Sensory News
Sometimes it feels like I’m playing musical chairs with my sons’ sensory issues. I never know which issue is not going to be accommodated. When the boys were younger, it was like playing musical chairs with ten people and three chairs. Hence, I did not leave the house much.
As the years have gone by, both of my sons have learned to filter their sensory input, and most of the issues are no longer as extreme for them. Nigel can go into grocery stores, public restrooms, and restaurants now. Aidan rarely throws up in the car and no longer cries 80% of his waking life. Aidan’s oral defensiveness and tactile sensitivity still affect him, as does Nigel’s sensitive hearing. And so I still tend to write a bit about sensory issues, especially if I’m describing how far they’ve come.
Since both of my boys have tactile sensitivity, I felt it was quite fitting to be interviewed recently by Soft Clothing. As the mother of two sons who hate socks and wear certain clothes for days on end because they’re the only clothes that “feel comfortable,” I look forward to trying out their line of seamless socks and tagless shirts, coming later this year. And if you’re interested, click here to check out my interview/blog profile on their site.
As for my game of sensory issues musical chairs, we seem to have a new player to add to the mix: light. Nigel’s latest addition to his bedtime routine involves putting on a pair of sunglasses and hiding under his covers before I turn off his bedroom light. He says that the sunglasses “speed up the darkness level in the eyes,” which I assume refers to his adjustment from light to dark, just as his eyes need to adjust in the morning from dark to light. Of course, I think most of us fall into the latter category. But the adjusting from light to dark is a bit different. Perhaps it’s a transitional thing, and transitions of any kind have always been hard for him. Either that or he’s been listening to that old “Sunglasses at Night” song. Lucky me!
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14 Responses to “Sensory News”
March 9th, 2009 at 5:51 am
Can you imagine the time before sensory issues were even recognized? Seriously, what did the kids /adults go through before anyone identified what a sensory issue was? I can only imagine the school district’s reaction or response the first time my son was spotted eating the eraser off his pencil or “drinking” glue. Without his “sensory diet” at school I can only imagine where we’d be.
March 9th, 2009 at 6:21 am
Nigel’s solution to his latest sensory challenge is ingenious. And stylish too!
March 9th, 2009 at 6:41 am
what a smart kid! and cool! I love it.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:11 am
All I can say is the more I learn, the more I’ve diagnosed myself with SID. I can’t sleep without an eye mask and ear plugs, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t get me started on piped in music in stores.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Wow, my only question is, do you know if they will be making any for adults? Something like this would be a dream come true for me. I have been wishing for a company that would make clothes for people with sensory issues like AS for as long as I can remember. Clothing remains my biggest issue in life, and if I could find a place where I could find clothes that I could tolerate and get a wardrobe for the first time my life, really….That would be amazing.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Soft clothing. I like the sound of it. We should all be wearing clothing that is comfortable, and soft.
March 9th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for writing about the sensory stuff. It’s always interesting to read about others’ experiences with it as my own Little Man is bombarded with sensory overload every day. Sometimes I can almost forget that he deals with it but it’s never for more than a day or so!
March 9th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
He’s a clever one…he’ll be developing all sorts of nifty tricks over the years.
I’ve got a few I use on a regular basis. I’m just going to use this post as a basis for my next post. We are cross-pollinating ideas. So thank you for this.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:26 am
First, you are amazing to have endured all those years of sensory issues. It’s comforting for me (still in the midst of my daughter’s sensory mayhem) to see that your boys have learned to filter the input.
It’s so interesting to read about Nigel’s sensitivity to light. All winter Rhema has insisted on having the lights out when we’re in the living room. It’s o.k. with me, but with it getting dark outside around 4:30 p.m. – it made for a lot of stumbling around. (Thank goodness for daylight savings!) And lately, she’s been more tolerant of the light being on. I figured it was sensory-related, but reading about Nigel pretty much confirms it.
March 10th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Thanks for sharing the link, good interview!!
Oh and don’t I know about sensory issues… this past weekend meghan came home and would not walk on the beach with us… I guess a new sand issue–ugh!! What do we do now, move to the mountains!!????
March 10th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Evan would LOVE seamless socks…socks are the first thing to come off…well, shoes first. I think he would strip in the car after school if I would let him!
March 10th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
kendall has some significant sensory issues (the most significant of which are sound related) but she tends to be pretty tolerant of clothing. which i find interesting because i’ve cut the tags out of my own clothing ever since i was a little kid. go figure.
i love that nigel comes up with his own solutions. so cool!
March 12th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Hi,
This is Jessica from Soft clothing–we will certainly be making clothing for adults ASAP. I get lots of requests daily for soft, seamless clothing for teens and up. If you want to submit specific ideas–I’d love to hear them! http://softclothing.net/Site/Soft_Family_Wall.html
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:18 am
Hi we found you site very interesting and thought we would share with you a patch we have been using on our autistic daughter. It’s made an unbelievable difference in her attention span & behavior. It’s called Aura Patches and is not a chemical patch. Check them out @ http://www.internapure.com/Blog/2009/07/09/aura-patch-autism-protocol/ keep up the good work.
Darren N.
Atlanta, Ga.
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