Question--Please Help

by Stephanie
(CT)

Can SPD go hand in hand with Autism??



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Apr 26, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		I get it
by: Anonymous

Every time my child sees the school psych. to qualify for services she tells us my daughter has Aspergers. I'm truly tired of it! I'm blessed to have 1/2 dozen family members is education from special ed. through college prof. They told me that often times the psychs are over- burdened. I'm not at all suggesting that they are all problems but I had a really hard time getting her to understand that when testing my daughter the conditions had to be just right. She'd test her next to the school cafeteria, library, and front office.

She has auditory issues(cannot filter noise) and half the time was NOT focused on the conversation the psych. was trying to have with her. She's twists her hair to calm herself and the psych. said it was"repetitive" behavior!The pysch. said my daughter showed little emotion the same day her piano teacher said she had an uncanny ability to play emotion into her music pieces! UGH!I think you have to be careful about how you take anyone elses opinion of your kids. Parents always trust your gut.
Apr 24, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		SPD vs ASD
by: Erin

everything that I've researched says that Autism is usually 1 in 150....SPD is as high as 1 in 20. So it stands to reason that alot of non-autistic people can have just SPD. I've also heard that roughly 75% of autistic people have SPD but only 1% of SPD people have autism.

I believe my son just has SPD. Alot of the behaviors are similar but I believe in my heart that he only has SPD and not autism or ADHD. SPD fits better than the autism diagnosis. he is a shy boy so that doesn't help but he is social once he warms up...alot of it depends on the sensory environment.

Hope this helps :)
Mar 17, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		Yes.
by: Jessi

I believe that most children with Autism have sensory issues, but as others have commented, just because a kid has SPD doesn't mean they are autistic. My son in his earlier years (2-3) was diagnosed as having 'autistic behaviors', but he eventually became more social and I guess outgrew them. Mostly, he just wasn't verbal until about 3 1/2, and I suppose because of that had withdrawn a lot. He does still have some trouble with eye contact, but is generally very social - which rules out autism. He's also had over 1 1/2 years of OT and speech and is pretty much just a normal kid now.

Hope that helps.
Mar 16, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		ours has both
by: marisa

Our son was recently diagnosed with autism at 8. He had sensory issues before that and that actually led me to believe that he had autism as well because of the social deficits and language disorder. I was told that children with autism usually always have sensory issues as well.

BUT..our 3 year old has sensory only and no autism.
Mar 16, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		Autism and SPD
by: Anonymous

Autism and SPD are two different things... however, here is how it was explained to me when my son was diagnosed: If the patient is diagnosed with Autism, they have SPD. If the patient is diagnosed with SPD, it does not mean it is Autism.

Imagine the large spectrum of a virus... Autism would be the flu and SPD would be having a stuffy nose. There are things you can look at such as verbalization skills, social skills etc. I too was very concerned that my son had Autism and while Sensory processing disorder is an Autism related disorder, it is not truly Autism.

There are a lot of great books out there that can better explain the difference. The problem is that once the child is diagnosed with Autism, there is something that usually goes along with it... such as generalized anxiety. Good luck.
Mar 15, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		usually
by: Ericka Morgan

I first learned about SPD from my work teaching young children with autism. It is my understanding that the two conditions often go hand in hand.

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