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NEW COURSE HELPS PREVENT THE MISDIAGNOSIS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS WHO ARE OFTEN DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM, ADHD, AND OTHER LEARNING DISABILITIES
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| Dr. Frederick B. Covington, founder of the International Institute of Therapeutic Intervention and Learning |
Nationwide -- Sensory processing disorder also known as Sensory Integration Disorder can lead to poor grades, academic failure, diminished social skills, and other negatives in a child's life. This makes it imperative and extremely important that teachers and daycare employees have a full understanding of what sensory integration is.
There has been a long history of African American children being misdiagnosed with Autism, ADHD, and learning disabilities because the staff, teachers, and educational team did not understand sensory integration and how it plays an important role in growth and development. Sensory Processing Disorder is a neurological disorder in which the sensory information that's received through sensory systems such as sight, smell, taste, and hearing, causes abnormal reactions.
As a result, a child can react incorrectly to their environment with excessively big reactions or their reactions could be significantly diminished. Incorrect reactions to sensory input can impair academic success, sociability, and safety.
These incorrect reactions to their environments can look very similar to other diagnosis and a child can be misdiagnosed and be labeled as emotionally disturbed, autistic, having ADHD, or any number of learning disabilities. At least one in twenty people in the general population are affected by sensory processing disorder, and the numbers are significantly higher for those with special needs and in special education.
