Product Description

"Difficult." "Picky." "Oversensitive." "Clumsy." "Unpredictable." "Inattentive." Children who have been labeled with words like these may actually be suffering from Sensory Integration Disorder-a very common, but frequently misdiagnosed, condition that can manifest itself in excessively high or low activity levels, problems with motor coordination, oversensitivity or undersensitivity to sensations and movements, and other symptoms. This guide, written by an expert in the field, explains how SI Dysfunction can be confused with ADD, learning disabilities, and other problems, tells how parents can recognize the problem-and offers a drug-free treatment approach for children who need help.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47113 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.com Review
Do you know a child who plays too rough, is uncoordinated, hates being touched, is ultra-sensitive (or unusually insensitive) to noise or sensations of heat and cold? Many pediatricians and other experts are beginning to recognize a link between some of these apparently unrelated behavior patterns. Children with perfectly normal "far senses" (such as sight and hearing) may have, because of a poorly integrated nervous system, serious problems with their "near senses," including touch, balance, and internal muscle sensation. It's called Sensory Integration Dysfunction, or SI. The announcement of yet another new syndrome is bound to raise skeptical eyebrows--and with good reason. (How do we know which child really has SI, and which one just happens to share some of the same symptoms?) Author Carol Stock Kranowitz argues convincingly, however, that for some children SI is a real disorder, and that it is devastating partly because it so often looks like nothing so much as "being difficult." And, whatever the scientific status of SI, Kranowitz carefully details many routines and remedies that will help children--and the parents of children--who exhibit the behaviors described. This book is a must-read for all doctors, pediatricians, and (perhaps especially) childcare workers. --Richard Farr

From Publishers Weekly
Kranowitz, a teacher who has worked for 20 years in the field of sensory integration dysfunction and has developed a screening program for its early identification, writes intelligently about a bewildering topic. Fairly common (an estimated 12%-30% of children are affected), the disorder is nevertheless baffling to experts and parents alike, in part because of its diverse, contradictory symptoms: such children may be either hypo- or hypersensitive. Often erroneously diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) or labeled "difficult, picky, clumsy, oversensitive, or inattentive," children with SI dysfunction exhibit unusual responses to touching and being touched, and/or to moving and being moved. In concise, well-organized chapters, Kranowitz reveals how the tactile, vestibular (pertaining to gravity and movement) and propriaceptive (pertaining to joints, muscles and ligaments) senses operate. Checklists and sidebars throughout the text compare the "normal" child in various situations to the child with sensory integration dysfunction. Asserting SI dysfunction is best treated by occupational therapy, not by medication, Kranowitz helps clear the way for families to understand a disorder that they may suspect but not have been able to pinpoint.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Must-read for parents and teachers of SI dysfunctional kids
If you are a parent or a teacher of a child with bewildering or inconsistant behavior problems, this book explains comprehensively and clearly the ofen conflicting symptoms of children with SI dysfunction. Most exciting is the hope that children can now be diagnosed at an early age so they can begin OT therapy when it has a chance to be its most effective. Also exciting is the knowledge that there are many simple things that parents and teachers can do at home and in the classroom to improve the functioning of SI kids. I have reccomended this book to dozens of parents who have come back to buy copies for their child's teacher. The book contains an excellent resources guide, too! P.S. Carol Kranowitz does a fabulous job presenting about SI dysfunction at professional workshops. See her if you have the chance.

Easy to Read Reference on a Little-Known-About Condition
This is a helpful guide for parents who are looking for information on this condition. It includes simple checklist tests for the parent to apply to preschool aged children to help determine if the child has SID. If the condition is suspected, then the parent may read further.

There are chapters devoted specifically to the different ways that SID may manifest (tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive). Symptoms are compared and contrasted with a normal sensory integration vs. a sensory integration disorder in a table format, which I found helpful. One example is a detailed account of how children react if another student bumps into them-she explains how a SID child may react (very strongly and gets upset) while the non-SID child doesn't get upset and may make a joke of it and laugh it off.

This book is loaded with detailed information to help parents. For example, lists of behaviors associated with certain type disorders such as symptoms of low muscle tone, symptoms of visual-spatial processing, etc.

An explanation of the differences between SID and ADD/ADHD, allergy, and Learning Disabilities and an explanation of how a child may have two or more of these conditions whose symptom lists may overlap.

The book covers how to seek help, how to document symptoms and behaviors, and why it is important to seek help are explained. There are almost 30 pages on what a parent can do at home to help treat this condition (above and beyond getting services from health care professionals or 'experts').

How to cope with school issues is addressed in another chapter.

There is a chapter on the basics of the neurological system is included for reference and is helpful if parents are rusty on their knowledge of how the neurological system works.

A glossary of terms is included and is helpful, as sometimes the author has no choice but to use neurological terms instead of layman's terms in the body of the book.

There are ten pages of resources for parents which I feel is invaluable. There are several pages of recommended reading if one wants to learn even more. This is such a detailed and easy to understand volume.

Clarification about this review, updated 12/27/2008: This review applies to the first edition of this book which was the only edition published at the time I read the book and reviewed it back in December of 2000. At the time this review was written this was the one and only book on the market for parents to read about SID and it was valued highly by parent-readers because it was the one source of this information that we could access in written form. After this review was published some other books have come onto the market including some that were written by this same author. Additionally since December 2008 the Internet has exploded with information, on websites, on online discussion boards, on blogs, and Internet search engines have evolved to make finding information on SID easier for parents and health care professionals. It seems to me that the discussion of SID has opened further with more information being available as time went on, especially of interest to parents of children with diagnoses on the Autism Spectrum. SID was talked about much less frequently back in 2000 than it is in 2008.

Was there important content cut out of it?
I was very disappointed with the content of this video, after being so positively impacted by the same book. I don't think that I would have been able to grasp the occupational therapy concepts presented in the video without having first read the book. Hoping for a summary of the book to share with collegues and other parents, I am hesitant to pass this video along because the content is sketchy and does not flow nearly as well as the book. It felt like some of the author's presentation was cut out. Invest in the book first.