What are Some Red Flags of Sensory Processing Disorder?
by Carol Stock Kranowitz, M.A.
http://www.sinetwork.org/aboutspd/redflags.html

Diagnosing Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is the job of an occupational therapist who has been carefully trained in sensory integrative theory and treatment. Nonetheless, a teacher and/or parent can learn to recognize signs that a child may be having sensory processing difficulties. Then, the teacher can initiate an evaluation for SPD, so the child may eventually receive appropriate therapy.

What behaviors — or red flags — are important? There are several screening tools parents and/or teachers can use which have been developed by OTR's:

• Infant/Toddler Symptom Checklist
  DeGangi, Poisson, Sickel & Wiener, 1995
  7-30 months; available from Therapy Skill Builders, San Antonio, TX, 800-763-2306

• Dunn Sensory Profile
  Dunn, 1999
  Standardized with scoring criteria, 5-10 years; also available from Therapy Skill Builders, San Antonio, TX, 800-763-2306

• Screening checklists for birth-3, preschool, school-age, and adult
  Occupational Therapy Association-Watertown, PC
  Checklists are in booklet included with audiotapes Teachers Ask About Sensory Integration and Making Sense of Sensory Integration.

• Balzer-Martin Preschool Screening Program
  1992; includes the Sensorimotor History Questionnaire For Parents Of Preschool Children, 3-5 years.

Balzer-Martin Preschool Screening Program

At my preschool, St. Columba's Nursery School in Washington, DC, and other early childhood centers around the country, the Balzer-Martin Preschool Screening Program (BAPS) helps occupational therapists identify children with possible SPD dysfunction. The program, designed by Lynn A. Balzer-Martin Ph.D., OTR, is a nonstandardized clinical tool for the early identification of risk factors for learning and behavior problems in preschool children (3-5 years).

One part of the screening is the Sensorimotor History Questionnaire for Parents of Preschool Children. Look over these questions. You will get a sense of the behaviors that are important when determining whether a preschool child has SPD dysfunction.

About the author:

Carol Stock Kranowitz, M.A., is a master educator who formerly taught movement and music classes in a preschool in Washington, DC. She is the author of the best-selling book The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction.

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