Liam has a less than normal ability to take in sensory information from the signals his body sends him and signals from the environment around him to organize the information and use it to function in his daily life. He has ineffective processing of tactile (touch sense), vestibular (movement sense), proprioceptive (position sense) and auditory (hearing sense) sensations.
Most people have five functioning (external) senses: Sight (Visual), Hearing (Auditory), Smell (Olfactory), Taste (Gustatory), and Touch (Tactile). We also have three additional senses that are hidden (and not in a 6th sense way of thinking…ha!). The additional hidden (Internal) senses are Interoceptive (Internal Organs…hunger, thirst, digestion, body temperature, sleep, mood, heart rate, etc), Vestibular (Movement…spinning sensations, falling sensations, being moved or pushed) and finally Proprioceptive (Body Position and Orientation…body awareness and muscle control).
When these senses are activated, the central nervous system (nerves, spinal cord and brain) processes them as information and the person acts appropriately in regards to the stimuli. On the other hand, in Liam, the nervous system has some sort of “disconnect” or disruption between the sensory stimuli received and the reaction or output given. His sensory neurons don’t send effective messages into the central nervous system and the motor neurons don’t’ send effective messages out to his body to have appropriate behavioral responses.
Liam has what is called Sensory Processing Dysfunction (SPD). It is defined as the inability to use information received through the senses in order to function smoothly in daily life. It is an umbrella term to cover a variety of neurological dysfunctions or disabilities. The subtypes of SPD are Sensory Modulation Disorder (Sensory Over-Responsivity, Sensory Under-Responsivity and Sensory Seeking), Sensory Discrimination Disorder and Sensory Based Motor Disorder (Postural Disorder and Dyspraxia). Basically, when the processing of the senses is unorganized, the brain cannot do its most important job of organizing sensory messages. Liam cannot respond to sensory information to behave in a meaningful, consistent way. He may also have a difficulty using sensory information to plan and carry out actions that he needs to do. Therefore he has a difficult time learning. All of Liam’s sensory issues have existed from even before his birth. They have carried on to the present time and encompass his speech learning and self regulation (behavior control). In order to develop normally and learn normally, a person must have organized senses. If the senses are disorganized, again, the person cannot learn normally.
His inability to function smoothly is not because he won’t, it’s because he can’t.
Liam has several issues with sensory processing, some are less severe than others. Some have been more severe in the past and he has overcome them. Luckily, as Liam grows older and learns the accommodations that he needs to activate when he notices a sensory issue happening, he will be able to function normally as a normal kid and normal adult. SPD is fully recoverable with the proper exercises, activities and treatments. Liam only experiences issues with four of the senses, Auditory, Tactile, Vestibular and Proprioceptive. And only very slightly has issues with Olfactory sensations.
The first and very obvious issue that Liam has is Tactile Dysfunction. Most people who meet and spend any time with him can see this very quickly.
Liam will:
• Respond negatively (and aggressively) to light touch, to him, it feels as if he has been scratched or punctured.
• Respond negatively (and aggressively) to the possibility of being touched lightly, therefore avoids closeness with most other people.
• Respond negatively (and aggressively) to being touched by surprise. (eg, he will kick and thrash inappropriately if his brother is lying next to him and accidentally touches him with his foot.)
• Show fight or flight behavior when his face is touched or washed, when receiving a haircut or a shampoo or if patted on the head. (bath time is a challenge and he appears very rude if an adult pats him on the head; he runs off)
• Respond very negatively to gnats or mosquitoes (the light, itchy touch, feels like needles to him…he will go running screaming “OUCH OUCH OUCH!!”
• Seem very over responsive to physical pain, very overdramatic over a minor scratch or splinter. Removal of a splinter seems as if we are attempting to remove his entire foot.
• Also respond in the way above to any dissimilar and unexpected touch sensations.
• Hates surprises
• Severely hates having fingernails trimmed.
• Rubs off the sensation of a kiss, prefers hugs.
• Be very distracted, inattentive and fidgety.
• React with fight or flight to friendly touches or pats from anyone unfamiliar (usually anyone other than us, his parents).
• Curl or protect his hands to avoid some touch sensations.
• Be unusually fast to hurry to remove a very tiny bit of dirt or water from himself or his clothes. (most who have spent any time with him have seen this, although he is and has gotten much better at tolerating this, in past years he would simply strip completely naked at the moment of getting a tiny bit of water on himself…running around yelling “ewwwww wet, wet!!!!.)
• Avoid sticky textures (gloop, reward stickers, glue, etc) and would become tearful or aggressive at the idea. (flight response to anyone wanting to place a sticker on his shirt)
• Stand still or move against others (traffic) during any group activities to keep constant visual tab on others (to avoid being unexpectedly touched).
• Treat pets roughly.
• Arm himself with anything seen as a weapon (stick, car to throw, etc mainly at Aedan)
• Has difficulty forming warm attachments to others.
• And finally, Liam exhibits stubborn, rigid, inflexible, willful, verbally and physically pushy and otherwise “difficult” behaviors for no apparent reason, when it is actually an adversive response to a “Liam offensive” tactile stimuli.
All of these things that affect him, wouldn’t normally affect most people in the way it does him. To Liam, a light touch, unexpected touch or sticky sensation feels as if he’s being punctured with a knife or like his skin is peeling off. He is over-responsive to touch. His nervous system is over-responsive to touch. The disconnect is that his brain and nerves are inaccurately telling him that these sensations are DANGEROUS. And he is reacting accordingly. Seeing a giant bear walking toward you while camping, your brain tells you that this situation is dangerous. The visual stimuli (sensory input) is the bear, your nervous system (your brain and knowledge within) tells you this is bad, you fight or flight (the reaction). To Liam, sticky sensations, light touch, unexpected touch, etc tell Liam that he is in danger, so he reacts aggressively. We are currently working with him to find the best way to tell himself otherwise.
More to come...
More to come...
