12.03.12

Sensory Overload (Interacting with Autism Project) from Miguel Jiron on Vimeo.
Yup, another SPD post. I found this video online, which shows what it might be like for a child (or adult) with auditory defensiveness. I know the video description mentions autism, because SPD and autism are often linked. Wyatt does not have autism, however he certainly experiences sensory overload. I found this video highly irritating to watch. After initially reading up on SPD, I suspected that I likely experience SPD, in a much more mild way than Wyatt. Certain sounds annoy and distract me - people breathing, for example (which I realize sounds ridiculous), and chewing! I have had to cut my lunch short on more than one occasion to keep from snapping at a co-worker. While discussing SPD and my son at work the other day, a co-worker (who happens to be a doctor) got quite upset with me. "Leave him alone!" she said, "Not everything needs to be fixed!" There was a lot of tongue biting. Because so few people know about, and understand SPD, I get that it seems like I am making a mountain out of a molehill. I get it. But until you have lived with it, you cannot understand how debilitating it can be for a child. It affects his gross and fine motor skills. He only crawled at 12 months old. He only mastered the stairs at 3. He still refuses to ride a bike. He hates writing, drawing, etc. We had to teach him how to take his socks off at 3 1/2 years old. He still struggles to dress himself - and NO, it's not because we coddle or spoil him. He just cannot figure out how to do certain things. He learned how to put his boots on this year, which was awesome. We're working on teaching him how to put his own socks on. We're struggling how to teach him how to put a jacket on (nevermind working a zipper!). Imagine a day where you feel like you have been totally overwhelmed with normal activities - I know we all have days like that - where everything feels like a chore. Or a day where you have learned something new...at the end of the day, you are mentally exhausted. Now imagine being a toddler and experiencing that every single day. Not only are you having to work through the normal demands of being a toddler, but struggling with how to react when a well-meaning adult blows a whistle in an effort to engage you, or feeling the pokepokepoke of a tag in your shirt ALL DAY LONG. It's taxing and Wyatt handles it quite well for the most part - but I think a lot of his tantrums are from sheer mental exhaustion. I notice on days where he has had a lot of sensory overload, those are the days where we have to give a lot of time outs. My new goal is to find an outlet for Wyatt. Something he can do that will release that stress and tension of fighting with himself all day long. There are certain songs that he loves listening to, and I think maybe if I can find a really soft pair of headphones I may be able to convince him to put them on. The long and rambling point to this post is hopefully to explain to people that a)yes, SPD is a real disorder and something that can serious affect the day to day life of a child, and b)I am trying my best. Telling me to "let him be" is NOT helpful - to me or to him.