A Mother, A Calling

A few words that run through my mind when I think of my daughter:

Funny, silly, quirky, loving, caring, intelligent, sneaky, kind, compassionate, helpful, demanding, milestones, speech, expressive, rigid, orderly, surprising, amazing, hard, unique.

I noticed before she was 2 years old that she didn't really talk too much. She had a knack for memorizing things like the alphabet and counting to 10. She liked to line things up and they were not to be disturbed. She hates unexpected loud noises  and she could spin around without getting dizzy. She can't really grasp too hard or sit up straight. She has trouble putting on a shirt because once the shirt goes over her head, she can't see and gets anxious.  She loves the feel of water on her skin and sticking her hands in large bins of rice or beans.

Pretty lucky in the fact that she basically eats anything. She loves food and my husband says I gave her a more refined palette because of all the fancy food I like to make. My daughter is a fan of any condiments. She love ranch dressing, ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise . She's kind of funny in a way that she calls fruit juice. Her favorite is Capri Sun. Each flavor has a picture of a sport. So my daughter named them accordingly. There is a boat juice, Basketball juice, bicycle juice, and skateboarding juice .

My daughter is very polite and I love that about her.  She is very compassionate when I didn't think that she would comprehend peoples emotions because she didn't for a long time.

I found out about a year ago from an occupational therapist that my daughter has something called sensory integration dysfunction or sensory processing disorder. It's basically when people have something in the brain that that makes them overly sensitive or under sensitive outside factors . For example my daughter's ears are very sensitive. She doesn't like loud noises she doesn't like her ears cleaned which has proved difficult . It was hard to potty train her because she didn't feel uncomfortable being soiled or wet because she couldn't feel it.

I thought I would be much more upset when learning the news about my daughter but in reality I was relieved because now I knew there was a name to the difficulties she was having. I read a book called the Out of Sync Child by Carol Kranowitz,  which helped me understand her better.

After a tough but quick battle with the school district, I was able to get her evaluated to see if she would qualify for developmental preschool.

She's only been in school for about two months and she loves it. Every week she receives speech therapy, occupational therapy and social-emotional therapy. I do think she has improved in the short time she's been in school.  She asks me questions, loves pretend play, loves reading, has clearer emotional reactions, and enjoys playing with her cousins. She sometimes has tough days; those are hard for both of us. She likes to create a routines and when I decide to change it, the day might not go as smoothly. It hurts when she cries afterwards, longing for the structured world she created for herself. It would be easy to just let her have what she wants but, how would she learn to adjust later in life, when things don't go her way?

Anytime I have a rough day, I think of what my friend said to me, "The days are long, but the years are short." It gives me patience. My daughter chose me as her mother, and all I can do for her is my very best.

http://www.spdfoundation.net/about-sensory-processing-disorder.html