The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction [Paperback]

Carol Stock Kranowitz (Author), Larry B. Silver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1998

"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.

Editorial Reviews

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade; 1st edition (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399523863
• ISBN-13: 978-0399523861
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Now comes a new book that I'm very excited about. Co-authored with my dear friend Joye Newman, a perceptual-motor therapist, the book is "GROWING AN IN-SYNC CHILD: SIMPLE, FUN ACTIVITIES TO HELP EVERY CHILD DEVELOP, LEARN AND GROW." Perigee published it in May 2010. Unlike my previous books focusing on SPD, this one that Joye and I wrote together is for ALL children, with or without learning problems. Our message is clear: Children must get off the couch and on the move! We offer 60 enjoyable movement experiences to give kids of all ages and stages a head start and a leg up. We are delighted that "Growing an In-Sync Child" already has a growing audience. Please visit our website, www.in-sync-child.com and contact us if you would like us to do a presentation on our "In-Sync" program for your parent group or PTA.

Writing has always been a pleasure as well as a necessity to help me make sense of the world. When I write it, I get it. A subject that made no sense to me at all when I began teaching at St. Columba's Nursery School in Washington, DC, was the behavior of some little kids who seemed "out of sync" with the world. They captured my attention and my heart. Driven to learn about what made them tick -- or what made them NOT tick -- I studied Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) so I could become a better teacher. I found that SPD is a developmental problem that interferes with children's ability to function smoothly in daily life. When recognized and treated, kids (and adults) with SPD can become more "in sync."

Parents, pediatricians, teachers and other caregivers, too, need to understand how SPD plays out at home and school, so I wrote "The Out-of-Sync Child" and "The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun," both published by Perigee. Sensory World published more books, including "The Goodenoughs Get in Sync" for children, and "Preschool Sensory Scan for Educators" (or, "Preschool SENSE"), written for early childhood teachers and occupational therapists working together. You can see the whole list of my publications at www.sensoryworld.com or www.out-of-sync-child.com When I'm not writing about the kind of sensory-motor and perceptual-motor experiences that parents and teachers can provide to help children with SPD, I'm talking about it at venues all over the world.

I grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, graduated from Barnard College in New York, and earned an M.A. in Education & Human Development from George Washington University in Washington, DC. I have two splendid sons, two phenomenal daughters-in-law, and five marvelous grandchildren. My partner, Mark Zweig, and I live in Bethesda, Maryland. I play the cello, bike and hike, read real books (i.e., printed on paper), and answer every e-mail. Check it out: [e-mail]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read for parents and teachers of SI dysfunctional kids, April 13, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Bethesda, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction (Paperback)

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.

101 of 105 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to Read Reference on a Little-Known-About Condition, December 27, 2000

By 

christinemm - The Thinking Mother (Houston Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction (Paperback)

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.

65 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The light at the end of a very dark tunnel..., June 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction (Paperback)

This book is easy to read & understand and provides examples to further explain topics.

Our Pediatrician recommended this book as we turned to her to help understand what was wrong with our 3 1/2 year old son who was sensitive to tags in shirts, lumpy socks, getting hands wet/muddy, being touched or held. He was physical and was considered "violent" and unruly by DayCare/Preschool staff; he would not tolerate touch but would push or bang into others. The Grandparents would just say "he's all boy..".

After reading this book we had our son evaluated by an Occupational Therapist who specializes in SID and had our suspicions confirmed. This book helped explain that my son craved and needed specific movement through space, swinging & deep pressure, and why he craved these sensations. He was not being violent or unruly, he was trying to make sense of the sensory overload that he struggled with every waking moment of his short life. This book helped explain why certain noises caused such calamity, why being lightly touched by the shirt sleeve of another child would send him into a defensive mode.

After a couple of weeks of OT, my son for the very first time voluntarily climbed into my lap for some snuggling. I don't know how long it would have taken to discover what was wrong with our son if it hadn't been for the Out of Sync Child. This book contained so many examples that perfectly fit our child that it helped us, his parents, to seek out the help necessary to help our child make sense of this very sensory world we live in.