Neurological disorders and sensory issues.

 I've been meaning to post about sensory issues since before I started writing my blog again last year. I was going to wait until I was able to research it a lot more, but I changed the way I decide to post about a recently, and a post that I wrote about noise sensitivity has been viewed frequently since I started paying attention to my blog stats again. Also this is important, I'm going to be mentioning sensory processing disorder in this post. It's possible to have sensory processing or sensory issues in general without having the disorder. I do not try to diagnose people with stuff, but it's also a thing that usually doesn't get a official diagnosis a lot. I'm going to mention two other people in my post. One is a minor, and the other is unable to give permission to rather she would want her first name included, and it would be quite a while before she's able to.

Sensory processing issues in common with both hydrocephalus, and cerebral palsy. Just from what I've been told it sounds like it's common with other neurological disorders too, but I'll rather have someone else write about that later on, so they can at least include personal experience. I'm including hydrocephalus because both me and a kid I'm mentoring has it, and my mentee has cerebral palsy. With hydrocephalus it's common because of the pressure build up on the somatosensory/sensory cortex. With Cerebral Palsy it has to do with the injury to the brain.

Basically when you have Sensory processing issues some or all of senses go haywire. This isn't limited to the 5 main senses either. It might include things like spatial orientation, or sense of balance. For me the big things are noise sensitivity, and not liking to be touch, or be crowded. With my mentee, it's different things but I don't want to go into detail yet without his permission or the permission of his Parents. But I have a friend with cerebral palsy that's a little older than me that had some of the exact sensory issues as my mentee. I wasn't aware of the connection until I was looking up some things I noticed about him that I at least thought was "tics" and found info online for SPD.  

My friend that isn't available to give permission for me to use her name, was given a official SPD diagnosis when she was in the 10th grade, so when she was around the 15 or 16. She spent some time in DES/CPS custody, and has been told that she would have been diagnosed earlier if it wasn't for that. She found out through special education testing. The advice she gave me was to look the kid eye to eye, explain things to him like he was younger than he is, and tell him one thing at a time so he process everything if I have multiple things to explain. My friend's main things are noises and crowds. With her it's more loud noises, but with me it's just certain noises especially scratching noises, or a bunch of people talking all at one time. She also mentioned being triggered by words or things. But I'm going to include that in another post when I've done more research, and I have two days off in a row to write a post. 

 

Hydrocephalus (sensation and perception) 

A little more information about hydrocephalus and sensory issues 

 Cerebral Palsy and sensory processing issues

Adult experience with SPD (hydrocephalus) 

Previous posts about noise sensitivity 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydrocephalus and sensitivity to noise

Edit: I've learned more about this subject recently, and I also started writing my blog again a few months ago, so I'll write more about it in March, and link it to this post. It turns out it's a sensory thing, and a disorder called sensory processing disorder is very common for people with hydrocephalus.

The link to the new post

.  According to the Spina Bifida Association there's no studies related to this specific topic, and I couldn't find much information outside of that site and a similar site. This is something that I sort of realized that was Hydrocephalus in at least Middle School, a few years before I started looking more into my condition (Hydrocephalus). It's not something that everyone with Hydrocephalus experience but it's common, and I've met many others online who have Hydrocephalus who deal with it. The sources I found refer to it as something people with shunts deal with, so it seems like it's something that has to do with the shunt specifically. Both sites that I found have to do with Spina Bifida instead of Hydrocephalus though. The two most common noises according to the sources I found are high pitched and loud noises. There is a range of reactions to noises that people can have, and for those that have seizures it can be a seizure trigger. There is no known treatment for those that have it as a side effect to Hydrocephalus but in general audiologists and ENT physicians can use a desensitization technique. Personally I've had sensitivity to high pitched noises since at least around the 4th or 5th grade and probably longer but I can't remember any specific situations having to do with it before that point. Except for being skittish I wasn't really sensitive to loud noises until I was an adult and now I'm sensitive to most noises. Especially with high pitched noises my reaction has always been anxiety, but in a way where it's not really noticed. Thanks for reading, I'm planning on writing about similar subjects or asking others to do it in the near future.

http://www.spinabifidaassociation.org/site/c.evKRI7OXIoJ8H/b.8095331/k.983B/Hydrocephalus.htm

http://www.sbhi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/The-Effects-of-Hydrocephalus.pdf

Noise sensitivity

I'm going to keep it short. I don't remember when I first became aware of being more sensitive to noises but I knew I was in Junior high. At the start at one of the school years we were each given a assignment organizer with a plastic cover, or a similar material. When we got them a lot of the other kids scratched them to make a similar noise to fingernails on a chalk board. I could barely stand it, but I at least don't remember showing it. With the assignment organizers it also reminded me of how hard it was for me (and still is) to stick to a routine. I associated both with Hydrocephalus, but I wasn't sure how exactly. Sticking to a routine has to do with Nonverbal learning disability but the noise sensitivity might have something to do with the shunt itself. It's common with people with Hydrocephalus but there are many who don't have that problem. The most known noises that are more of a problem is high pitched noises and sudden loud noises. People react to it differently, with some the reaction has to do with the shunt itself. Some get headaches, but others get anxiety like I do. It may go away after childhood, but not with everyone. Thanks for reading.

 http://www.sbhi.ie/images/The-effects.pdf