Graham's Story

For those SPD moms who have not seen this yet - you need to visit the site - it is concerning a new movie that has just come out concerning SPD.

http://www.autisticlike.com/index.html

This is a story of a family with a little boy, Graham, who hit all the normal developmental milestones but something wasn't quite "right". They came back from a doctor's visit with the diagnosis of Autism...but they knew in their gut that autism just didn't fit the description of their son....so began their journey into understanding Sensory Processing Disorder.
Why is it that SO many parents can just TELL that something is up and their GUT tells them that what "stick to the wall and see what fits" diagnosis the doctor gave them just isn't right? Why are doctors so intent to stick every child into the autistic category? My son was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder when he was around 4 years old....AFTER I did months of researching because NONE of the doctors would listen to me...they wanted to write it off as behavior or a fussy kid and that I was an over-reactive mom. I remember time after time of bringing him into the doctor stating that something was up - why did he cry all afternoon, why was he having constant meltdowns, why was eating only certain things, why did he scream when any kind of loud noise happened, why wasn't he sleeping.....the same old answers kept coming back...he's just a difficult child...he will grow out of it...you are over-reacting. My poor little guy was MISERABLE and so were we...no one would listen to us. As he got older, Aspergers came up once, but the docs all agreed that he was no where near that category...so when I found SPD, it WAS him! We took him to the right specialist and SHAZAAM - they agreed..straight up SPD. But it took 4 long years of my husband and I crying SO many nights out of frustration, totally exhausted and mentally burnt out...I can't imagine what it must have been like for our tornado boy. The strain on the family was so intense and all because the doctor wouldn't sit down and just listen.
I do remember several OT's telling us that many people stick the label "autistic" to many of these kids because SPD and Autism go hand in hand....if you are Autistic then you have SPD.....BUT, if you have SPD, you are NOT automatically autistic - and this is where the gray area comes in.

This story of Graham is very touching and massive KUDOS to the parents for sticking to their guns and NOT letting their child be mis-labeled. All I can do is pray, beg and hope that pediatricians, nurses, teachers, parents throughout the country can get to see this and maybe open up their eyes to the fact that SPD IS real and that there are families all across the country that NEED help in dealing with this disorder and STOP sweeping all SPD kids straight into an autistic label before really digging deep and honestly LISTENING to the parents.