My Philosophy: Flavors of Special-ish

What do I mean by that?

It's really just my tacky way of saying "intense learning preference" or "significant quirks." We're all on the impairment spectrum somewhere, it's just a matter of flavor and severity. Figuring out your child's tendencies can help you and he avoid LOTS of frustration at the homework table.

Lemme 'splain: A kiddo can be a visual learner (me). She could also be a NO WAY JOSE auditory learner (also me). This doesn't mean that she has a significant auditory processing disorder, but she's got the tendencies. As her parent, your and her life will be much more pleasant if you take steps to strengthen her auditory skills and can recast difficult concepts/subjects in her preferred style (visual).

'Nother example: A child (mine) can be a lil' OCD. He's not flipping light switches or obsessively washing hands yet, but he may be really anxious about the idea of breaking routines. Shaking up routines, exposing him to very mildly anxiety provoking situations, generally strengthening his ability to deal with his anxiety will help in the long run. But I don't do that during school time. That's the time for coddling. Whatever he finds upsetting should be eliminated while we're learning long division. Fight-the-OCD-tendencies time is the rest of the day.

'Nother example: A child can be a lil' SPD (other son). This is sometimes difficult to distinguish from OCD. (The difference is this: Does the child ACTUALLY have a harder time managing himself without his morning run, or does the idea of missing his morning run upset him? Does the idea of wearing different shoes bother him, or are those the only shoes that don't itch?) The SPD-ish son can't function if the seams of his socks are bothering him, if his food is too squishy, or if he hasn't had enough crashing today. We can do things to help him out. Of course he can "buck up" and sit still, but when it comes to school time, we want him to be working on assimilating information, not "bucking up."

So, on this blog when I'm talking about "the special", this is what I'm talking about. Dealing with wherever the child is on the spectrum. People who might be diagnosable if they went to the doctor, but aren't impaired enough that they're likely to go. As a mental health professional I was trained to diagnose based on two criteria: symptoms and level of impairment. If symptoms presented but the patient was coping just fine, then I couldn't give them the diagnosis. Same with learning issues. Your child can have tendencies, but without significant impairment, you might never know all the things you can do to help him (and yourself) out.

Deanna