Dr. Charlene Messenger is back this week to educate us on how she distinguishes sensory symptoms from other symptoms or conditions, and the type of recommendations she often provides to parents as helpful resources.

One of the challenges of identifying sensory processing problems in children is that many symptoms can overlap with other conditions. Common symptoms that are reported to Dr. Messenger in her line of work often include but are certainly not limited to: increased sensory sensitivities (i.e.- overly sensitive to sounds, touch, movement, smells, etc…); very high or low activity levels; attention or impulse control difficulties; self-control or self-calming challenges; transition difficulties; issues with having a poor self concept, and language or academic delays. She has to pull apart these symptoms and figure out the root issues, which at times may be related to other conditions such as a learning disability, anxiety or depression. She explains in this episode how conditions often overlap like a Venn diagram (a picture of multiple circles overlapping to different extents), where anxiety is a common condition that runs in families and a child may present with these symptoms as well as sensory processing difficulties. Anticipatory anxiety is also common in children and their families.

Dr. Messenger’s goal once she gets through her initial testing is to help families determine what needs to happen so that each child can make improvements. She stresses the importance of using a very practical approach in her office to help families make positive changes. Dr. Messenger often recommends strategies for parents, sensory activities for children to complete at home, and/or modifications that can be made within the school environment. Her recommendations vary for each child, but can include fun activities such as: allowing a child play time with tactile stimulating activities; getting dirty; having manipulatives; petting/playing with animals; visual activities such as flashlight tag; blowing bubbles & playing musical instruments.

She also talks about school plans that can be set in place to help children who need additional support services of any kind. This refers to AIPs which are “Academic Improvement Plans”, 504 Plans for children who have medical needs, and IEP plans which are “Individual Education Plans” for children who are already in special education programs. There is also a new nationwide program that Dr. Messenger introduced which is called an RTI, this stands for a “Response to Intervention”. This is a program that allows accommodations such as: rearranging a child’s desk placement in a classroom; giving more time for certain kids to complete their assignments; or giving parents materials to preview with their child at home before a new lesson or concept is taught in class. You can refer to Dr. Messenger’s website for more on this topic. All states are currently implementing some form of this program and Florida is considered to be in a transition period with the RTI program at this time.

I encourage you all to look at Dr. Messenger’s website for more information or clarification on topics that were brought up in this episode or episode #34, you can find many additional resources here as well: www.brighterpathways.com

Thank you again Dr. Messenger, it’s always a pleasure talking to you, we are grateful for your time and expertise…and stay tuned parents, I’ve twisted her arm to come back one more week and: explain how psychologists can do different types of testing for children, provide some activities that can be done to improve your child’s memory; share some success stories from within her office; provide tips for parents that are struggling to find answers; and provide resources to help parents in general.

Listen Now

Dr. Charlene Messenger was so gracious to come on the show this week and explain to us in layman’s terms what’s involved in having a child complete psychoeducational testing and how this can be beneficial for many struggling children.  She does a lot of psychoeducational testing in her private psychology practice and works with children of all ages and their families, in various capacities.  She has an extensive background of working in the school system for 13 years and now in private practice for 18 years. I really encourage you to visit her amazing website:  www.brighterpathways.com to find out more about her and all the services she provides, and to get a wealth of helpful information on common questions such as: testing options for gifted and learning difficulties; common disorders that can be diagnosed and treated; and how to address emotional issues (just to name a few).  Dr. Messenger is no stranger to children with sensory processing difficulties, so our main focus on this episode is related to unraveling the complexity of Psychoeducational testing for children who may have sensory and/or other learning or behavioral difficulties.

Assessments:  Dr. Messenger offers a comprehensive battery of testing to provide families and schools with the most information on each child.  This she calls “an 8×10 glossy picture of your child”.  She also offers a mini-assessment which she considers more of a “Polaroid picture of your child’s strengths and weaknesses”.  This is a new and cost effective way to figure out what is going on for a child in order to provide useful tips and strategies for them to be more successful in all environments.  Dr. Messenger always observes a child when completing testing in order to report on behaviors and interactions noted when on a one-to-one basis, in a casual environment.  It is also important for her to receive additional information on each child she’s assessing to get the overall picture of the child’s performance.  This often includes additional documentation such as teacher checklists, parent checklists, standardized testing results from other professionals and reports from other professionals that have assessed the child.

She primarily tests children in the pre-K to adolescent age range and occasionally assesses college students with known learning difficulties, and toddlers, with 2 year olds being the youngest, if parents have concerns at this age.  There is so much that is changing quickly (developmentally) at this age, that she focuses her assessments on “general patterns” of strengths and weaknesses as a child’s skills may appear to be “uneven” when looking at all areas of development.

Intervention:  Dr. Messenger provides the following types of services to children and their families once testing has identified the key areas of concern:

• Behavioral management and discipline strategies appropriate for each child
• Remediation plans for processing problems (i.e.- memory difficulties or the processing difficulties associated with attention deficit disorders or sensory symptoms)
• Parent and school staff education
• Counseling which includes talk therapy and play therapy
• Parent counseling to teach strategies to help their children
• Social skills training (individual sessions and sometimes group sessions)

Of particular interest to me during this interview is the Play Therapy that Dr. Messenger offers.  For those unfamiliar on how much fun this sounds, let me share!  She does a lot of art therapy with paintings, sand play & puppet shows to set up scenes with dolls, figurines and/or animals which are used to depersonalize the characters involved (like the child, the family or the school environment).  This technique can help children feel comfortable in expressing how they feel and help to make breakthroughs in their progress sometimes 3 times faster than other methods of intervention.

Dr. Messenger is also a firm believer in coaching the parents as she models techniques she would like them to continue to work on at home since parents do need to set the tone and be a good example at home.  Dr. Messenger is a kid at heart and a barrel of fun!  She is great at tuning-into these kids in a fun and playful way.  She has an excellent book out called Secrets of the 3rd Little Pig and is working on some new self-help materials/games for parents and kids to use at home.  Stay tuned to her website for upcoming info!  www.brighterpathways.com

Thank you so much Dr. Messenger, we look forward to having you back next week to go into further detail on some of the specific areas that are tested during a Psychoeducational evaluation.

Listen Now

Often times parents struggle to figure out the pieces of the puzzle for their child, when he or she is having difficulty in an academic environment. Some challenges overlap and may require several different approaches or types of therapies to be completed in order to fully address the child’s challenges. I will outline in this blog for you the benefits and reasons of why you may want to have your child work with one of the following types of professionals. Please listen to this full episode for more details of how these programs nicely compliment each other and can ultimately help your wonderful, but struggling child be more confident and successful in a comprehensive way.

Occupational Therapy: These services can help you identify the reasons why children have a hard time sitting still, paying attention, focusing on their work, initiating school assignments, keeping their desk space organized, holding their pencil properly, writing within the spaces provided on blank or lined paper, having neat handwriting, following directions/sequencing, and getting along with others (i.e.- not playing too rough, feeling uncoordinated and/or needing to be in control). These problems can be related to having low muscle endurance (despite the fact that their muscles may appear to be very strong). Low muscle strength or endurance means the eyes, hands and postural muscles may tire out very quickly, causing a child to be wiggly in his or her seat, and/or appear to be inattentive. Often times when children have sensory processing difficulties, they appear to have behavioral problems, like the problem list mentioned above. These children need to be moving often, using their muscles and/or touching objects, or even having their own work space, to avoid upsets and negative interactions with the other students.

Speech Therapy: Speech therapy would be an excellent service for your child if his or her expressive and/or receptive language skills are delayed. This is a very common concern that is tested by Speech Therapists. This information tells the parent whether or not a child understands what is said or asked of him (receptive) and then how well the child can communicate his wants or needs with others (expressive).  This is the foundation for all communication and expectations to be established. Speech therapists also assess and treat their articulation skills, eating/feeding, and social skills, just to name a few.  They would be the best therapist to work with your child if he or she needs help sounding out words, blending words, articulating all sounds, making sense of directions given, understanding basic language concepts (on, over, under), and staying on topic when having conversations with others (without causing the other person to be confused or less interested when compared to other peers). When completing writing assignments, Speech Therapists are needed to help children gather and organize their thoughts in order to get it on paper.

Psychoeducational Testing:: Psychoeducational Testing is more comprehensive testing of the child’s overall development which is completed by a licensed school psychologist. This service is provided in public elementary school settings, or privately at a psychologist’s office.  This testing addresses all aspects of learning in terms of long and short term memory, attention, reading, writing, language concepts, visual motor skills, etc… This is the most comprehensive testing you can have done to help determine your child’s academic strengths and weaknesses, in order to find the best ways for him or her to learn and retain information. These professionals often recommend OT services for fine motor skills, attention and/or sensory processing and ST services if there are language delays, language processing difficulties, frequently missed social cues, and/or oral motor difficulties.

So what’s the great news? Well, all three of these disciplines all tend to compliment each other nicely. If you are still feeling unsure, my recommendation is to talk to your child’s teacher, administrator and/or guidance counselor and see what the primary concerns are, and then ask for guidance on the side or a team meeting. Teachers see your kids every day and can quite easily compare them to their peer group and let the parents as well as the other professionals know when something is developmentally not achieved or if there are any concerns that may require professional attention.

As a concerned parent, you should also be able to contact the individual therapists who provide these services and ask if your list of concerns are most commonly addressed by them, or if you should be looking for another type of service.

Please post any comments or questions that you have, if you are still feeling torn on which way to go for the best interest of your child. Please keep in mind that early identification of academic problems and remediation is key! The longer you wait on these concerns/struggles, the more challenging it can be to address.

Best Wishes!

Listen Now