What exactly does a moderate to severe processing problem MEAN?

[mumoftrio]

anyone else got a child with a processing problem? whats it MEAN?

As far as I understand it, it means that the difficulty they have with processing signals in that area (hearing, touch, whatever) has a moderate to severe impact on their/your everyday life.

After all, the questionnaire is based on your experience of how often they do certain things which you wouldn't expect a NT child to do. It's based on your qualitative observations and experience, rather than any measurement of signal processing actually going on in the brain.

Hopefully the most severe areas are the ones that any subsequent therapy will be focussed on.

Our OT also asked us to name and rank the top behaviours that we found difficult. This was about 9 months ago and I found the list recently - the top one (incontinence) has been almost completely resolved, the other ones are not resolved but certainly far better than 9m ago.

ah I thought it was only to do with school work!

etc

Did you get to fill in a questionnaire or was it just the school? If you did, it will be based on your responses as well as theirs.

school havent even got an assessor in (useless) after over 7 months asking them and them agreeing it was needed.
...

took him to a friend who was ex head of local authority who does out of school tutoring and she off the recored told me her thoughts but she is pretty red hot though not formally able to diagnose iykwim

so she is the first real indication i have had of my inner fears

she has been a head teacher and has millions of degrees this IS her field if you know what I mean but it hasnt been a formal route as such just me saying please can you advice me / she now works with him or tries to she says he is very very very vyer poor and displays a moderate to severe processing problem in the little time she has seen him but a proper assessment would show more and also she has only worked with him a bit

Have just seen your other thread and realised you are at the start of this whole journey...

Regarding sensory processing disorder a good website is here. I particularly liked the 'symptoms checklist' - not all of them described my son but some were very familiar, particularly the tactile, auditory and internal regulation ones.

There's also a good book by Carol Stock Cranowitz called 'The Out of Sync Child' which can help you to understand what is going on a little bit more. If you don't want to buy a copy, try ordering one at your local library - it might help some other parents too. Strangely I felt this book wasn't as good at describing my son as the website above, but I do like her other book 'The Out of Sync Child Has Fun'. This book gives you ideas for how to meet their need for sensory input (if sensory-seeking) or get them used to more input (if avoiding) or just to regulate their sensory processing better.

I also agree with people on the other thread that it's worth going to your GP and talking about the way your child behaves that is different to what you would expect from most children of that age. (Sometimes we talk about NT children which stands for 'neurologically typical'.) You don't need to dwell on any problems with the school but if you have a list of things like 'he always licks the poles on the bus' or 'he screams really loudly to block out other sounds' or 'he keeps saying I'm hurting him when I try to brush his teeth' (all examples from ds2) they should get the picture. And it's a community paediatrician who will be able to do a proper assessment and say (in their opinion) whether they think your child is on the spectrum, or has other associated or similar disorders. Be warned, however, we didn't find the paed particularly helpful - it was only once we went to the occupational therapist (OT) that I really felt we'd found someone who understood not only why ds2 behaved that way but what we could do to help him (and us).

There's loads of discussion about sensory processing disorder on mumsnet: try this thread for a starter or just do an advanced search within the special needs topic.

hope that helps

Also, once we'd been to the OT privately, the school accepted her report and started to implement the suggestions. I think he's been far better at school recently although still never a model pupil . They never even talked about getting in an OT themselves.

Thanks tons

Going to read and re read your post to digest it all!

what does an OT do? for them? sorry sounding dumb

Occupational therapists (OTs) are supposed to help people to deal with whatever they face in everyday life. We see a paediatric occupational therapist who specialises in sensory issues. But they work in many other areas.

In ds2's case, the OT identified that he still had some reflexes which were meant to go at about 9 months of age - these may have been the main reason why he was incontinent. So she gave us exercises to re-train his brain and to turn off these reflexes. She does lots of work improving his core muscles, as he can be quite 'floppy' and unco-ordinated and tire easily. She has a frame which she hangs various things on, and he has to do lots of fairly fun activities which improve his balance. He's done handwriting exercises, and playing with stiff playdough (theraputty), getting bits out of it, rolling it, cutting it. These improve his strength in his hands and wrists, and his fine motor skills. He ties or unties knots, and works with other fastenings. He does therapeutic listening (another one to google or to search in past messages here) and lots of drawing/cutting exercises.

Ds2 really enjoys his sessions with her, and wil sit still and concentrate on the work at the table, although he complains about the hard physical stuff at the start of the sessions.

soudns good! My ds would love some of that I think!

Yes, ds2 enjoys going to see her and refers to her as 'mummy's friend' . He hasn't noticed that I pay her each time we visit .

ooh do you pay, is it private? x

yes we pay! We have private health insurance from dp's work but they wouldn't cover the OT sessions despite being recommended in ds2's report from paediatrician, grr . But they are so helpful and he responds so well to her that I don't mind paying. We go roughly every month so the cost doesn't mount up too quickly.

My ds has just been diagnosed by a private OT as having Sensory Processing Disorder and Sensory Modulation Disorder. So much she said made sense with my ds it was like "oh THATS why he does this/that!" She organised a sensory diet, and is sorting out a trial of a weighted blanket for me to try with him.

My ds receives high rate DLA so that paid for it, it was £250 for a full assessment, but the OT was lovely and let me pay over 2 months.

I agree The Out of Sync Child is a very good book.

you guys are teaching me ALOT!!! thanks

Sensory Processing Disorder and Sensory Modulation Disorder. never heard of these wondering though if relevant to my wee laddie