SID: The "Hidden" Disability
Jan 14 '04
The Bottom Line Not all children have disabilities that are apparent on the surface.
This is my 200th review I've written for Epinions. I wanted to set this milestone with a review that is a little closer to my heart than product reviews.
My Kids' Stories
I have three children, who right now are four years old, 22 months old, and five months old. They are beautiful children, in my opinion, and I'm often stopped when I'm out to be told how gorgeous they are. Nothing makes a mom's heart soar higher than someone complimenting your children, but what most people don't know is that my older two children are special needs children.
Both my daughter and my older son have what is known commonly as Sensory Integration Dysfunction. I won't repeat details, as Epinions user bonniesayers has already done a wonderful job at explaining what life is like for a child with SI dysfunction.
My daughter was diagnosed through our county's Early Intervention System when she was 31 months old. Much to my shock and dismay, she had the gross motor skills of a 17-month-old, and her fine motor skills weren't much better. My son, who was privileged to have a wiser mother, entered the system at nine months old, unable to sit up on his own, crawl, or even know to catch himself if he started to fall.
My daughter has been receiving occupational therapy (OT) for 17 months now. My son receives OT, physical therapy, and speech therapy. My schedule is full running children to therapists along with the regular trials and tribulations of being a mom of three.
What Everyone Should Know
SID is probably one of the most misunderstood and "hidden" disorders. My children don't look any different than yours. There are no facial characteristics that would clue you into the fact that they do have special needs. They appear to be perfect, healthy children, and to me, they are just that.
SID generally manifests itself in developmental delays and behavioral problems. Until it gets added to the next version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), to many doctors it doesn't even exist. Most parents I talk to have never heard of it; I know that I hadn't. And to try to explain it to someone, I constantly hear "You'd never know that there is anything wrong with them!"
You are right; you wouldn't. Unless you see some of the things that "trigger" my kids. Come over some time to see nail cutting time. After four years, my daughter can tolerate having her fingernails cut, but watch me pin my children down so that I can cut their toenails as they kick and scream. Watch me have to fight my almost-two-year-old through diaper changes, which he hates with a passion unrivaled. Watch me attempt to get socks "just right," hair washed on a child who hates the feeling of anything on his head, hats and gloves and shoes on a child who can't stand the feel of anything touching his body.
Come sit with me as a I cry after my daughter has a melt-down the likes of which you probably have never seen, where she is in danger of hurting herself or someone else, where she howls and kicks doors and walls and bangs her head for 45 minutes.
I'm not writing this review in any attempt to make their lives seem horrible or to garner any sympathy. They have great lives (I think), and we need no sympathy. We plug along each day the same as any "normal" family does. We have fun, we work, we play hard.
I just want people to be aware that some children with disabilities don't have hearing aids or wheelchairs or a certain "look" about them. They are in front of you every day and you might not even know it. So when you see a mom fighting to get a coat on a child, or a child who seems totally out of control, rather than thinking that it's bad parenting, think back on reading this and realize that the situation might be out of both the mom's and the child's control. We are doing the best we can. We discipline our children the same as you do. We want what's best for them the same as you do. And we love them just as much as you do yours.
We just have a different type of day; a different way of looking at life; and a different way of working around things that you might take for granted in your daily lives.
For more information about Sensory Integration Dysfunction, visit Sensory Integration International's website at http://www.sensoryint.com/.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
pippadaisy
|
 - Top 50 |
|
Reviews written: 1085
Trusted by: 176 members
About Me:
Divorce seriously cuts into the amount of time for reviewing.
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.