sensory therapy

well, drew has been through a lot over the last 20 months of his life. i have known something was not quite right since he was about 4 months old. he has always been quite behind developmentally throughout his life. i know there is a wide range of "normal" for young children, but he had surpassed that. after close monitoring throughout his life, testing, occupational therapy, and many unanswered questions, we are finally starting to get at least some answers, which is a good start. he may still have an auditory processing disorder. he may still have some form of autism. he may still have something else we don't know about yet, but those things we may not know that for quite some time. but what we do know now, is that he has a sensory processing disorder. (also, i have been informed, you can not have autism without a sensory processing disorder, but you can have a sensory processing disorder without autism. he is still on the wait list for a formal evaluation at the autism clinic).

so, sensory processing is the way the nervous system receives messages from the different senses - taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing, vestibular (balance), proprioception (pressure in/out of joints/muscles), interoception (internal sense)- and turns those messages into appropriate motor or behavioral responses. well, a sensory processing disorder means that those sensory signals don't get organized properly into the appropriate responses - it's like a big traffic jam of sensory input that the brain is either unable to receive, or unable to organize. children with a sensory processing disorder are usually either hyper or hypo sensitive to any or all of these senses. they are a 'seeker' or an 'avoider' (meaning they seek or avoid sensory stimuli) or may be combination of the two.

drew started speech therapy about 2 months ago, as he has little to no communication, and just started sensory therapy a little over a week ago. we have started with the Wilbarger Protocol. there is a link to explain that here: http://www.thetherapyplace.net/newsletter/3_2.htm 

now, i suppose maybe he is going through a normal "growth spurt" and it could all be a coincidence, and maybe it is too early to see any real improvements form this yet. but i believe he has made HUGE strides over the last week...

he has: 

1. said ma-ma today for the second time ever, and the FIRST time with known intent! and he's said it a few times today!
2. said "more" yesterday - also in appropriate context. (seriously, this is a boy who normally only says "da da da da da").
3. started waving more. it was pretty sporadic over the last couple weeks, but this week he is doing it much more often & definitely at appropriate times or in response to me waving at him.
4. making more eye contact.
5. interacting more with his toys and with us. it's also been easier to grab his attention. "zone's out" a lot still, but i'm thinking less than usual.
6. sleeping better & sleeping ALL night 5-6 nights out of the week... improvement from waking up 1-3 times a night and staying up wide-awake for 1-3 hours at a time. we started him on melatonin about 2 weeks ago - i think that plays a large part in this :)
7. gestures more. not yet pointing, but trying harder to get our attention.
8. lets me hold his hand now. he'd pull his hand away immediately prior to a few days ago.
9. FED HIMSELF WITH A FORK for the first time ever! he has always had very poor fine motor coordination, so has never liked even attempting to use utensils. my next goal is to get him to drink from a sippy cup (one that doesn't have a straw).

my buddy feeding himself today.

one ecstatic mommy here... GO DREW!