Natural healing: a parent finds that nature is the best medicine for a child struggling with a unique neurological condition.(REFLECTIONS)

National Parks, June, 2007 by Estenoz, Shannon

When our first son, Nick, was born, we struggled to accommodate a little infant who seemed unusually irritable and sensitive. As he grew to be a toddler, Nick experienced difficulty with coordination, falling down or tripping frequently and constantly bumping his head. These and other challenges began to affect his enjoyment of pre-school. His classmates' singing was too loud, the little jungle gym too scary, the finger paint too cold, the toy too hard to wind up, and the storybook too heavy. When our son was three years old, a wonderful teacher advised us that all of these things might be related, and that perhaps we should have Nick evaluated by a specialist. Eventually, Nick was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder (SI), a condition that interferes with his...