definitional articles. The article below is noteworthy because it goes into an even more useful discussion of how SPD relates to and is yet distinct from Autism (pointing out clearly that “although a sensory processing disorder is not considered a qualifying characteristic for a diagnosis of autism, I have yet to meet a person on the autism spectrum who does not have a challenge in this area.”)

What is Sensory Processing Disorder and How Is It Related to Autism? | Psychology Today.

The author also reminds us of the effort to have SPD included in the next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is currently being drafted, and which we described as a really important step in our posting from March 4:

DSM-5 Being Updated.

The person leading that effort is Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, OTR and Founder of the SPD Foundation, who has recommended our program:

“The Learning Breakthrough Program is helpful to enhance clinical therapy for a wide range of sensory processing issues. The unique program lends itself to use with a variety of therapeutic approaches. Its ease of use allows your patients to follow through with therapeutic activities at home. I have integrated this program into my practice and encourage fellow OT’s to take advantage of the benefits this program has to offer.”

SPD is a difficult topic/diagnosis for people to get their heads around; parents, teachers, scientists, therapists…lots of people. But the awareness is growing that SPD it is a unique neurological disorder that impacts many people in important cognitive areas. Addressing SPD is an important part of any treatment program for those on the spectrum.

We strongly advocate a unique DSM classification for Sensory Processing Disorder. We have seen how the Learning Breakthrough Program has produced substantial results when used to treat sensory disorders and a is wonderful complement to other therapies. This goes well beyond addressing just SPD symptoms…the point is that improved sensory processing affects higher order cognitive processes and abstract reasoning well beyond the simple notion of a “traffic jam” in the senses – the simplified definition often associated with SPD.

If you’re the parent of a child who’s having trouble learning or behaving in school, you quickly find yourself confronted with a series of difficult choices.

You can do nothing — and watch your child flounder while teachers register their disapproval. Or you can get help, which generally means, first, an expensive and time-consuming evaluation, then more visits with more specialists, intensive tutoring, therapies, perhaps, or, as is often the case with attention issues, drugs.

For many parents — particularly the sorts of parents who are skeptical of mainstream medicine and of the intentions of what one mother once described to me as “the learning-disability industrial complex” — this experience is an exercise in frustration and alienation.

The rest of the article describes some areas of similarity with LBP because of the program’s substantial amount of vision-related activities. The balance and vestibular issues so critical to LBP are not described, but the hurdles that parents face and the ways that treatments are presented to parents, the pressures, etc. will be very strongly identified with by those who have had to walk that road.

Read the complete article on the Times website >>

Sensory Integration is a term that describes how we organize and fully process the information gathered from our senses. The study of sensory integration describes how the brain functions to instantly and automatically interpret where we are, what we see, what we feel, and what we hear in a meaningful framework. Efficient and accurate processing of sensory inputs is a key element of cognitive development and enables us to interpret abstract concepts. We assign meaning and extract value from contextual information of all kinds due to sensory integration and predictably, which is also how we learn what those meanings and values are, enabling the most basic cognitive concepts. Without well-functioning sensory processing abilities, the brain receives sensory signals that don’t get organized (integrated) into appropriate responses; which in turn leads to all sorts of challenges…including learning challenges.

But, why is it not possible for us to understand cognition by only evaluating one sense as it is necessary at the moment; why should they all need to work automatically and in unison at all times? To explain, let’s step out of the abstraction of developmental and neurological theory and into analogy.

Imagine, if you will, being present as a symphony prepares to play one of your favorite overtures. Your senses come alive; your vision tells you that they are getting ready to play as you see the woodwinds bring their instruments to their lips and your auditory senses tell you they have begun by the blast of sound that emerges on the first note. However, there is a problem—something is not quite right. Instead of hearing all of the instruments in full concert with one another, you can only hear the violins. The sounds of the other members of the orchestra are not allowed to reach your ears. Thus, what you are experiencing is much more like a solo than a symphony.  Without the support of the other instruments, what you hear is only the supplemental backdrop to a much grander tune.

Let’s take this analogy one step further. What if someone told you that the reason why you could only hear one instrument out of an entire symphony was because you simply couldn’t appreciate music—that you were incapable of knowing how to properly listen so that you could experience the full range of sounds? Chances are, this would bother you—you would instinctively know that the reason was not so simple or base. If this strikes you as an unfair thing to say, rest assured, it is. For those who lack full sensory integration and suffer from learning disabilities based on this deficit such as dyslexia, for instance, the problem has nothing to do with the subject matter to be learned (letters, words, sounds)—but is much more a matter of overcoming neurological barriers that keep sensory processes operating in isolation (i.e.- with poor levels of integration).

For anyone to fully hear the concert of sounds during a symphony or, for that matter, to adequately process the visual information of text into auditory, written, and other symbolic information, a well-calibrated set of sensory integration skills is necessary. If it is not present learning difficulties can occur simply because this relatively simple cognitive processing ability is lacking. However, it is possible for those with sensory integration problems to spark a new phase in their learning development. With proper training that orients sensory functions to the unchanging reference point of gravity, sensory integration and cognitive deficits can be overcome so that the full symphony can be heard in all its intended depth.