Wyatts Sensory Profile Results

We got he results back from Wyatt's Sensory Profile I did a few weeks ago. Pretty much it just tells you what you already know but breaks it up into the different areas and if they are Typical Performance for children his age Definite Difference/More Than Others His age Or Less Than Others his age. It reminds me of the lessons in class for > < haha!

I thought it would be interesting to share the results and typical things Wyatt does. I know a lot of SPD on my blog is about Nash who is almost the complete opposite of Wyatt (some areas are the same) This profile will allow us as Parents, his Speech, OT and any others like Teachers who are in his life get an idea of his sensory needs which help feed his Sensory Diet.

Sensory Seeking
~Definite Difference/More Than Others
Wyatts Auditor, Movement, Touch, Body Position, Activity's Level and Emotional and Social in this area are all high or low. Its drastic from one to another. For example, he seeks out falling, crashing, over exaggerated movements like that but he is not a fan of being touched unless he engages it. Sitting at the dinner table, or chair at school is hard for him he is ALWAYS moving. This causes lots of spills messes as you can imagine but most of the time they are unintentional and a direct result of his constant moving. While he seeks out extreme sensory things in some areas he doesn't in others. Wyatts food aversions due to textures, smells and taste are very high.

Emotionally Reactive
~Definite Difference/More Than Others
Wyatt as expected responds with heightened emotional awareness to....almost everything. A scratch is like a trip to the hospital the same anxiety. High anxiety all together and coping techniques are low (but getting better as he gets older) it was just this past month we could vacuum with him in the house, then the same room and now he is curious about the vacuum and wanting to try it to. HUGE steps for him from just a year ago when he would literally climb the walls if we did it while he was in the house.

Low Endurance/Tone
~ Typical Performance

Oral Sensory Sensitivity
~Definite Difference/More Than Others
As mentioned above, Wyatts Oral Sensitivity is off the charts. He has many quirks like children do they are just taken to the extreme. Looking back at his eating since birth its been extremely sensitive. Wyatt had acid reflux as an infant and we had months of formula problems trying to work with doctors and nutritionist to find one that worked. When it was time for solids we realized his gag reflex was so sensitive anything with chunks would come back up.....and for a while it was literally ANYTHING with any texture more than SMOOTH. We kept trying and became good at cleaning up those kind of messes daily sometimes many times a day. But the flip side was to keep him on smooth and non existent textured foods and just put off dealing with his sensitivity. So little by little got better, but never has liked foods with "flavor" he likes very bland foods and examines each and every bite even on foods that are on his "approved list" which there are few. He has been involved in a feeding group with peers and that helped a lot. He is more willing to TRY new foods. Its hard to watch him physically struggle with trying a new food. This is another area anxiety comes into focus as well. One last note about Wyatts Oral needs. He chews on everything. Toys, shirts, his lip. This is nothing new, always been this way. We have a small dog and she often got blamed for chewing that was in fact Wyatt.

Inattention/Distractibility
~Definite Difference/More Than Others
Since Wyatt physically has a hard time sitting still its very easy for him to "look" all over the place. First he examines any room we enter and makes sure its quiet, no fans, and checks out all his other sensory areas and does a mental checklist. So this right from the start is a distraction 100% of the time. He has gotten very good at TRYING to focus on whatever we are doing while still being 99% someplace else.....for example he was doing some pushing.heavy work load at speech the other day and as he was pushing this cart (he was having fun) he was pushing and looking all around and talking and thus knocking into everything. Sometimes he will find something like any child will thats interesting and foucs on that while we are trying to focus on something else so in this case a swing in the corner, we covered it up but he still talked about it and "wondered" about it over and over again. Even once we left the room his fixation on the item that was a distraction was still a distraction. Now your thinking, this is very typical of children of course! Many of these things are they are kids and we want them to be kids. In the end it comes down to how this effects Wyatts daily life and distraction are high in the effecting category especially when we are looking at him being in school next year full time. We will need to learn how to help him and his teachers help him cope in this and all areas.

Thats whats so great about this sensory profile, it helps us pin point not only the areas we know there is a difference but then the specific categorys we can help him and help him help HIMSELF with Sensory diets and self coping skills!

Poor Registration and Sensory Sensitivity
~Definite Difference/More Than Others
This is easiest to explain by comparing Wyatt and Nash, they are both *Definite Difference/More Than Others* but for different reasons. Wyatt is OVER sensitive when it comes to registration (Touch, Visual, Taste, Smell, Emotional and Social) and Nash is UNDER sensitive. However there are some areas they overlap in or compleetly switch. Confused yet? ;)

Wyatt- Seeks crashing, falling, pushing, things like that but doesnt like to be touched physically. This is a overlap into the UNDER sensitive area I believe because he is SEEKING this when in other areas such as sound and touch by others he does not seek it and in fact he will go out of his way to NOT be physical. The slightest touches he is not wanting are like magnified by 10 for him. Cutting his nails, looking in his ears, nose, mouth, the dentist is another story all together.

Nash- Typical when it comes to crashing, pushing and what not. He does not seek it out more than any other toddler his age. However he does seek HUGS, big BEAR hugs. He loves heavy blankets, and up until just recently the only thing that could calm him in any situation was a huge embrace and hug from me or his father and pressure around him. So again he overlaps into both areas in some ways too.

Wyatt- As mentioned earlier responds to cuts and scrapes like its a break or something MORE serious than it is. He cant stand bandaids on his skin so when a cut or scrap happens its hard for him to accept he needs something but doesnt want it its a love hate relationship. He fears Drs, Dentists and anything like that. Until just recently washing his face and brushing teeth were very hard for him. He is getting much better about it.

Nash- Is UNDER sensitive when it comes to scrapes, cuts, bumps and bruises. He could be gushing blood from a fall and not know he is hurt that bad. He has always been like this, shots when he was really little were so easy not one tear. Now he crys but only because of the anticipation not the pain. This made it very hard during the past few years he had chronic ear infections and he wouldn't bat an eye at the pain and if he did you knew he was in A LOT of pain to then complain.

Auditory
Wyatt is very sensitive to sounds, and will go out of his way to avoid then (along with some lighting and almost all fans in public places)
Nash seeks loud sounds and as a baby would put a toy that made noise up to his ear and hold it even if we thought it was to loud.

The last areas are Sedentary and Fine Motor and Perceptual. Wyatt was Probable Difference/Less Than Others I dont have Nash's but likely the same if not a little more in the Fine Motor area.

As I said to start I thought it was a interesting display on how different Sensory issues can be from one child to another. There is no cookie cutter mold in which they fall into in really any area. I think the biggest thing is we all have sensory issues its just how we cope with them as we become adults and the social and emotional side of it.

I am very lucky to have an amazing team working with each of my boys so we can help them learn ways to work with not against there sensory issues. Now the next best thing will be getting SPD into the next DSM but thats another story for another post!

~ Kristen