Helping kids with sensory processing disorder

SPD first entered the popular lexicon when A. Jean Ayres described the sensory integration theory in her 1979 book, Sensory Integration and the Child. A 2013 study by the University of California in San Francisco identified through MRI imaging “quantifiable differences” in the brain structure of otherwise typically developing sensory-sensitive kids.

Yet, incredibly, since it often coexists with other disorders, SPD isn’t formally recognized as a distinct psychiatric condition in the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Unfortunately, that means many kids aren’t getting the support and treatment they need. It’s a reality that concerns Ellen Yack, a Toronto occupational therapist in practice for the past 35 years and co-author of Building Bridges Through Sensory Integration: Occupational Therapy for Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders.

“It still amazes me how many doctors are not aware of this problem and make parents feel guilty for accommodating their child’s sensory needs, or who refer kids to behaviour therapists who use punishment strategies when children have a neurological problem that is causing them distress,” says Yack.