Hellobee

A little over a year ago I wrote this post, about ways we were coping with our super active 2.5 year old. In that post, I wrote that at that time we thought that Little Lion was just on the more active end of normal, and hadn’t pursued any further testing.

LL has been a little sensitive all of his life. He required a very strict sleep schedule and we had to constantly be on the lookout for him becoming overtired. If we missed his sleepy cues and kept him up too long, he would stop sleeping, beginning a horrible downward spiral that was very very hard to correct. We knew this made him a little different than other kids and wasn’t something all families experienced, but we know all kids are different and we rolled with it. We knew he was very active and busy, so we added things (like heavy work) to try to help him cope, and made sure we never missed a nap or stayed out late. When he would start running and screaming around the house manically with no direction, we knew it was bedtime, as this had become his main overtired cue as a toddler.

Then he started full-day daycare, and what used to be a manageable quirk quickly became a very large problem.

At our first parent/teacher conference in April, LL had been in the three-year-old preschool class for about 2 months. His teacher had some serious concerns about his activity level and inability to calm down and suggested we might want to look into whether something bigger was going on. Turns out, he was seeing LL’s manic overtired cues pretty much all day long. This was interfering with his ability to function in the classroom successfully.

We set up evaluations and observations, both inside the classroom and out. The first one was done at our pediatrician’s office, and to say it didn’t go well was an understatement. LL was hungry, as it was almost lunch time, and he was also tired. By the end of the evaluation he was falling apart, and I left with a packet of information about Sensory Processing Disorder and ADHD, and was advised to pursue further assessment with an Occupational Therapist.

Long story short, we saw an OT and had further developmental assessments done with our local agency.The conclusion we came to was that LL was struggling with self-regulation and sensory modulation, and these were skills that could be worked on through OT. While he was not officially diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder, he was exhibiting enough of the characteristics that we decided to go forward with weekly therapy.

After all of this testing, my instincts were telling me that full-time daycare might just be too much for LL. I spoke with many professionals and asked them their opinion about whether or not we should change our childcare setup to put LL in a more calm environment, but none of them would really answer my question. Everyone who observed him in the classroom assured me that his teachers were incredible and that he was in a good place. After lots of consideration, we went with our gut and adjusted both my work schedule and his school schedule so that he could go to school just two days a week in the mornings only, to see if that made a difference. Almost immediately his struggles diminished, and we knew we were on to something.

Throughout this process, I read everything I could get my hands on about Sensory Processing Disorder. I never really felt like what I was reading matched what I was seeing with LL, until I found this article, and it is the best description I have found so far that explains what happens with kids who struggle with sensory modulation. Quoting directly from the article:

One common analogy for modulation is likening it to the volume control on a radio. We would turn the volume up to enhance important incoming sensory information or turn the volume down to inhibit unimportant incoming sensory information. Let’s take sitting in a classroom for example. A child who can modulate appropriately would be enhancing the sound of the teacher’s instructions, whilst inhibiting the background noise of the air conditioner humming and the groundskeeper mowing outside. Furthermore, the child wouldn’t be paying any attention whatsoever to the feel of the tag on the bag of their shirts or brightness of the fluorescent bulbs. This modulation would all be happening automatically for them, happening on a subconscious level and requiring no effort or attention to occur.

Some children may not be able to modulate their senses so efficiently. For some, a little bit of sensory information may actually feel like A LOT. These are the over-sensitive (hypersensitive) children who may be distressed by unpredicatable sounds and noisy surroundings, they may avoid being touched by others or they may fear movement activities such as swings.

Difficulties with sensory modulation may often result in social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. It can impact upon academic learning, social interactions and self-esteem.

Through all of this, what we have determined is that Little Lion can’t cope in situations where there is too much sound, and his classroom was a busy place, full of lots of laughter and music and fun! Unfortunately, for LL, that fun was just too much. His body would get overwhelmed, and his way of cutting out the chatter was to make himself even louder (screaming) and to move his body impulsively (running with no direction). When we cut down on the amount of time he was in the classroom, this problem decreased significantly.

While many children with SPD might look like they have ADHD, their behaviors often are triggered by something completely different. One common misconception is that often people will tell me to “have him run out all of his energy!” Unfortunately, for LL, when he is overstimulated the more he runs the harder things get for him. The more hyped up he gets, the harder it is for him to come back down. Usually, if it gets to the point where he is running as a coping mechanism, the only solution for him is sleep. At home we can often stop this from happening, by intervening before he gets to the point of feeling out of control. We learned a lot of strategies for this in OT (I will share some of these in another post), but unfortunately most of these strategies require close one on one intervention, and this isn’t always possible with a 1:10 ratio in a preschool classroom.

.  .  .  .  .

Fast forward a few months, and it was time for me to start working full time again. This put us in a challenging position. LL was doing well with his OT, but we knew he would still not be able to function full days at school. We knew one option would be to pull him out of his current daycare and hire a nanny who could take him to a half day preschool a couple days a week. While this would have been possible, and a little less expensive, we really like the school he attends, and the school was willing to work with us through all of this. After talking through some options, we found out that the second three-year-old class was actually going to be much smaller through the fall than his current class. Instead of 20 kids, this class would only have 10-13 kids, with the same number of teachers. Smaller ratios, less noise. We were hopeful that maybe this class would be a better fit.

So in the beginning of August LL started in his new classroom. We started with just 2 full days a week to see how things would go, and were shocked (or maybe not so shocked?) to learn that he responded to the new environment almost immediately. Suddenly art was coming home again and he was participating in circle time with the rest of the class. After a few weeks of good reports every day we decided to switch to 5 days a week and see how things went, and again were pleasantly surprised to see that trend continue. Since the middle of August, LL has been full time in this class without a single rough day. His OT has been to his classroom to observe and decided that his behaviors at this time are completely typical (not perfect of course, but typical of a 3 year old). While she left it up to us, she said she felt he was ready to be discharged from therapy completely.

For now, things are rolling along smoothly. LL loves his class (and still gets to see his old friends and teachers, as they play together every day on the playground). As his parents, we feel like we can finally relax a bit knowing that he is in the best place for him. We won’t be able to control his environment forever, but knowing that this issue is the root of many of his struggles, we can plan ahead for these and continue to try to keep him from situations he can’t handle most of the time, while slowly teaching him self regulation skills that he will need as he gets older.

We have learned a lot through this experience, but I think the most valuable take away for me is that I have really learned how important it is to seek help from experts, but that it is equally important to observe my child and to trust my gut. Enlisting trusted professionals is necessary, but when it comes down to it, we know our kids the best.

Does your toddler or preschooler get overstimulated? I would love to hear about your experience!