Sensory Processing Disorder

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I found this interesting site and wanted to share it here. Based on what I read at this site I believe that Sensory Processing Disorder is part of the Autism/Asperger's spectrum of disorders. This site has a lot of interesting and helpful info. It also has some funny anecdotes by parents of SPD kids.

http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/

If the link won't click, just copy it and paste it into your address bar, and then hit enter.

It is part of the spectrum disorder even though you can have it alone it alone.

as far as i know, it is seperate from the autism spectrum in itself, but if you already have an ASD, you are more susceptible to SPD, making it a common co-morbid, but not a diagnostic symptom

I view SPD as something that has a similar relationship to ASDs as ADHD does.

Sensory issues are part of ASDs (just like executive functioning issues are).
About 75% of people with an ASD also have diagnosable SPD (which is actually a similar rate as ADHD).
It is not uncommon for people to have SPD and not an ASD.

Personally, I've been diagnosed with SPD (by the Occupational Therapist I'm working with now) as well as an ASD. Working on the SPD is quite important for me - and in general a diagnosis of an ASD is one of the easiest ways to get insurance to cover that type of OT.

If you have severe sensory issues, or even not as severe, but still to the point where the sensory issues themselves cause significant impairments (rather than just them associated with other parts of the ASD), then I'd actively recommend people to research more into SPD. It's been quite helpful for me. If you have more mild sensory issues, then looking into SPD still helps with finding coping methods, but its not as necessary in my mind.

I personally am involved with the group over at http://spdsupport.org/ (and connected sites).

I think that many autistic people have sensory hyper- and hypo-sensitivities that would qualify them for SPD diagnosis, but I don't consider SPD itself to be an ASD or people with SPD alone to be on the autism spectrum. Same for ADHD traits and ADHD.

My oldest daughter has sensory and auditory processing disorder but she does not have Autism however I do think it typically can be a part of autism which would make sense as to why my daughter has it, genetically speaking....then again I cant be positive about it but it seems like all my kids got a bit of autism. I have two that are diagnosed Aspergers and I have Aspergers and I have one with Classic Autism. My oldest, my sweet angel, suffered with early onset Bi Polar disorder for years before he was finally diagnosed but I think he had some Aspie in there as well. He was very obsessed with knobs and buttons, also tools, and he never played with toys and did not watch TV until he was 6, dont know how much of this was his BP. When he was two I would give him the electric screw driver and he would sit there all day and take out the bottom screws and put them back in....and he never stripped one . I would also give him a block of wood and a hammer and nail....that was typically when he was hyper manic though so that may have had more to do with his BP. If I kept him busy it "sometimes" kept him out of trouble.