From Wired blog: Hacking My Child's Brain, pt. 1:
My son's brain can't handle all of the sensory input his body is sending him. Caleb has Sensory Processing Disorder, the human equivalent of a computer that can't adequately multitask, or a network that drops packets when there is a lot of traffic. All of his senses work individually, but his brain loses information when they are combined. This problem wasn't obvious to us when he was younger, but now that he is in first grade, the complications are growing.
This disorder effects everything Caleb does. New situations or rooms full of people are information-overload. He needs heavy routine and structure just so that he can learn without being overwhelmed by his environment. He can listen to what I'm saying as long as he doesn't have to look me in the eye. (If I demand eye contact, it takes so much concentration that he literally can't understand my words.) If he needs to say something, the effort of self-expression shuts out everything else. He doesn't notice he's blocking the grocery aisle, or that he's hopping on one foot, or that he needs to use the bathroom.
Caleb lives in the abstract, because the concrete world just doesn't mean much to him. He is the epitome of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes; reality competes with (and often loses to) his vivid imagination.
After reading about so-called "brain hacks" like that of Dilbert creator Scott Adams, I've become solidly convinced that my son Caleb doesn't need a coping strategy, he needs his brain to be recalibrated. With the help of some professionals and some surreal neurotechnology, I'm going to try doing just that. We're going to try to hack my child's brain.
Neuroscience, I love you. I have to say that I love Sophie more, but if you were the woman, and she was the scientific discipline, I'd live with you and read about her on the internet.
