Fox Therapy Center Pediatric Speech and Occupational Therapy

Listen closely, what do you hear around you? Is there someone taking a phone call in the distance? Is there laughter from a children walking by? I can hear a dump truck backing into the parking lot. I recognize the trickle of rain falling on the window and the sound of my nails on the keyboard as I type. But if I really listen closely, I can hear the hum of the fluorescent lights above my desk. I notice the whoosh of the heat as it turns on, and I hear a constant chirp from somewhere behind my computer monitor that I have a tendency to ignore everyday. It is this ability, the ability to discriminate each sound, ignore it, or enjoy it, that many of us share with our neurologically-“typical” sensory processing systems. The same auditory input I hear or ignore can be overwhelming to a child with Sensory Processing Disorder, so much so that it causes them to react with an aversive fight-or-flight response at home, in school, or in a grocery store with their mother.

Read more on Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), What is it?…