The Bright Spark is a intelligent, well spoken, quirky little boy. He has always been so. He started chatting away in sentences when he was about 17 months old and has been a chatter box ever since. He was a charming toddler, telling his carer at daycare one day she was wearing a "beautiful dress" (it was an apron) and stopping randomly in shopping centres to boogie to ambient music. The terrible twos came and went without being really terrible.
Over the last year or so we've been battling some of the quirky behaviours. Having to immediately stop and remove sand that has snuck in to sandles due to pending tantrums, runnning around in supermarkets, being drawn like a magnet to rocking chairs and needing to be on the move are just a few of them. Being sensitive to sound has been an issue for a while. I carry ear plugs just in case. When we go to see fireworks, which he loves, he has to wear them or he would be in tears. We thought these were things that he would grow out of as he got older but they have remained.
I find myself repeating "Move away from the television", "stop jumping on the bed", "take that out of your mouth" and I wonder if these are normal behaviour for a child only a few months from being five. More recently he has had behaviour problems at Kindy; not listening to the teacher, poor eye contact and hyperactive behaviour.
I've had a gut feeling that things were not quite right for a while. We had his hearing tested a few months ago and the results were normal. But last week there were several things over a couple of days that got me thinking. I spent some time online and found a quiz on the website of an occupational therapy clinic. One that examines sensory processing. This is how the body perceives the outside world and in turn reacts to it. In some children it seems that the information gets jumbled up as it goes into the brain and they perceive the world differently. When I compared my results to those of the husband I soon realised we needed to take it further. I'm thinking the Bright Spark is one of these "sensational kids".
So now we're on the, hopefully short, path to diagnosis and then the journey of treatment. I have thought a lot what giving my child a label like "sensory processing disorder" will do for him. My mother has suggested that the Bright Spark is fine, labelling him could be damaging. While I partly agree with her, I also know that with a label comes treatment, and hopefully improvement. My son is in his first year of at least 14 years of formal education. It is a time to get things right, to set the foundations for his future, so he can relate to his peers and enjoy his years at school. We want him to be a sucess at school and in life. And if something is in the way of this then we want to know what it is, help him overcome it or adapt his lifestyle to make it more comfortable for him.
I also want my quirky boy to be happy as he grows up and know why he might be a little different to other kids. Why clamps his hands over his ears in public toilets with hand dryers and that it's OK to be him. Undiagnosed Sensory Procesing Disorder can lead to anxiety and depression, things members of his immediate and extended family are challenged by. I would move mountains to see him maintain good mental health thoughout his life. If sessions of occupational therapy as a preschooler can help him to be a more resiliant for the rest of his life, then bring it on.
I don't want to change my son. I would like to make his life easier, and maybe mine a bit too. I would like to understand why he goes out of control in shopping centres and why with one light touch I can get his undivided attention after yelling his name across the room for two minutes. I love his little quirks, they are an intrinsic part of who his is. I am happy for him to keep dancing in the aisles.
