Hi,

I am currently wading into the waters of SPD research and support after having my 5.5 year old son diagnosed. I was a little blindsided intially. He is about to start kindergarten, and I am home schooling. But, I had some concerns, and he was evlauated free through the county school system's special services department under the IDEA laws. My initial concerns were that he might have ADD and/or a learning disability. He has a persistent gap in learning some single letter and numbers, which has made it impossible to proceed with basic phonics. I was trying to learn if it was a learning issue or an attention issue.

Well, that initial set of assessments has spawned so many more. At this point, it is fairly certain that he has an auditory processing disorder- I say fairly certain because most places won't officially diagnose until 7 for that, but the SLP, audiologist, and CAPD specialist who evaluated him all feel that way. The SLP and audiology consults came out of the intial assessments when they realized that he could not hear the difference between some of the basic phonemes even when those differences were highlighted to him. He also answered almost every question wrong before correcting himself, which highlighted a clear problem with filing and accessing information. The SLP was the one who suggested an OT eval and brought up SPD. Our ped is clueless, but she is nice enough to refer for any eval I ask for. Next week, we will be seeing a pediatric neurologist who specializes in area like these, and he should become the point person. "The Out of Sync Child" was recommended to me, and suddenly it all fits. I was very aware of sensory aversive behaviors, but I did not have an understanding of sensory seeking behaviors. Many of them fit my son exactly. So, I have no problem whatsoever with the diagnoses. THe auditory processing goes right in line with the learning gaps I was seeing, and the SPD goes with behavior I have witnessed.

Okay, all that background established.... does anyone have any advice on how to get my husband on board? He is of the mindset that DS is just being 5 or just lazy or just disobedient.... He is not nasty, mind you, but he is not supportive either. He allowed me to get the initial eval thinking, most likely, that it would prove I was wrong and we would move on with life. As more have come from it, he is still dismissive. He has not told me not to pursue the evals and OT, but, he is not supportive, personally. Basically, I go about the business of juggling appts and, now, OT, and trying to figure out how I will alter his education for now, and DH is not involved at all. I have other young children in the home as well, and, the emotional toll is tough. I just wish I could sound this out with another adult. Now, I hope that this forum will provide some of that much needed support. But, I am wondering if any who have gone through a similar situation can offer advice on how to make a spouse acknowledge that there is something real present.

Thanks.