Anyone know much about vestibular processing, please?

[EstherRancid]

DD has dx of ASD, and the local Paeds will take her on for in depth sensory profiling (has been referred by CAMHS)

She's HF, very impulsive at times and wonder if she might end up with ADHD dx also.

But something that has always puzzled, and really irritated us at times, is she simply MUST be 1st to go up or down stairs or escalators. Even if we're holding her hand she has to stand a few inches in front.

I thought this was the classic 'must be 1st in line' thing, but she actually prefers to be at the back of lines etc so just ignored it to a point.

Over the past few months, I've noticed she has a quite unique way of walking down stairs, she 'feels' the riser with the back of her heel and slides her foot down that way - I watched her purposefully today as we were at the leisure centre, and there was lots of room. She did this movement all the way down, but if someone was coming up past her, she lost her footing and then almost lost her balance!

Her general balance and co-ordination has improved vastly over the past year due to trampoline classes, but stairs are still a problem.

Anyone got any idea?

TIA

Esther I've not been on here for a few days so have just skimmed your thread as the Vestibular headline nabbed me.

Vestibular processing is regarded as the 'sensory ground' in OT terms; that is, it is the most fundamental sensory system and all of the others need info from the vestibular system to make sense of the world and the info they receive.
E.g. the visual system ties what it 'sees' with how it 'feels' to the vestibular system (think seeing and feeling jumping on a trampoline).
The obvious link is becoming car-sick/sea-sick when what we see and feel can be out-of-whack and most people become nauseous.

Your example of going down an escalator requires your DD's brain to link together vestibular (you can feel yourself moving down even with your eyes closed) with visual (quite intense visual as you are being passively moved through space) and proprioceptive (feeling where your body parts are in relation to each other).

Being first in line, frees up brain space (I'd guess) to process whats going on without having to process who else is in front of her, blocking her view of the end point.

If your vestibular system is not 'fine-tuned' then your spatial awareness will be less than optimal (so the child will be clumsy, awkward, have difficulty with sequencing and organising tasks).

Yes to the movement classes helping as it will give her extra information for her brain to work with. Especially as she likes hanging upside down (very intense extra verstibular information) and mirrors (visually gets the information that is not getting through efficiently from her proprioceptive system).

Yes to getting OT (someone who is additionally qualified in Sensory Integration ideally).
You may benefit from it yourself!

Will she need it all her life? Well, all motor development and learning works from a sensory base. As she matures, she may well be similar to you in that she may recognise that certain sensations are abhorrent to her. But luckily she will understand why because of the work you are doing now, and she will be able to take steps around it. I cant imagine that she will need ongoing therapy for life, that should become something that she chooses to dip in and out of as she is older.

Goldmandra - you are LITERALLY the first person I have ever spoken to that also has an issue with polystyrene!!

I don't feel so weird and odd now!

And Esther too. OMG. I DON'T 'do' polystyrene. My DC's deal with it for me.

I had a washing machine delivered a couple of weeks ago - I HAD to make the delivery men take the polystyrene away with them AND sweep up, even though it cost me an extra tenner!!

I would pay that extra tenner any day!

I keep hoping that someone decide that it's too environmentally unfriendly to be allowed in packaging.

I feel all squirmy again now

polystyrene is just so wrong!

it looks like ice but is warm

it's big and bulky but can blow in the wind

cut it and it's made of balls

it sounds brittle but it bounces

it's WRONG i tell thee, bloody wrong!

...and it SQUEAKS!!!!

Uuuuurrrggghhh!!!

Merrycouthymows you mentioned on an earlier post you feel your way down the stairs and don't look at your feet and don't like others on the stairs with you.

My dd2 is exactly the same but is 5 and unable to tell me why, could you explain why she does this?