The Out-of-Sync Child, Third Edition: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Differences (The Out-of-Sync Child Series) Paperback – April 19, 2022

I purchased this book a few years ago, shortly after my son was diagnosed with the second of his 5 diagnoses, Sensory Modulation Disorder (rated severe). Though I worked in healthcare, I was never clinical staff. I spent some time in management purgatory, but my favorite job was in clinical outcomes as a research analyst. So while I had some familiarity with a wide range of topics because of that, the healthcare organization I worked for dealt with mostly geriatric populations, so conditions specific to that group are the areas I was most familiar with. So, I knew enough to recognize generally what was going on with my son when all heck started breaking loose, and if there is any one thing I think I should get a gold star on it was pushing to get him evaluated early on, but I didn't have as many specifics as I felt like I needed to effectively deal with what was happening on the ground level as his mom and primary caregiver. So I started reading as much as I could, and this was one of the first resources I picked up.Because things were jaw dropping. Walk by somebody smoking a cigarette? Gagging and sometimes vomiting. Foamy things touching him? The gagging and always vomiting if it wasn't removed within seconds. Strong smelling cleaners: vomiting until he couldn't smell them anymore. Certain food textures? Vomiting. Over-stuffing his mouth and choking because he couldn't feel how full it was. Clothes? Medieval torture devices based on how he reacted to them. People touching him or getting too close? Hysterics, and sometimes vomiting. Needed constant motion to sleep. Extremely hyper sensitive to sounds and visual stimuli. Hours of meltdowns a day. No reaction to deep pressure impacts, even of a serious nature. Certain things touching his skin, including water? Serious freak outs. 15 minutes or more of screaming with a small scratch. Trying to dive down the stairs...because hey, he couldn't feel what it was doing to his body when he hit the bottom. Sometimes, he'd just walk up to the floor lean on his knees, and then try to crack his forehead on the tile. Yah, that one caused me to get large plush throw pillows to cover the floor with until we could get this behavior resolved and transitioned to something more appropriate with therapy. Picking up my end tables or boxes of rice milk from Costco and throwing them. I could go on, believe me. And, if you are a parent trying to figure out of this book will help you understand what is going on with your kiddo, I'm sure you could go on too about your own struggles, because some of this may sound like your kid, but he/she may have their own challenges that are uniquely theirs. And if I were there where you are, I'd give you a hug and a shoulder, because I'm sure you need it right about now.So, I think this book did a really great job of explaining the types of sensory processing disorders and some things to help with them, and you don't need a medical background at all to understand it the way she explains it. And I think this will give you some great ideas for how to explain things to the people around you, who most likely have decided that the problem is either you've messed up as a parent or that your child is just plain naughty, neither of which are true. So it can be great to have a good foundation for educating the people around you, because, as the author says in this book, “the inability to function smoothly is not because the child won't, but because he can't.”I find that, for my son, as we've been going through the process of sensory integration therapy over the last few years, his sensory issues and needs are ever changing, so I think it is great to have this as a resource to refer back to when needed. Even though my son has gone on to be diagnosed with a few other things, what I can say is that his sensory stuff, though we are still fighting that battle, is so much improved it's a joy to see. He's only vomited once in the past year for a sensory related issue. Other people can now touch him. He's touching things he would never have considered touching before and enjoying it. He's usually sleeping about 7 hours throughout the night without any sort of motion. We can take him out into public without me needing to scrub either one of us down in the bathroom. He can feel some deep pressure impacts now. This book can help you, getting a good occupational therapist can help you, and I also did purchase her book “The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun” to peruse for extra ideas for things to do at home to help encourage sensory integration as well. And I personally recommend educating yourself as much and as extensively as you have time to be able to and to not be afraid to try something new or creative if you think it may help. For me, I feel like if I've just learned one thing from an article or a book that makes a difference in improving the quality of life for my son and his ability to interact with the world, then it was time well spent. And I definitely would rate this book as being time well spent.

I ordered three copies of this book after stumbling upon the audio version on my local library app, why you may ask, we will get to that later in the review.If you have or THINK you might have a child that has Sensory Process Disorder issues, then this book is something you NEED to read. My daughter is 4 and goes to occupational therapy twice a week for SPD. I found everything in the book helpful and more so, it was comforting. Comforting to know that this IS a real thing, comforting to know that I'm not some crazy mom that searching for a "label" to smack on their kid, comforting to know that it isn't my parenting or something I'm doing wrong. This book (along with Peaceful Parent, Happy Kid which is awesome, by the way) has been a light in a first time mother's very stressful, very overwhelming, very emotional life. My daughter is hard, she is simply hard...hard to deal with, hard to approach, hard to get to listen, just hard. The smallest simplest things are battles, she was a hard newborn, a hard infant, a hard baby, a hard toddler and now a hard kid. Nothing, absolutely nothing is easy with her. It has been 4 years of battles, struggles, crying, no sleeping, noise issues, no brushing teeth, clothes issues, settling down issues, sitting still issues, eating issues, just trading one set of problems for a new set. And in this book, I saw, I wasn't alone, it isn't my parenting style, it isn't a phantom label, this is a real thing and kids and their parents struggle with it.This book tells you the science behind SPD, it tells you what to look for with real life examples, it shows you how OT can help, it explains things in ways that a sleep deprived mother can understand and find solace in. It gives you ways to help your child, it gives you hope. It is worth every single penny.Now you must still be wondering, well why did the obviously tired mother here, need THREE copies?Well, one for my husband - who is pretty supportive, however, when our child is acting off the rails, he does agree she isn't "a normal kid", wasn't completely sold on SPD. He read this book at a snails pace, but I'll give him mad props, he DID read it...and he sees our child in the same light i saw her in after reading and listening to this book.The second copy went to the MIL - cue the cricket noises, please...What i got from her after she blew through the book was...."what they describe could be ANY child" and she filled out the traits and didn't really see how her perfect little grandchild "fits" in the SPD category (AND I'm going to be petty enough to mention that this same MIL won't watch the child for more than one night because she is "exhausting"). So there was that, I think I deserve an award or at least a glass of wine for trying.The third book is for me, it sits on my desk at work. Like I mentioned before it gave me comfort and reminds me ways to best approach my sensory seeker to make both our lives easier.So there you have it. This book, although is amazing, it isn't a miracle worker and will not serve as an eye opening scientifically proven manual to those who don't believe in SPD as a "thing", but it DOES help anyone who is looking for advice, science, and answers to weather their child has Sensory Processing Disorder.

This book was recommended to me by an Early Childhood Development person that visits my son to work on speech and behavior issues we've been having. In the first few pages, I started reading it aloud to my husband and teenage daughters, saying, "I could have written this about (my son!)" Each section of each chapter gave me a clearer understanding of challenges my son has been having and a sense of understanding that others are going through the same things, I'm not crazy for thinking something is not quite right, and hope that things can be better for my son and my family. Some sections were a little confusing trying to figure out where my son's specific issues fit into the book's descriptions, whereas most sections were spot on and described specific traits or habits that pertained to us, why they were happening, and how to help change the behavior/reaction.I learned that some things which I thought were so strange because he seemed to love and hate the same type of thing were actually different enough that they would cause different reactions. If that sounds confusing, an example is that he can work with messy art projects for hours and want to paint himself as well as the paper, but if he gets ketchup on his hand at dinner he has a meltdown. The book explained different reactions for specific reasons and helped me understand what the difference in these two events was.I'm so glad I was pointed towards this book, and will be using the "sensory diet" suggestions in the last few chapters to help my son feel more comfortable in his world.