Hello Everyone!

I've stumbled upon this site and it's yahoo groups within the last few days and decided to join in. I'm 22 with SPD - mostly auditory defensiveness. I'm an OT student in MD and I also work with an autistic child doing Verbal Behavior activities and helping with his sensory needs.

Here's just a little of my journey (following Dan's "how to intro" model - hey, it's late). I was born 3 months premature, have allergies, and ADD. I didn't notice it much growing up, but it got completely worse in my high school years. I thought I was going crazy until I was diagnosed at 17. I then tried Tomatis and Berard listening therapy, to no avail. The worse environment for me is the classroom. I have testing accommodations, and of course a slew of coping strategies that are just automatic adaptive behavior by now. I have a whole shelf of OT and SPD books, and try to learn as much about it as I can. I am not in need of any immediate help, just little tips of what works for other people. In the future, I want to do neurological research on adults with SPD!

I find that I am always optimistic and sometimes jokingly sarcastic about it all. It can get depressing at times, we gotta help each other and ourselves!

In my spare time, I love music, going to shows and concerts, knitting, exploring, and just going out with friends.

Meredith