Many of the individuals who have 7q11.23 Duplication or other syndromes or disabilites also have trouble with some aspect of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). SPD has also been referred to as Sensory Integration Disorder. The list below includes basic information about some professionals and their therapies that may benefit a child with Sensory Processing Disorder. For more details and information, see http://www.spdfoundation.net/.
But first, what is Sensory Processing Disorder?
Think of a developing child as a tree. The stronger the roots, the more nutrients will be absorbed, the more anchored the tree will be, and the sturdier the trunk and branches will grow. A child with strong roots is likely to grow into a sturdy, thriving, blossoming individual.
We think of a child's roots as having three major components - Sensory Processing skills, Perceptual Motor skills, and Visual skills. Sensory Processing Disorder occurs when these core areas are out of sync.
Sensory Processing involves touch, movement, and position senses. These are all primary to development. Tactile processing refers to touch or being touched by either a person or objects. Vestibular processing is taking in sensations about the pull of gravity through the inner ear and then responding to these sensations. And proprioceptive processing is the unconscious awareness of sensations coming from muscles and joints.
Perceptual Motor skills depend upon a sound sensory processing base. These skills include balance, bilateral coordination, body awareness, directionality, mid-line crossing, motor planning, and spatial awareness. Visual Processing is the interpretation and response to information received through the eyes. Some essential visual processing skills are acuity, binocularity, and visual tracking.
Primary Therapies
Occupational Therapy using a Sensory Integration Framework (OT-SI)
Professional: Occupational Therapist (OT)
The ideal OT is one who has received additional postgraduate training in sensory integration theory and treatment. The specific goals of occupational therapy using a (OT-SI) framework are to improve the person's social participation, self-esteem, self-regulation and sensory-motor abilities.
Under the guidance of a therapist, the child actively takes in movement and touch information in playful, meaningful, and natural ways that help his brain modulate these fundamental neural messages.
Physical Therapy
Professional: Physical Therapist
Is a therapy that is devoted to improving an individual's physical abilities. It involves activities that strengthen the child's muscular control and motor coordination, especially in large muscles.
Secondary Therapies (in alphabetical order)
Auditory Therapy, or Auditory Training
Professional: Audiologist, Speech-and-Language Therapist, Occupational Therapist, or other qualified specialist
A method of sound stimulation designed to improve a person's listening and communicative skills, learning capabilities, motor coordination, body awareness and self-esteem. Various methods employ the use of special headphones. Over several days, the child listens passively to music and voices filtered through the headphones and then participates in active voice work, such as repeating sounds, reading aloud, and conversing. therapy helps the ear to attend to and discriminate among sounds, the vestibular system to integrate sensory messages of balance and posture, and the person to become more focused, centered, and organized. The Therapeutic Listening Program, designed by Sheila Frick, OTR/L, is an excellent home program that is supervised by a therapist while the child is receiving services. See: http://www.tomatis.net/, or http://www.vitallinks.net/.
Brain Gym
Professional: Licensed Brain Gym Practitioner
The Brain Gym system is a set of 26 specific movements developed by Paul Dennison PHD, based on research in Educational Kinesiology. Educational Kinesiology studies education, child development, and physical movement of the human body as it relates to learning and expression skills. The system readies the body to learn by integrating visual, auditory, and kinesthetic functioning. It stimulates the nervous system equally in all brain parts, minimized one-sided brain reactions, and strengthens neural pathways between the two hemispheres. The activities effect rapid and often dramtic improvements in concentration, memory, reading, writing, organizing, listening, physical coordination, and more. See http://www.braingym.org/.
Chiropractic
Professional: Chiropractor
Chiropractic is the philosophy, art and science of detecting and correcting subluxation in the human body. Subluxation is a partial dislocation or abnormal movement of a bone in a joint. Chiropractic helps children with SPD by specifically addressing the structure and function of the nerves, muscles, and joints controlling posture and movement that influence our ability to interact with our environment. http://www.icpa4kids.com/ or www.chiroweb.com/find/children.html.
CranioSacral Therapy (CST)
Professional: Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, Chiropractor, Osteopath, Massage Therapist, or other Registered Craniosacral Practitioner (RCST)
CST is a gentle method of evaluating and enhancing the function of the craniosacral system (the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that protect the brain and spinal cord). CST involves light touch manipulation of the bones in the skull, sacrum and coccyx to correct an imbalance that can adversely affect the development of the brain and spinal cord and can result in sensory, motor, and neurological dysfunction. Developed by Dr. John Upledger, CST is used by a variety of health care professionals. Contact: The Upledger Institute, http://www.upledger.com/ or http://www.craniosacraltherapy.org/.
Hippotherapy (therapy with a horse)
Professional: Certified Instructor
Hippotherapy means "treatment with the help of a horse." Occupational, physical and speech therapists use the horse as a modality to improve the posture, movement, neuro-motor function and sensory processing of people with disabilities. The movement of the horse, with traditional therapy intervention, influences muscle tone, encourages muscle action, and improves vestibular reactions, sensori-motor integration, and mid-line postural control. Contact North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, http://www.narha.org/ or Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy, http://www.nceft.org/, or Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association, http://www.eagala.org/
Interactive Metronome
Professional: OT, SLP, PT, ATC, Educator, Psychiatrist, Neurologist, Psychologist, Chiropractic, Rehabilitation Professional or other Medical, and Mental Health Professional
Interactive metronome (IM) was developed in the early 1990s and is used to help children (and adults) with learning and developmental disorders, including auditory and sensory processing disorders, dyslexia and other learning disorders, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, Tourette's syndrome, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and more. IM is a neuro-motor assessment and treatment tool used in therapy to improve the neurological processes of motor planning and sequencing. Motor planning and sequencing are central to human activity. From The coordinated movements needed to walk, to the order of words in a sentence, planning and sequencing are critical to efficient human function. Interactive metronome improves motor planning and sequencing by using neuro-sensory and neuro-motor exercises developed to improve the brain's inherent ability to repair or remodel itself through a process called neuroplasticity. See http://www.interactivemetronome.com/.
Nutritional Therapy, Dietary Intervention
Professional: Nutritionist
Good nutrition is essential for development, efficient maintenance and functioning, optimum activity level, and resistance to infection and disease. A nutritionist can help a person with nutritional deficiencies achieve balance in carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water. Contact: Autism Network for Dietary Intervention, http://www.autismndi.com/.
Perceptual Motor Therapy
Professional: Perceptual Motor Therapist
Perceptual motor therapy provides integrated movement experiences that remediate gross motor, fine motor, and visual perception problems. Activities, including sensory input techniques, stimulate left and right-brain communication to help the child interpret incoming information to the nervous system. Goals are to improve visual motor perception, develop more mature patterns of response to specific stimuli, improve motor skills and balance, and stimulate alternate routes to memory and sequencing for those children who do not respond to the methods taught in the conventional classroom. Contact: Kids Moving Co., http://www.kidsmovingco.com/.
Psychotherapy
Professional: Psychotherapy is sometimes appropriate, particularly if the child has behavior or self-image problems or is depressed. (Psychotherapy deals with the effects of SI disorder, but not the underlying causes.) Psychotherapies include behavioral therapy, to help the child deal with problematic symptoms and behaviors; family therapy to help the child, parents and siblings become a healthier unit; and play therapy, to promote the child's social-emotional development. See http://www.floortime.org/
Speech and Language Therapy
Professional: Speech / Language Pathologist (SLP)
Speech-language therapy includes activities designed to meet specific goals for the child. The child may need help with speech skills, such as pronouncing "L", "K", or "SH" sounds; monitoring the pitch of his voice; and strengthening oral-motor control in the muscles of his mouth. He may also benefit from activities designed to expand his language skills, such as retelling stories, conversing, and playing games to develop memory and vocabulary. As many children with SPD are picky eaters, therapy with a a speech pathologist trained in oral-motor and feeding issues may be very helpful. Indeed, when the child receives co-treatment simultaneously from and occupational therapist trained in this area, optimal benefits of getting in the mouth occur. Contact American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), http://www.asha.org/.
Vision Therapy, or Vistion Training (VT)
Professional: Developmental (or Behavioral) Optometrist
Vision therapy, or optometric visual training, helps the person improve visual skills and can also prevent learning-related visual problems. Along with Lenses or prisms, VT helps the child integrate visual information with input from other senses, such as hearing, touching, and moving. A developmental optometrist provides sensory-motor and educational activities that strengthen eye-motor control, eye-hand coordination and depth perception, and help develop visual perception. Contact http://www.optometrists.org/; or Optometric Extension Program Foundation: http://www.oepf.org/, or Parents Active for Vision Education; http://www.pavevison.org/.
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