Sensational Kids : Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a parent of a child with no visible disability, but whose experiences of everyday life present constant challenges. What may be typical activities for most people-eating, dressing, making friends, taking a spelling test, responding to a hug-are a struggle, often resulting in social, emotional, and academic problems. This is the bewildering and largely uncharted world of Sensory Processing Disorder-a complex brain disorder affecting one in twenty children. These children experience sensations- taste, touch, sound, sight, smell, movement and body awareness-vastly differently from other children their ages.They may feel attacked by the slightest touch, fail to register bumps and bruises, or be unable to figure out where they are in space without constantly touching others. While SPD is more widely recognized than it once was, parents of these sensational children have been searching for ways to help their children navigate in the world. Dr. Lucy Miller, the best-known SPD researcher in the world, is that voice: warm, clear, and upbeat, Dr. Miller identifies the disorder and its four major subtypes, provides insight into assessment and diagnosis, and suggests treatment options and strategies, including the importance of occupational therapy and parental involvement. Portraits of five children illustrate the different ways in which SPD may manifest itself as well as how families cope, while offering hope and advice to parents on how to be the best possible advocates for their children. Comprehensive and compassionate, Sensational Childrenis the book no parent, teacher, or caregiver of children with SPD should be without.

Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., OTR, is the founder of the only nationwide comprehensive SPD research program and the sole researcher to be awarded an NIH grant to study the disorder. The founder and director of KID Foundation, the only full-time SPD research program in the world, she is also an associate professor at the University of Colorado Medical School.