processing disorders and learning process

[gg142]

Hello all
I am pretty new and I am not sure this has been asked. My daughter is 2 and 1/2. She is hypermobile, I am too. She however displaid hypotonia from birth and this has impacted all her development.
She still has some trunk hypotonia and is not on target for her gross motor skills, but these are improving with exercise.
Now we are into speech delays, she is very delayed.
I have noticed she learns with repetition and imitation much more than my other child and she memorizes things very slowly.
I am asking if you noticed HMS affecting learning abilities, processing of thoughts and sequences of movements etc.
This I would suspect would be most noticable in those children that have had developmental delays.

I am trying to figure out, with little professional help, since unfortunatelly noone is really giving me answers, if a connective tissue disorder can affect organizational abilities to the level of something similar to dyspraxia, because then I think I should search help within those specialized areas.

thanks very much
Giulia

[Bryony]

Hi.
My son is now 6. He has been diagnosed with global development delay. Basically it a covers broad list of difficulties not otherwise specified such as a collection of language and communication difficulties, sensory processing disorders, learning difficulties, low muscle tone, challenging behaviour, autistic traits and hyper-mobility and coordination difficulties. This in its own right should and must be a priority for access to therapy. My son still struggles with his language but with Makaton signs and symbols he is making wonderful progress. We were told he would not walk but he started walking at aged 4 and now runs and jumps and climbs. He still struggles with toilet training and is in specialist pads. He went to main stream school for reception but then moved over to special school for yr1. This was the best decision for him personally as they are knowledgeable into all areas and what help is available more so than mainstream. Hyper-mobility along with low muscle tone can affect speech and coordination too. The connective tissue disorders do not usually cause learning difficulties but read the info on hms and eds on this site as there is research showing links to coordinative problems and how the brain messages do not process properly where the body is exactly so leads to coordination problems.
Hope this helps. sorry to ramble on.

[Jess]

Giulia
Is your daughter an only child, as a friend of mine's child was NOT and so all the other children talked for the child.
I'm guessing you have a speech and language referal or will be getting one soon.
Continue prompting and talking your head off as much as you can.
What is she like with eating does she eat the chewy and hard stuff?
I didnt really talk much and didnt like to work for my food and still dont. I didnt really start chatting til i was 4.
I wouldnt worry too much as she is still young.

[Blaadyblah]

Many of our users have had (or have kids who have had) difficulties in this area so there has been a fair bit of discussion on each of the different disorders.

There are existing topics on hypotonia, and on hypersensitivity and autism (I think there's one on dyspraxia too) in the related conditions section: so have a play with the search function - if you use the advanced search and tick the box for topic titles only it will usually get you to the right place.

[trekster]

Pleased I read this thread, 'the topic titles' part of advance search I wasn't aware of. Modfairy: See also Search tips

In answer to the OP comments, I needed intensive speech therapy from age 2.5 to 3.
I also have dyspraxic like organisational problems (not officially diagnosed).

There appears to be a link between autism and HMS, possibly dyslexia and HMS.
In fact it appears most neurodiverse disabilities have some link with HMS.

Personally I think they are interlinked and can cause 1 issue to impact on another.

eg train leaving 2 minutes early without me! (ASD) meant I almost became non verbal on the phone, (ASD)
my ability to read was diminished (dyslexia) and I started dropping things (dyspraxia). Also I was less able
to steer my wheelchair and the crunching sensation in my shoulders is worse (HMS).

Extreme overload can cause non communication for hours sometimes days with verbal abilities gradually
improving. I could qualify for global developmental delay.

[Daisy]

My son 16 has been diagnosed with dyslexia and processing problems this year. He scored top for verbal intelligence but 4 % for processing skills.He had to take the higher maths GCSE which he passed as he was getting Us and Fs on the foundation paper. He also got a B at Physics but struggles to tell the time or work out simple everyday maths tasks eg monetary change/ how much money he needs.Basically he needs to overlearn everything in different ways to compensate for his memory storage problems.
He has always struggled but his maths teachers got frustated as he got it in class and lost it again by the next lesson.He has been tested for dyscalculia but doesnt have that.Its frustrating as he is very intelligent but the education system certainly wasn't designed for him!

He intends to get to Uni and has Crohn's and another immune gut condition as wll as EDS3.My daughter has recieved very good support from the disabled student fund at Uni so fingers crossed they don't cut that before he gets there.

[trekster]

Been looking over my report today (from 2008) and it mentions verbal IQ 113, performance IQ 100.
I find a few educational places make allowances for processing disabilities but not other systems.
eg a lot of companies are phone based only, hard to make a phone call if you cant plan what to say
or what they are likely to say. Trying to pluck up the courage to try and find out about my local railway
station ie wheelchair access.

[gg142]

I am so sorry I was MIA it has been a very intense 2 months for us.
I have an official diagnosis of EDS3 by Prof G now, who saw me in London.
I also flew to Baltimore to the hypotonia clinic and met a wonderful geneticist who has seen other kids like my daughter (she is my second child, the first is advanced in everythign she does).

I now think we all have a CTD not exactly EDS, we are hypermobile mostly in the distal joints, we have a very hypermobile tongue and dislocating jaw, my youngest has had quite severe hypotonia that has been mostly the cause of the delays.

She seems so far not to have a real processing disorder, I had her assessed by two pediatricians and 2 speech therapists (the NHS ones took so long I paid for private in the meantime).

I agree with all of you, CTDs affect development especially when tehy affect muscle tone and balance. I don't know yet if she will have learning disabilities, so far she has been leanring everything at a normal speed after we figured out she needed "reabilitation" exercises for the legs/arms and now oro-motor skills.

I will keep you posted, I think there is a lot of movement in the US regarding CTDs and hypermobility characterizes basically all of them!

thanks so much for replying!