Getting SPD diagnosis

by Krystina
(IN, USA)

Hi I'm the mom of a 3yr old daughter who I think has spd. When I went through the checklists I checked off nearly all the hypersensitive traits in every category. It was through early intervention for a speech delay that I even found out there is such a thing as SPD. Since it was mentioned by both ST and OT to me I have done a lot of research and spoken to her pediatrician who also strongly suspects SPD.




Is there some special test or anything that I need to have done to get an official diagnosis? I really need something official for school to help the teachers understand her better I feel. I'm still learning so much about it and have been reading so much over the past 6-8 months.

The biggest reality for family came when she had an IV put in place this month and freaked out not over the needle but over the band aid and tape. For 20+ min she screamed about it and had a full blown melt down until she fell asleep from the anesthetic and then it was the first things she mentioned when she woke up and another 15min or more of meltdowns until the nurse finally took them off.

Anyway any help would be appreciated from anyone w/ any experience.



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Jul 23, 2008
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starstarstarstarstar 		Occupational Therapist
by: Jessi

From what I've been told, the only person who can make a diagnosis is an OT that is certified for SPD (not sure what the technical name for that type of OT is, but I would imagine that there is information on this site somewhere about it). What I did was print out articles from this and other sites with information that explained my son's particular odd behaviors, made several copies and passed them out to anyone at his school who needed to understand it.

I also just sat down and talked with the director/owner and his teachers and explained what it was. I have much less trouble with him than others so I also make sure to pass on the methods I use that help him to keep himself under control. He's the type that will run over you if you let him - not because he's 'bad', but just because he has trouble regulating himself so he needs help from someone else. If you let him get too overwhelmed, it's much harder to deal with at that point. I have to be very stern with him, so teachers who are soft spoken and lenient have a lot of difficulty with him. In fact, he hasn't been responding well to his summer teacher and so they are moving him to a room with a teacher who works better with him.

My advice is get him to the OT, get the diagnosis, start taking him to therapy as many times as you can a week and let everyone who takes care of him know what's going on. I felt like I was really judged by his school for his behavior until I gave them some information and got him in therapy. Once they saw that I was picking him up twice a week on my lunch break to go to therapy (and noticed and almost immediate improvement in his behavior and ability to learn) they stopped thinking that his problems were my fault and realized that he did need help and I was doing the best I could to get it for him.

Good luck!

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