Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is when a child’s information from their senses (8 of them…yes 8!) comes into their body where they experience too little or too much stimulation. As well, when information comes in, sometimes children have a hard time processing this information in an order that makes sense in their brain, leaving them feeling overwhelmed or disengaged.
This whole topic fascinates me so much as there are so many layers to this for all children and especially in our society these days (do I sound old? I am lol!) It also hits close to home for me. When I was in early grade school I would never leave the house without my shirt being tucked into my underwear and my jeans up really high. I couldn’t stand the sensation of anything loose around my midriff yet nothing coarse like jeans felt good either hence the shirt, underwear combo!
This is one tiny example of how a hypersensitivity can play out. To get an understanding of hyper/hyposensitivities I’ll ask questions such as:
- Any aversions to loud noises or bright lights?
- Any clothing that feels ridiculously tight (and its not) or scratchy?
- Not really love touch if its out of nowhere – just kind of jumpy (that’s a medical term FYI (wink emoji)
- Is there a constant need for touching different textures or people?
- Push or pull and not really understand full strength?
- Enjoy deep pressure like bear hugs (I mean WHO DOESN’T LOVE A BEAR hug – well actually, some don’t. And some can’t feel it, unless it is bear-like.
Remember we have 5 common senses (smell, touch, taste, hearing, sight) and three more: proprioception (sense comes from receptors in our joints telling us where our muscles, joints, and bones are moving), vestibular (sense our movement and balance) and interoception (allows you to sense what is going on inside your body – am I too hot or cold?)
How do these senses start doing the running man at a party when every other sense is slow dancing?
Research has looked at altered excitation-inhibition model in autism spectrum disorder (until recently it was in animals…hopefully bears…’cause they know how to hug). What this model suggests is that there is an increase ratio of excitatory neurotransmitter signaling to inhibitory neurotransmitter signaling. In a 2021 study of patients with autism, it concluded that there were higher levels of glutamate/glutamine (which is more excitatory) in subjects that reported more difficulty with sensory hyper/hypo reactivity. Interesting – tell me more. Actually first, summarize that last paragraph.
Welllllll….. glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter. There was more of this present in a patient who had sensory processing issues.
Okay go on.
Before we head into ‘what does a naturopath do with this info to help support patients?’, I want to share more about ways to look at SPD.
From an anthroposophical standpoint (say that ten times in a row) after exploring their hypo/hypersensitivity, what I want to understand is the following:
- Movement patterns – is a child spinning around a lot (ie looking to connect to their movement), is he rocking his chair and wanting to balance (ie invoking a sense of their balance)?
- Is your child sticking everything in their mouth beyond the age appropriate time where babies actually do stick everything in their mouths?
- Presence – often times patients will come in with ‘lack of focus’ yet what is that they are doing in this time – are their thoughts wandering to far away places? Or are their thoughts rampantly jumping from one thought to the next and so are their limbs. These are two different ways children can be described as ‘lack of focus’
The WHY
This is an important piece here – why are these little brains having issues with hyper/hypo stimulation? Why are neurons not firing properly and messages not being sent effectively?
Here are a few big avenues amongst many others that I look to explore:
– Gut brain connection: the health of the gut effects inflammation in the body including the brain. Neurotransmitters are produced in the gut, directly affecting the ol’ noggin. And dysbiosis can cause neuro inflammation. THIS IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT TO EXPLORE
– Histamine overload – are there signs that the body is walking around as an IgE goblin producing ghoula?! Asthma, allergies, eczema (perhaps), itchiness, and ongoing congestion.
– Toxic load being too high/overloaded! This is everything from toxic exposure (heavy metals, glyphosate, mould) to assess detox pathways and their effectiveness.
And one of my favourites is to really understand what the child is ‘saying’ to us through their actions….A couple of words from Dr. Adam Blanning – my professor for a course I took in anthroposophical medicine in pediatric care. He brought forth the question ‘when is a child’s behavior not just the problem, but also the solution? Taking it one step further for treatment, don’t ask a child to stop that annoying behavior (my words not his lol!), however redirect it into a helpful task ie. socially healthier way. Movement is a way to ground self in the body.
For example, an 8 yo male patient comes in with Autism. Feedback from parents is that there is not a lot of understanding of others personal space – will lean into a play group or siblings when they are sitting quietly by themselves. He is quite well mannered and also will go up to friends or younger sister and give big huge hugs – big squeezy ones.
If siblings are playing and he gets upset about something, he’ll grab the others arm and squeeze it really tight.
What is he doing? Well, he sounds like he may be bothering his siblings? Bingo. Yet what are his actions telling us about what he’s needing? TOUCH! His desire to ground himself in his body, its like he’s desiring his senses to get right down into his limbs. He’s helping himself! So in a situation like this I’ll send parents home with a list of chores for their kid to do and a nightly routine…something like this:
- Carrying anything heavy – wood piles, carrying out the trash, stacking bricks/rocks, shoveling snow – make it such that the child is ‘in charge’ of these tasks
- Heavy blanket to sleep with
- Dr. Blanning calls it ‘the toothpaste treatment’ – its deep hard pressure squeezes starting at the top of his arms or legs, doing a deep squeeze, then working your way down each limb. It’s a way to calm the nervous system for someone like this
- Supplements to take at night as well as during the day for focus and nervous system
Testing and Treatment
Here is a list of tests to explore the underlying issue
– Organic acid testing – looks at a very high level picture of what is being affected in the body – digestion, mitochondria, methylation, nutrient deficiencies
– Myco-toxin profile
– Heavy metals testing
– Bloodwork for inflammation, nutrients, glucose usage, methylation, mitochondria, thyroid, endocrine hormones and sex hormones if applicable
– Genetic profiles – this can help understand different enzymes and their effectiveness in the body
Treatment can involve
– Supplements – herbs, homeopathic, nutritional vitamins and minerals
– Supporting the various understanding above
– Dietary changes
– Targeting inflammation in the brain with various supplements
– Reducing inflammation of the gut
What a fulfilling gift to work with these incredible children in exploring their health.
