Bag of Spuds

Spud was never a crawler, he butt shuffled until he started walking. From a not so small baby he was always a dead weight to carry, like a bag of spuds! He slept through the night from six weeks and was just so cruisey and content.

As Spud grew, he grew fast and was always well outside the scale in regards to growth rate. Big Strong Lad! He was clumsy, awkward and had terrible balance. He would constantly jam food in his mouth and was oblivious to the mess around his mouth. He was also very loud, for not apparent reason. Talking to you he would yell!

As we were already the proud parents of a little girl we just put the differences down to gender. 

When we started school his teacher asked us to have his hearing checked as he couldn't sit still and pay attention (what child can). We had his hearing tested and it all came back find. Next step was to seek a speech pathologist. He saw the speech lady for a couple of months. It was very expensive and when Spud was with her his speech was perfect. As he was not yet 7 we couldn't get in to have his audio processing tested. The speech pathologist did a simple test on him and surmised that he was just intelligent. When the teacher gave directions he was already thinking of what he would do next.


When Spud turned 7 we booked into to the auditory processing centre. 3hours and $800 later they said there was nothing wrong with him. A few weeks later he started grade 1. I met with the teacher to let her know the concerns that had been raised with Spud and where we are at. This amazing lady, after only spending a week with my son, told me she suspected Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). To be sure we booked into an Occupational Therapist (OT), whilst waiting for an appointment we also put our name on the waiting list with Queensland Health to see a Pediatrician. 

After our evaluation with the OT she confirmed Spud's teachers suspicions, he had SPD. Basically, Spud doesn't process sensations (sensory input) the same way as other people.

A week later I got a call from Qld Health and we had an appointment with the pediatrician. After a questionnaire was done by myself and his teacher he was diagnosed with ADHD! 

Remember at the start of this blog I mentioned that he was cruisey?? ADHD doesn't fit with a cruisey kid.  

So this is what the experts had to say. Next I will share with you what I have found!