Gemini Rising

SI Dysfunction

My 2 yr old son, Joe, has SI Dysfunction. How can I say? Because he does. I've always been a forthright, honest person and so admiting that Joe has SI Dysfunction is not a hard thing for me to do. I do want to share some of my experiences and my growing knowledge with SI Dysfunction, in the hopes of helping other parents who might have a youngster with SI Dysfunction.

What is it? It's a neuological condition. My son's brain receives sensory input from 7 senses (yes, 7, if you can believe it!) correctly, but it incorrectly interprets it. Because it doesn't perceive sensory input correctly, SI Dysfunction can affect different people differently. In Joe, because he had SI Dysfuction, it interfered with his speech and cognitive development. Thankfully, with got him involved in early childhood services, and Joe is quickly closing the developmental gaps.

7 Senses? Really?

Yes, really. Of course we know five: hearing, sight, touch, taste, smell, but there are two other VERY important senses that everyone needs to proccess information: the vestibular and proprocieption. What are they? Vestibular has to do with your sense of balance which you get mainly from the inner ear. It help you position yourself and know where you're positioned. Proprocieption is a "joint" sense. It deals with how joints compact/expand when doing activities. For us to learn effectively, all of these senses come into balance in our brain and our brain correctly interupts their signals, weeding out what we need to know. For example, say you're ironing and listening to music as you do. You're multi-tasking right? Your brain signals it's more important to focus on the ironing. The music is background ground noise. For a person with SI Dysfunction, it might a challenge to do that, especially if they are "hearing" sensitive and the music in the background, while being played at a "normal" level, sounds like they are sitting in the front row of a symphony.

How do you get SI Dysfunction? Is it on the Austistic Spectrum?

No, SI Dysfucntion is not Austistism nor is it on the austistic spectrum, but it can PRESENT with austisim. In my son's case, SI Dysfucntion is presenting by itself coupled with cognitive and speech delays. Since SID is neurologically based, there are several causes. In my son's case, I believe he suffered head trama while being born. I was in labor for two hours and I couldn't push him out. Toward the end of the hours he started showing signs of diress so the doctor decided to perform an emergency c-section. However, there has been strong evidence linking SI Dysfucntion to genetic causes (there's no history of SID in my family or my husband's).

I have some other stuff to do, but I'll post more about SI Dysfunction in the upcoming weeks. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.