CHAPTER ONE

The Great Sensory
Parent Detective

Wouldn’t it be great if our kids were each born with an instruction manual, complete with a “broken parts” section? How easy would it be, if we could just “trouble shoot” and find a quick fix? If only we could turn to the page on tantrums and learn how to reset our child’s systems. But, as you know, it’s not that easy. Instead, what we can do is talk about how your child’s sensory systems work. We can point out what to look for and how to decipher the signs that something that isn’t working correctly. Maybe your child’s sensory systems are not communicating properly with her brain. But, how do you recognize the signs, if you’re not a trained therapist or doctor? We’re here to help you learn how.

It’s important for you as a parent to understand the vital role you play in your child’s development and, if necessary, your child’s sensory therapy. You spend more time with your child than anyone else, and you can learn how to be an integral part of your child’s sensory well-being.

Keeping Records

One thing we have found through experience is that it’s important to document your child’s milestones, progress, and even setbacks. Many parents make a binder or folder that enables them to keep all of their child’s medical information in one place. In addition to tracking your child’s doctors’ appointments, we recommend tracking any major events that occur in your child’s life. Have you gotten a divorce recently? Has your child started a new school? Did you have a baby? Did the family pet pass away? Landmark events often create chaos and change in our children’s lives. For a child with sensory issues, changes like these can induce havoc.

If you are checking your child for food allergies or trying out a new diet or lifestyle, then keeping records will be helpful for both you and your doctors. If it seems like little Jacob gets a tummy ache after eating pasta, make a note! Again, you’re the parent detective, and it’s easier to find patterns when you make notes to yourself about what’s happening in the moment.

We know it can be hard to keep track of everything, and you may find yourself getting frustrated at having to keep records. But, we’d like to encourage you to try. If you have a child with special needs, it is unreal how many times you will have to reference this material. Personally, I have been overwhelmed by having to fill out all the forms for insurance, regional centers, and schools. Just when you think you’re done, it’s time to redo your child’s triennial Individualized Education Program (IEP), and you’re transported back to the land of filling-out-a-gazillion-forms. These records have saved me and given my aging memory a much-needed break.

Last, but not least, please remember to write down the positive things that occur in your child’s life. Did your child say three words together? Did she have a successful playdate? Was she able to eat all of her broccoli? It’s good to note what is working for your child, especially when it comes to finding the best therapists and making plans to help your child progress and stay on the right track.

Quick Sensory Checklist

We have compiled some clues your child may be giving you about how his or her sensory systems are functioning. While our sensory systems are complex, and there may be more going on than meets the eye, here’s a starting point that could lead you in the right direction.

Fill out this checklist over time, after observing your child in his or her everyday environment. See if your child exhibits a particular behavior while playing in the park, or maybe while watching TV. Don’t try to go after particular results, as this checklist is about what your child does naturally.

Once the checklist is completed, if you feel there is a concern in a certain sensory domain, please take the checklist with you when you talk to your pediatrician or therapist. Ideally, this is a reference to put you all on the same page and start a dialogue about what is going on with your child.

Notes:
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Please add other behaviors or concerns to the checklist that you wish to explore further with your child’s doctor and/or therapist. Again, you are the “parent detective.” Don’t be afraid to write things down and seek answers to help your child.

The Eight Sensory Systems

Most of us are familiar with the five sensory systems of sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch. What we would like to do is break down these sensory systems “myth-buster” style. The more you know about the basics, the more you can help your child. We will also explore three more sensory systems, known as the vestibular, proprioceptive, and interoceptive systems. While these are big words, we promise they are easy to learn.

The Visual System and Sight

True or False: If your child has 20/20 eyesight, then he or she will not have vision problems.

The answer is “False.” Eyesight is the ability to see, whereas vision refers to the way your child processes what he sees. There are many more factors involved in eyesight and vision than just being able to view letters and numbers on a chart. What happens to that information after the eyes receive it? To be able to “see” properly, it must not only travel to the brain unimpeded, but the brain must be able to translate those signals appropriately.

According to Ann M. Hoopes and Stanley A. Appelbaum, OD, FCOVD, authors of Eye Power, an eye doctor should examine your child’s eye-muscle coordination, eye control, visual tracking, peripheral vision, visual perception, and visual information processing. They also suggest testing eye-hand and eye-body coordination and visualization, which is sometimes referred to as “seeing with the mind’s eye.”3

There are a few ways to tell if your child is having vision problems. Does he have difficulty tracking? Is it hard for him to copy letters or numbers off of the chalkboard at school? Does he seem to lose his place frequently when he reads? Does he tend to have poor depth perception? Does he get a headache while reading? Other clues might be if he’s not able to read words, if he sees words “floating,” or if the letters he sees are blurry.

In addition to or instead of wearing corrective lenses, some optometrists will prescribe vision exercises. While a doctor may give you some exercises to practice with your child, we recommend that any vision therapy be performed under the direction of a developmental optometrist or occupational therapist (OT). When it comes to the eyes, it is especially important to make sure you are working on the right things for your child’s specific needs.

The Auditory System and Sound

True or False: The characteristics of a teacher’s voice may determine how much knowledge a child will absorb.

Surprisingly, this is true. A teacher’s voice is crucially important, as it supplies not only knowledge, but also the very energy that permits that knowledge to sink in and be recorded.4 If a teacher presents information to his or her students in a more energetic voice, the students will leave the classroom with a higher energy level at the end of the day. The same is true if the teacher’s voice is lethargic, stoic, or “low energy.”

A child can pass a hearing test and still have an auditory processing concern. Just because your child can hear a bell or a tone, this does not mean she can process the language she hears. If a child is having an auditory issue that has gone undetected until the first or second grade, it may be that the child has relied on her visual and tactile senses to compensate. It’s easier to look at pictures in a book and get the meaning of a story in preschool and kindergarten, but when the pictures are taken away and the teacher delivers an auditory lesson, auditory deficiencies start to pop out.

Some children cover their ears when things are too loud. Others may hear every little noise and get distracted by sounds frequently. Some children may not be able to process exactly what they hear, and they miss things (like when the teacher gives instructions in class). Many OTs can do an auditory panel screening to help determine whether your child has difficulty processing the sounds she hears. A full workup can be performed by an audiologist, who can diagnose auditory processing disorder if appropriate.

The Olfactory System and Smell

True or False: There are two pathways into the nose—one from the nostrils and one from the inside of the mouth.

The answer to this is “True,” and, to take it one step further, according to What the Nose Knows, by Avery Gilbert, “The apparent location of a smell—inside or outside of our body—determines how we perceive it.”5 So, we may perceive smells differently depending on which route to the nose they take—such as through our mouth or through our...