"Life is lived forward, but understood backward. It is not until we are down the road and we stand on the mountain looking back through the valley that we can appreciate the terrain God has allowed us to scale.” Jill Savage

Thursday, June 18, 2009

SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER SPD

My third Blog today I know, but it's important for the kids . . .

ANOTHER WAY TO SUPPORT SPD RESEARCH

October is Sensory Awareness Month, and YOU can team up with the SPD Foundation to raise SPD awareness and money for research by sponsoring a SENSATION CELEBRATION benefiting Sensory Processing Disorder.

SENSATION CELEBRATION is a local movie event where a short video about SPD and the SPD Foundation is shown and Erik Linthorst’s moving documentary Autistic-Like:Graham’s Story - which Erik is generously donating for this cause - is screened.

Entertaining and effective fundraising activities - a drawing, a silent auction, whatever works in your neighborhood - will be part of the fun, along with informative activities such as a personal testimonial from a local parent.

Our dream is to have a SENSATION CELEBRATION in scores of communities from coast to coast and around the world! To make planning as easy as possible, we will provide a kit including planning checklists, flyer and publicity templates, and other materials.

The target weekend is October 9-11, but any date in October that works for organizers of SENSATION CELEBRATIONS works for us!

Interested? Have questions before you decide? E-mail our Parent Coordinator JoEllen Nikkel at Parents@SPDFoundation.net.

Barely six months remain before our final research data is due to the committee considering diagnostic recognition of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). We are $200,000 short of the funds we need to complete the five research projects underpinning our application for recognition in DSM-V.

We know these are difficult economic times so it’s hard to ask our supporters to open their wallets right now, but the need is critical and the timing is urgent. Our deadline to submit research supporting our initiative for recognition in the upcoming revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) is in early 2010. If we don’t submit our research by then, we will miss our last opportunity for diagnostic recognition until DSM-VI is published in 2025.

Can you help?

If you and nine others give just $7.50 each, you will fund 10 minutes of research.
If you and nine others give $22.50 each, you will fund 30 minutes.
If you and nine others give $45 each, you will fund a full hour of critically important study!
Forward this message and challenge nine friends and family members to join you, and the impact would be phenomenal. Even without that multiplier, if every parent or professional who receives this message gives only $7.50 - less than the price of a movie ticket in most places - it will make a difference.

For an update on the research itself, just click here to read the report published May 22 in Advance for OT, the magazine for occupational therapists.

We make giving easy:
Click here and donate NOW through our secure online server.
Click here and download a donation form to print and mail with your check or to mail/fax with your credit card information.

Call the Foundation at 303.794.1182 and ask for Caraly Walker to make a credit card donation over the telephone.

If you work for an employer that matches employee contributions, don’t forget to ask your company to match your gift.

Sometimes people ask, “Why is DSM recognition so important?” There are many reasons but three of the most important are:

Because establishing standards for SPD assessment and treatment will promote understanding and knowledge among health care providers and result in more accurate diagnosis and more effective intervention for SPD

Because conditions recognized in the DSM receive priority when government and private agencies grant funds for research, and SPD needs more research

Because recognition will facilitate third-party payment for services, making assessment and intervention more affordable and more accessible to millions of families On behalf of all the sensational kids and families who will benefit from diagnostic recognition of Sensory Processing Disorder, we ask you to give what you can but please give today.

Sensationally yours,Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR Founder and executive director

The SPD Foundation is a 501(c)3 Colorado nonprofit public charity.
All contributions are tax-deductible.http://www.spdfoundation.net/

This is a cause near and dear to my heart.
Chatty

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