Sensory Issues?

Have you ever noticed that once your child has a diagnosis you see everything through the lens of that special need? Ava has started to show some behaviors that make me wonder if she has some sensory issues, but there are other perfectly reasonable explanations for each behavior individually…

For example, she’s a really, really picky eater. She likes breads and pastas although she’s even picky there. If there’s a little piece of crisped cheese on the pizza crust it must be picked off. If the pasta is penne instead of rotini it is rejected and so on. She’ll eat most fruits, but the only vegetables she’ll eat are raw carrots, celery, or cucumber with dip. She’ll eat chicken nuggets, but no other meats. She won’t even touch a hot dog. She loves cheese, yogurt and milk. We serve what we serve at dinner. I just try to make sure there’s one thing on her plate she’ll eat even if it is applesauce. Last night, for example, we had pot roast. The rest of us ate the roast and veggies with gravy. She ignored everything on her plate except the applesauce. Anyway, before the speech delay I just figured she was a picky eater and that she came by it honestly (I’m picky. Her grandmother is picky.) Now I’m beginning to wonder because there are other things too.

She’s recently become very upset by wearing anything with a tag. It never seemed to bother her before. Perhaps though, we know now because she finally has a way to tell us. And any of her pajama bottoms or pants that have a tag are now instantly rejected. This morning I had to put her in a different shirt because of the tag in the first one I tried. So I begin to ask myself, “Is this sensory?” There are perfectly reasonable other explanations. She has sensitive skin and I can see with my own eyes that the tags on her pants are irritating the small of her back. The skin is scratched up in that area. So the explanation could simply be that the tags do actually bother her skin.

She also absolutely refuses to let me put anything in her hair. Her hair is finally (near her second birthday) growing out enough that it’s getting in her eyes a little. I’d like to put in a barrette or something, but she acts like it is hurting her and will continue to be bothered by it for hours. I know this because once I managed to distract her enough to leave on an outing with it in her hair and in every quiet moment her attention immediately returned to it. Now she has a complete meltdown if I even mention putting in a barrette. Again, this could just be a normal kid behavior. I don’t know. This is my first little girl.

But now I have three things: the food, the tags, and the hair stuff. If I put all of those things together does it paint a different picture than each one individually? I don’t know. Perhaps I’m just paranoid at this point. I haven’t really researched sensory issues yet. Even if she does have some sensory issues, what would the significance of that be? What would I do differently? Does anyone out there have any experience with or knowledge of sensory issues? Do you think I’m reading too much into completely unrelated, relatively typical kid behaviors? Opinions welcome.

Therapy Progress – Speed of Light

My last update on Ava’s speech therapy progress was almost exactly three weeks ago. At that time I had only been working with her for about 2 and ½ weeks and her progress was amazing. I commented that in terms of her speech she looked like an entirely different child than before I started working with her.

Three weeks later and she continues to make progress at an almost unbelievable rate. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m so glad I’m blogging about all of this because otherwise I wouldn’t believe it myself. I have dropped down to more like an average of 4 sessions a week (in addition to the therapy she’s getting from others). Real life keeps interfering. Ideally I’d work with her every single day, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen.

So, three weeks ago she’d imitate easy things when bribed by food and spontaneously about half the time. She was using /d/, /m/, /h/, /s/, /n/, /sh/, /t/, /w/, and /b/ (not all clearly, but trying). She had a limited number of vowels but refused to even try new ones. She was using CV syllable structure and could imitate simple CVCV syllables (mama, dada). She was using 15-20 “words”.

Fast forward three weeks and she’s moved up to a whole new level again. She’s added more consonants including /p/ and /y/ (the sound at the beginning of yellow) and gotten much better at some of the ones she was just starting on three weeks ago.

She’s also making progress on her vowels. Her productions of the ones she already knew are getting cleaner and she’s adding new ones like the short /i/ and the long /e/. More importantly, she’s willing to work on them now. Before I couldn’t get her to even try a new vowel.

She’s using CVCV syllable structure spontaneously. Our family members finally have names. We’re “mama” “dada” “papa” and she has approximations for her own name, her brother’s name and her grandmother. (And that still hasn’t grown old. She loves calling us by name and does it frequently just because it makes her happy. It makes me happy too.) Even more impressive, and just in this last week she’s starting to be able to do CVCV words where the vowel changes. So she can do “nanuh” for banana. Or “babi” for baby. They’re messy, and the vowels aren’t pure, but you can tell she’s trying to make the two vowels sound different. Occasionally they will just pop out clear as day, but most of the time they’re messy.

Before she was using 15-20 words total. Now I truly couldn’t count. She’s spontaneously attempting new words. Her receptive language is great and always was. She knew the words for things, she just couldn’t say them. Everything was locked inside. Now she’ll just try. What pops out of her mouth often sounds a little like what she’s trying for, but I’m mostly guessing from context. The point though is that she’s trying on her own. She just looks at something, or wants to talk about something she sees on tv and just tries to tell us about it. It shows such a gain in confidence on her part.

Seriously, if I were working as a professional (rather than as a mother in this case) and evaluated Ava six weeks ago, then three weeks ago, and today and then I put those evaluations side by side I wouldn’t think they could possibly come from the same kid. I’m humbled and grateful and amazed at what she has accomplished. In fact those words don’t really fully express how I feel about all the progress.

Why is it working? It is the fish oil? You have to wonder at least a little. Is it a matter of lots of the right kind of therapy at the right time? Would she have gotten better anyway if we had just left her alone? Is it that her speech problem is just really responsive to intervention - so once we started working with her the problem that looked so severe turns out to be milder? Am I getting excited too early because a plateau is just around the corner? We’ve come so far. And there’s still so much left to do. And I’m scared this is some kind of fluke that will be taken back. I’m trying hard to not be too hopeful. Which sounds odd, but it’s true.

Toddler Personal Ad

Playmate wanted – St. Louis, MO area. Approximately 2 years of age. Preferably female, but will consider males. Serious inquires only. :-)

Ok. So a toddler personal ad is ridiculous, but I really do need to find Ava a playmate. Ava’s starting to show an interest in playing with others. When a friend comes over to play with Michael she follows the two of them around. We were at the park recently and she was fascinated with a three year old little girl who was playing nearby, but unfortunately that little girl didn’t want to play with a “baby” and Ava didn’t even have the language to try to engage her. The signs are there that this would be the perfect time to find a friend (preferably female) for her to play with regularly. But I don’t know anyone with a little girl. Our neighborhood is full of rough and tumble boys. Seriously. I can think of 7 boys under the age of five on our street. But no girls.

Ava does go to daycare two mornings a week and her class is full of children her age, but I never really run in to any other parents. Is it ok to ask the teacher if Ava has one or two children that she gets along with the most and put a note in the box of the children asking the parents if they’d be interested in a playdate? It seems… weird. And a little desperate. I hate to come off as weird and desperate.

Does anyone have an opinion on that idea? Or have any other ideas? I’m completely open to suggestions.