Meet Jordan

Tell us your child’s story.

Joe is 7 years old and will be 8 in September. He is an amazing, funny and outgoing kid who just genuinely shows love and grace to everyone he comes into contact with. His favorite hobby in this moment is collecting things whether it is toys from McDonald’s based on movies that are showing in theater or finding painted rocks from his favorite place to visit which is Saunders Springs. Joe also loves water parks, reading, learning and Sky Landers!

From a young age we noticed Joe did and reacted to things differently than you or I generally would. In his case sometimes those times can be challenging for him. Without a diagnosis we knew he exhibited signs of Sensory Processing Disorder and he had low muscle tone in his whole body which made things difficult including handwriting and shoe tying. He was home with mom and dad before he started school so we helped him through everything and accommodated but not limiting him on what he could do on his own. Until he started Pre-K when he was 5 years old, we educated his teachers on everything that would help them in understanding him and how he processes things such as the main concern at that time was “unexpected touch and loud noises” in a classroom we knew there would be some cases of these situations occurring and for Joe that is extreme and would result in a meltdown. His teacher had mentioned to me that he may have SPD and that confirmed our thoughts, so we continued helping him along the way as much as possible, but things took a little turn when he got to Kindergarten. He started physically getting ill with no fever. We would receive phone calls from school on days that it had rained “with rain sometimes comes thunder and lightning” and knew it was his processing. This hindered him from enjoying the things he loved to do, school being one. Going to Saunders Springs his tummy was always so upset when we went if there was a cloud in the sky. Off to his Pediatrician we went as for some things were just out of our control and Joe needed more tools to help him than we could give him.

Why did you choose APT for therapy service?

We took Joe to his Pediatrician about a year ago when we started to notice he was physically becoming ill and the behavior changes when it came to his discomforts “rain, storms, smells, loud sounds, textures and when he generally felt upset” our Pediatrician recommended APT to us and we trusted his referral whole heartedly! The staff at APT has been absolutely amazing, making this the best decision we have made in Joe’s journey with Sensory Processing.

Auxiliary Aides and Services for Persons with Disabilities

He is able to stand the rain and storms as he breathes/talks himself through them with his hat on with no physical illness and enjoys being outside. At times he is also able to stay in the same room as others that are eating and is willingly trying new foods of all textures. He can now tie his shoelaces on his own, and Joe is now able to get 76% of his handwriting within limits.