Determining whether your child has SPD

Unlike many of those other frequently misdiagnosed things that I have mentioned, which ADHD aside (I will come back to that) the percentage of individuals who are experiencing some form to some degree of SPD is actually far more common than any of those individual diagnoses actually occur. This includes autism spectrum disorder. From the literature available, current estimates range from approximately 10-20% of the population are affected by SPD, and in all honestly that number is quite possibly low given the frequency that it is incorrectly diagnosed. Having said that, SPD in any presentation or degree of severity can create a tremendous amount of stress and unhappiness within the entire family. Such as being dubbed the “demon child”. (I sincerely hope that no one aside from my biological mother would ever actually refer to their child as such. Sure, everyone has their moments, and I am fully aware of how tremendously frustrating and exhausting parenting in general can be, let alone parenting a child who is “not easy”. However, I can’t stress enough that in all likelihood, your child is already struggling, they are not behaving in ways that are only going to make their lives more unpleasant simply to break your soul. They cannot help it. They don’t understand their behaviors or what is triggering them any more than you do at this point, and even if they did, attempting to verbalize it in a way that would seem at all plausible is just as frustrating for them as it is for you).  I am not at all saying that by the time you find me, you may have reached a level of frustration, exhaustion and despair that you didn’t realize was possible. I cannot deny the fact that parenting in general is frequently much more frustrating, exhausting, anxiety provoking, and overall plain old difficult that you would have imagined before you became a parent. I do understand that raising a child with the  types of behavioral issues frequently seen in this disorder is a word that “difficult” doesn’t remotely accurately convey. Particularly if you have no idea what is causing your child to behave the way they do. But, let me offer a different perspective: if you’re looking into investigating SPD as a possibility, you’ve just made the first step that is ultimately going to make everything you are currently experiencing so much more understandable, and ultimately, things can only get better from here. 

Another example from Feather’s SPD antics archives: many infants and toddlers who are very hypersensitive to touch are likely to come to the conclusion that the only “safe” way to experience touch was if they initiate it, not if it is “forced”. I was one of them. Yes, I most certainly did bite the dentist. Probably more than once. I also kicked the kindly middle-aged gentleman at the shoe store right in the face when he attempted to measure my foot with one of those metal contraptions. Now, despite having done those things, I have never been a violent or outwardly aggressive person. These incidents occurred before I entered kindergarten, and in my immature mind, those acts were justified because I was defending myself in that moment with whatever means were deemed to be entirely necessary and available. I also did not have the verbal ability to explain adequately why I was doing those things. My not inaccurate (from the information that I was being given by my various senses at any given moment) perspective leading to the explanation that “he was hurting me” was considered a flimsy excuse and therefore a lie despite my firm belief that I was being honest. Undoubtedly, this caused an extreme amount of embarrassment and shame for my biological mother. Which are not pleasant emotions for anyone, however she was particularly aversely affected by these experiences. Which in turn had a significant impact on her treatment of me and her overall concept of who I was. Consequently, for many years that had a tremendous impact on my own self-concept, not in a positive way.