Details about Tate

Since my post about Tate's appointment yesterday, I've had several emails of concern. I thought I had better post some details so everyone knows what is going on.

Over the last year, but mostly over the last 6 months, some of Tate's behavior has really started to concern us. He has always displayed a bit more fear than other children his age. He has always been scared of things that most kids love...for example, slides at a park, noises that might not seem loud to the average person scare him to death, bright lights bother him and he requests to wear his sunglasses frequently, unexpected touch makes him panic even from Sean and I. These things came on gradually and over the last several months have gotten significantly worse. He doesn't want to wear socks because he says they're scratchy, he had a panic attack after only about 20 minutes of Vacation Bible School because of all of the distractions, loud music and people. He will cower when someone talks to him...even just someone who says hello and sometimes will say, "don't talk to me." He will even say that to people who are very familiar to him. He has to touch EVERYTHING to feel its texture. He also likes to smell everything. He acts like he doesn't want to be touched and when asked for a high five or hand shake he often pulls away and refuses.

These are things that over the last several months have become very noticeable to anyone who is around him...even a perfect stranger would notice that he wasn't like other kids his age. I've even had people say that maybe it could be a very mild form of autism, but deep down I knew that wasn't it. Tate does very well socially with his peers. He isn't afraid to walk up to a child at the park and ask them to be his friend, he makes eye contact when speaking with you and just doesn't display many of the common symptoms to autism. However, when you hear it time and time again, you start to get worried that maybe your love is blind and it could be that.

I have done a lot of research and found what I believed matched to exactly what Tate has. His senses seem to be heightened, causing him panic and fear in many instances. It appeared to me that Tate displayed almost all of the symptoms of Sensory Processing Disorder.

Well, after heading to the doctor, he confirmed that he doesn't believe that Tate is anywhere on the autism spectrum. Whew! However, he fully believes that Tate has Sensory Processing Disorder. We are going to be starting regular therapy for him so that he can learn some coping mechanisms and we can learn the best ways to work with Tate to make things better/easier for him. We did learn some initial tips from the doctor. There is no cure of Sensory Processing Disorder, but it is something that can be controlled.

The crazy thing about the whole situation is that our doctor has a 3 1/2 year old son who also has Sensory Processing Disorder and is in therapy for it. He said that Tate appears to have a much more severe form of the disorder than his son. It felt so great to have a doctor who was so understanding and knowledgeable about the disorder. We feel like we're in extremely good hands and look forward to finally knowing how to address this disorder to help Tate in the best way we can.

We love Tate so much and it pains us to see him so fearful and panicky about things that many people don't even notice. In addition to that, his fear and panic often translate into people thinking he is just a naughty kid. We hate that and it makes things difficult for us as well. It's just a relief that we finally know what's going on and can move forward.

We pray that we will be able to get this under control for Tate's sake! We know that we are heading in the right direction. We would appreciate your prayers.