When extended family, teachers, neighbors, other parents, and service providers ask you what Sensory Processing Disorder is, the following are research-supported statements you can make.
Ten Fundamental Facts About SPD
- Sensory Processing Disorder is a complex disorder of the brain that affects developing children and adults.
- Parent surveys, clinical assessments, and laboratory protocols exist to identify children with SPD.
- At least one in twenty people in the general population may be affected by SPD.
- In children who are gifted and those with ADHD, Autism, and fragile X syndrome, the prevalence of SPD is much higher than in the general population.
- Studies have found a significant difference between the physiology of children with SPD and children who are typically developing.
- Studies have found a significant difference between the physiology of children with SPD and children with ADHD.
- Sensory Processing Disorder has unique sensory symptoms that are not explained by other known disorders.
- Heredity may be one cause of the disorder.
- Laboratory studies suggest that the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are not functioning typically in children with SPD.
- Preliminary research data support decades of anecdotal evidence that occupational therapy is an effective intervention for treating the symptoms of SPD.
– from Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children With Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD ) p. 249-250 by Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR
