We just went through our 4 hour behavior screening and a few months of therapy. My 4 year old son has severe SPD. I understand the disorder, but I am trying to understand my son. My son is a Sensory Seeker with tactile hyposensitity. We just started this process with therapy and all they have suggested to us is behavior charts. My main concerns with my son is the rough way he plays with kids and our family pets. He does not know personal space or his rough touch. I do not leave him alone with our kitten or dog. His sister usually gets irritated and they fight, the kids at school are mean and fight with him. In public, he can get out of control, at the house, he will jump on the furniture or climb. When He gets mad or overwhelmed he will hit his head with his hands and throw himself on the floor. He hates pants, socks and blankets, I worry at night that he is too cold, he will have goosebumps and cry if I cover him.
I feel a little lost in the way to help him. Please help me understand!
)Hugs( My daughter had similar symptoms as your son when she was 4. She's now 6. The tactile hyposensitivity was helped greatly with OT, but not the roughness and no sense of personal space. My daughter would bang her head on the floor when she was overwhelmed. We were at our wits end about what to do to help her when we discovered the Feingold Diet. I can't remember the exact time frame, but I believe it was less than two weeks when the head banging stopped completely. We later found out by keeping a diet diary that she did it when she ingested BHT. The only symptom my daughter did not experience was hating blankets, etc. She was the opposite--would bundle up and have 2-3 blankets, and no matter what we did, she demanded them. I recently discovered an article about the part of the brain that receives signals about toileting, temperature awareness, etc., and it finally clicked why she struggles with these issues. (
http://www.auxmaillesgodefroy.com/the_insula)
Regarding his aggressiveness and invading others' personal space, we found the Brain Gym and Social Thinking programs helped. They offered it at my daughter's OT provider as a one week "camp" last summer, and she's so much better about controlling it now. If you can't find a Brain Gym or Social Thinking program in your area, you can purchase the info about social skills at
www.socialthinking.com.
I hope this helps. I'm right there with you. You're doing great!
Hi there! I'm also new to this forum and we are currently going through assessments for my 4 year old son for SPD along with some other issues. My son sounds A LOT like yours. I understand the disorder but also have a hard time understanding my son and what makes him tick. I don't have a lot of advice yet as we are still getting started with some therapies for my son. But I do understand your frustrations! I'm so glad I found this forum as I have been feeling pretty isolated with all this!