For the last few years we have 'put up' with Christopher becoming unbearable behaviour-wise during the summer months. There became a point when good weather was dreaded in our household as this meant our lives would be turned upside down for a few months.

We requested help with controlling Christopher's tantrums and also asked for a sensory assessment to see what if any of his behavioural problems were sensory related. After months of badgering, Christopher finally had his sensory assessment, undertaken over 6 weeks. The findings that came back were certainly a revelation to us not least because most of Christopher's behavioural problems were sensory related the rest of them were typical behaviours associated with a child of his 'mental' age.

A Sensory Assessment looks at the following areas of a child's everyday life;

Auditory Processing - what noises do they like or dislike, do they seek or hide from noise?
Visual Processing - Do they seek or hide from different types of light?
Vestibular Processing (ability to control movement of body and direction of movement) - How active is the child do they seek or hide from activities that involve movement?
Touch Processing - What type of objects does a child like touching, do they seek or hide from physical touch?
Oral Processing - What if anything will they put in their mouth?
There are other observations carried out by the OT, but they are quite hard to simplify into everyday language, such as Modulation of Arousal Level.

One specific question we asked our OT was about heat and Christopher's apparent change in personality during the summer months. The reply we got back was eye-opening to say the least!

Christopher needs to have constant movement in his life to get the sensory input he needs to function at a normal level; this has a lot of ramifications in hot weather.

During warm/hot weather a 'normal' person will slow down when hot, children like Christopher who cannot function without movement in their lives 'switch' off the messages from the brain saying 'it's hot please slow down.' They continue to crave and seek out movement making them appear 'hyper', couple this with Autistic spectrum disorder and ADHD etc. and you have a recipe for disaster. Children like Christopher may then suffer sensory overload whilst trying to function in warmer temperatures leading to sensory shutdown which can manifest itself in numerous ways. With Christopher firstly he becomes 'unbearable' then he hides away from everyone, but other signs can be unexplained nausea or dizziness, or the child may fall asleep suddenly

At the moment Christopher is undergoing a 'sensory diet' with the OT, she is showing us what activities we can do with him that give him the sensory input he needs and calm him down. She has said she can't promise that the 'diet' will help all the summer related problems because like us she has no control over the ambient temperature, but at least it's a start. Whilst still dreading high temperatures at least we now know why Christopher is so 'HYPER' during this time and we can prepare ourselves a little better mentally to cope and before anyone suggests using a fan, that only works short term with Christopher, typical!

The above is only a small part of Christopher's sensory problems, but I am aware that there are some families out there who like us have problems during the summer, so I hope it helps you in some way. The specific 'sensory diet' Christopher is undergoing may not help another child with similar problems which is why I haven't listed them, what I can suggest is that you ask, badger or scream for an sensory assessment. There are some very good OT's out there trained to undertake such an assessment and your paediatrician should be able to help you with this.

If anyone want's more information about SID either visit the website at http://www.wdssg.org.uk or contact us

Jacqueline and Gavin Leech 01376 348948