Can Chiropractors Help Sensory Issues?

(I'm not an expert, just a parent of a son with SPD/anxiety, searching for answers.)

I have had my son at three different occupational therapy locations in 4 years.  At his current location, he is on his 4th therapist in 8 months, and this one will be having a baby soon.  So this will likely be his last month there, because it is really hard to gauge improvement in sensory issues at best, and constant changes make it impossible.  And frustrating.  But here is what I've seen.

Improvements I've seen since September:

• less compelling during copywork
• faster handwriting without a drop in legibility
• fewer fits during school
• ability to correctly fold laundry, at his own speed
• will sometimes ask to try a new food (rare, but it has happened)

Things I was hoping for improvement in that I haven't seen:

• better core strength
• better pencil grip
• wider variety of foods eaten regularly

As you can see, the changes we have seen are positive, but he isn't there yet.  I decided to see if there were other things we could do.

The outdoor crew

Our chiropractor had a free screening for kids back at Easter, and I took him, since he had started complaining about back pain on occasion.  While we didn't see any cause for that, the x-ray revealed some other minor issues that could be worked on.  But more exciting was the fact that this chiropractor has knowledge or neurological processes and did further testing regarding my son's brain and mismatched abilities.  He is right-handed and mostly right-sided, but he discovered that the left side of his body needs more activation to awaken the right side of his brain.  He now uses a balance board for several minutes, followed by core-strengthening exercises which we can do at home.  Then the chiropractor adjusts the left side only.  This is a twice a week appointment for about a month, then he will reassess and likely drop to weekly or less.  I'll try to post an update next month on this.

Regarding the diagnosis of Asperger's (or High-functioning Autism, aka Autism Spectrum Disorder), we are waiting, hanging out in nowhere-land.  He had an initial consultation with a therapist over a month ago, who referred him for diagnosis at 2 locations.  I am waiting for paperwork to show up from both of them, but do have a parent-only appointment at one this week.  I thought one was for dyslexia, but both places seem to be for autism, so that seems redundant, and I need to figure out what's going on!

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