Raising a Child With Sensory Integration Dysfunction

By Laurie Dove

Karen Lofgren knew she had her hands full when her daughter was born five years ago. This Middlesex County, Mass., mother spent at least three hours a night trying to soothe her sobbing infant.

"The more I rocked her and sang to her, the more she cried," Lofgren says. "When I left her alone in the swing with dim lights, she cried a lot less."

As Lofgren's child grew, so did her distaste for certain stimulation. Even the clothes the child wore bothered her to the extreme.

"As a toddler, she could strip herself naked even in her crib," Lofgren says. "We all thought it was cute and called her 'Baby Godiva.' She hated clothes, jackets, shoes, anything on her skin even in the winter."

Lofgren's daughter also reacted negatively to crowded places. She was easily overstimulated during routine trips to the grocery store or shopping mall.

"She was always 'exploding' emotionally for what we thought was no reason," Lofgren says. "She couldn't regulate her emotions. She was up or down and never in between. The slightest thing could set her off, and she'd end up in complete meltdown."

Lofgren says her daughter also had trouble speaking and was always distracted and hard to manage in group situations.

"I hardly had any nice pictures of her, much less with her siblings or cousins," she says. "She was always looking away or crying."

Lofgren's daughter always liked to run and climb and sit upside down. She had a high tolerance for pain. She was never afraid of heat or fire. She was never afraid of danger in general.

"It was almost like she had no 'sixth sense' about things," says Lofgren.

Now, Lofgren knows those difficult days of toddlerhood were more than simply raising an "active" child. They were signs of sensory integration dysfunction, commonly called DSI so as not to be confused with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Explaining DSI

According to the Sensory Integration Resource Center, based in Littleton, Colo., DSI occurs when a child's brain cannot correctly process everyday sensations.

For example, a child with DSI who is crossing a street and hears the blare of an oncoming car horn may freeze and be unable to move out of harm's way because his brain cannot process what to do next.

It is this lack of an appropriate response that is the real culprit in a DSI child's behavior, causing instead extreme and inappropriate reactions to particular situations.

For Lofgren's daughter, it meant hugging others to the point of pain, an extreme response to affection.

"She would crash into people to say hello," Lofgren says. "She wouldn't stop running until she smacked into people. She would hug so hard it would hurt, or she would knock you over if you were kneeling."

Lofgren's daughter also craved movement. She sat upside down on chairs, frequently jumped off of things and loved to constantly run around outside.

Some children, like Lofgren's daughter, crave sensation. As a result, they seek out more intense sensory experiences, according to the Sensory Integration Resource Center. They can be hyperactive, seeking more movement input, sometimes by touching others too often or too hard. They also can be seen engaging in unsafe behaviors, such as climbing too high or enjoying sounds that are too loud, such as a television or radio volume.

Other parents, like Michelle Smith of Chico, Calif., found their children reacting to touch almost as if it were torture. By the time Smith's son, Max, was 3 months old, she knew he didn't like to be touched. She also noticed that he always kept his hands as fists.

"I woul always try to uncurl his fingers to caress his hand," Smith says. "And he always pulled it away as if it hurt."

Some children with DSI, like Max, have nervous systems that feel sensation too easily or too much. According to the Sensory Integration Resource Center, these children might respond to touch with aggression or withdrawal or be unwilling to take risks or try new things.

Yet other children have problems with new motor skills or activities. These children may be unable to master handwriting, kicking or catching balls or may have trouble with balance.