What is Sensory Processing Disorder?

Many of you know that I make my living daily as an occupational therapist working with children.  At all sorts of events I have had the pleasure of meeting so many great people and last year at Toy Fair 2010 I met a speech pathologist, Sherry Artemenko, who writes her blog called Play on Words, where she provides suggestions on how to promote children’s language.  Sherry asked me to collaborate on a guest post for her readers on a hot topic in the therapy world called Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Here is a little bit of the article, but please click on the link at the bottom to head over to Sherry’s blog to read the entire post!

What is Sensory Processing Disorder?

What makes us individuals in this world, as both children and adults, is that we all have unique preferences in terms of what smells we prefer, what types of tastes we enjoy, how different fabric feels between our fingertips, what type of musical beats and tunes engage us, to even the kind of movement experiences we prefer in life, ranging from bungee jumping to simply being a couch potato. This causes numerous possibilities of interests and preferences. However, in the end, despite these preferences, we are able to navigate the challenges of life with minimal difficulties. But –

– What if the smell of a certain odor was so noxious to you that you could not conceive of eating in a restaurant because you felt like you might get sick?

– What if fireworks or the unexpected sound of a train passing by was so loud and scary that it caused you to run in panic?

– What if the way a certain fabric felt against your body made it almost painful to wear certain clothing like undergarments or jeans?

Please click here to head over to Play on Words for the entire article….