Kitchen Table Blogs
Name: Jeanne Wieland
Kids: daughter, age 13; son, age 10
Works: editor, MilwaukeeMoms.com
Favorite part about being a mom: Built up my tolerance for bodily fluids of all sorts.
Least favorite part about being a mom: Constantly telling my kids to turn off the TV.
Famous for: Not caring who started it.
Kerri Engebrecht knew she had a boy who loved sports and wanted to be part of whatever was going on around him.
Despite his desires, whenever opportunities came up, he held himself back and couldn't jump in -- behavior that became very obvious when he moved into kindergarten. Engebrecht said her son's teacher was worried that something was wrong with him because he spent so much time in the bathroom, but they quickly figured out what he was doing -- removing himself from the hubbub of the classroom.
After doing some research to figure out why her son reacted so strongly to noises, smells, touch and other stimulation, Engebrecht (pictured right) learned of something called sensory-processing disorder and the symptoms were a match.
"When he was a newborn, he had a startle reflex that lasted longer than most," Engebrecht said. "He didn't sleep through the night until he was 5 and he had a hard time calming down after he'd wake up. He loves motorcycles, but had to wear earplugs to watch a motorcycle parade. All these things were different, but we didn't know why."
Engebrecht had her son evaluated by an occupational therapist, typically the first line of attack in dealing with sensory-processing issues. The results came back that her son was sensitive in a variety of areas, so they started a program with the OT to address it.
Engebrecht also read "The Out-of-Sync Child" by Carol Stock Kranowicz, which further explains signs of sensory-processing disorder (sometimes also called sensory-integration disfunction) and provides ideas to do at home and with an OT to help the child calm down his or her responses.
Through working with the therapist and trial and error, Engebrecht figured out why her son still wasn't sleeping through the night at age 5. He didn't like the feel of a sheet underneath his body, so she put a blanket down instead and he slept the whole night through. Soon she realized that the feel of certain clothes on his skin or clothing tags also made him uncomfortable and jittery, so she started to shop differently.
Engebrecht can't believe the difference these small changes have made for her child, so she's started a support group for other parents to share ideas. The group meets the second Wednesday of every month at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin corporate center. (Click here for more information.)
She hopes the group can help parents work through the issues surrounding sensory-processing disorder and get through to the "real kids" underneath all the sensory issues.
"I'm a soccer mom with tears in my eyes this year because my son was in there having fun," Engebrecht said. "I always wanted him to be able to be the kid he wanted to be."
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