Time Magazine article "The Next Attention Deficit ...

Post Reply New Topic

The Next Attention Deficit Disorder?

With a teacher for a mom and a physician's assistant for a dad, Matthew North had two experts on the case from birth, but his problems baffled them both. "Everything was hard for Matthew," says Theresa North, of Highland Ranch, Colo. He didn't speak until he was 3. In school, he'd hide under a desk to escape noise and activity. He couldn't coordinate his limbs well enough to catch a big beach ball.

Matthew, now 10, was evaluated for autism and attention deficit hyper-activity disorder, but the labels didn't fit. "We filled out those ADHD questionnaires a million times, and he always came out negative," Theresa recalls. "When we found this place, I cried. It was the first time someone said they could help."

This place is the Sensory Therapies and Research [STAR] Center, just south of Denver, which treats about 50 children a week for a curious mix of problems. Some can't seem to get their motors in gear: they have low muscle tone and a tendency to respond only minimally to conversation and invitations to play. Others are revved too high: they annoy other children by crashing into them or hugging too hard. Many can't handle common noises or the feel of clothing on their skin. A number just seem clumsy. Adults can remember kids like these from their own childhood. They were the ones called losers, loners, klutzes and troublemakers. At STAR Center they wear a more benign label: children with sensory processing disorder (SPD).

more...

Well, that article could have done with being three times as long. Whatever happened to the news magazines being for news and studies in detail?

Interesting stuff. I do find myself wondering if what they're looking at is a subset of autism rather than an entirely different disorder, though. It seems most of us have symptoms which focus more or less on one or more aspects, simply call what those kids have PDD-NOS or Asperger's, with an extreme focus on sensory issues, and you've got something which seems to fit. Of course, that's tough to tell really with an article which is so sparse on the details. Time, you disappoint me.

there was quite a bit more if click on "more" at the bottom of Momtanics post.
Not bad.
My son has mixture of SPD with PPD and the broken language of AS. I'm more aspie with some SP issues. Apparently 75% of Autists have SPD, but sometimes SPD occurs on its own. Donna Williams ( writer, and autism advisor) calls it "autism fruit salad" and is all for separating the issues up, because they respond to different treatments. In fact she asks whether there is such a thing as autism, because it is made up of such often disparate elements.

:touches people so they catch his mental diseases:
Come here little girl