Theraputty, Fidgets, and other Tactile Sensory Solutions

This is the final post in the series on sensory solutions. We have already covered Vestibular, Proprioceptive, and Oral. Now I will discuss solutions for the phenomenon of constantly touching everything.

In Dovi's case, his tactile sensory issue is really a combination of three things. A lot of it is in fact proprioceptive in nature - he needs to squeeze, smear, pulverize, and throw things. That's not exactly the same thing as Chaim's tactile sensory need which is just to touch stuff for no good reason. He once had his hands scotch-taped together as a consequence for destroying his Chumash (Bible) systematically during school session. A letter and a phone call to his Rebbe (teacher) helped greatly, and the next time he started fiddling around with his book again, his Rebbe gave him a piece of silver foil to fiddle with instead. Thankfully Chaim has mostly outgrown his fidgeting days; but my point is that Dovi's touching of stuff is different. His need to squeeze and smear is more of a proprioceptive need and not so much a tactile need. It's also a form of stimming; when I give him shaving cream or farina or rice he tends to throw it and smear it everywhere, which is simply part of his stimming repertoire as a person with autism.

Oral Sensory Solutions

Another one of Dovi's biggest sensory issues is oral sensory. At age 4 1/2, he still likes to mouth everything in sight. He is being coached and taught at school to decrease all that, but he is still pretty much at it. He will also eat and chew many things that are not edible such as leaves, sand, play doh, wiki sticks, soap, candles... It's often a challenge to figure out if he's chewing on something edible or whether we have to immediately part his teeth and make him spit out what he's eating. It took a long time for him to stop instantly eating sand when in sandboxes. If I do shaving cream/hair mousse for tactile sensory input, he always mouths some of it and I have to rinse his mouth and warn him again not to eat it. It doesnt' always help. He also loves to eat raw food like rice, farina, oats, spaghetti - anything that can be flung around or broken up.

In addition he is also very sensitive to things like toothaches. Unfortunately he does not tell us when he has a toothache and it's a guessing game. In a future post I will relate the ongoing saga with Dovi's teeth; for now I'll just briefly say that his behavior and mood is very related to having cavities or sensitive teeth - and we don't always figure out that this is driving him for many weeks.

Dovi also went through a phase of biting out of frustration. It was a very difficult phase, as he would bite me, the volunteers, the therapists, anyone who made demands of him or wouldnt give in to his demands. It's extremely frustrating to be unable to express oneself, especially when you're as bright as Dovi and have plans and needs which you can't explain to anyone and have demands made of you which you can't or refuse to meet. B"H that stage has passed for now, but it rears its ugly head every time Dovi makes some cognitive or developmental progress and he becomes more aware of his surroundings and his independence increases.

Weighted Vests, Weighted Blankets, and other Proprioceptive Sensory Solutions

Dovi's biggest sensory issue remains his difficulty "finding himself" in space. The running around, squishing things and throwing things are all stimming techniques he uses because of his need to feel where he is. Children with sensory processing disorder and autism often don't 'feel' things the way we do. They need deep pressure massages to feel stuff. That's why Dovi thinks he can jump off tables without getting "hurt". He doesn't feel pain quickly. When he hurts himself and cries, then I know that the has definitely hurt himself and didn't just get a phantom booboo. B"H he has stopped having sensory meltdowns, for the most part - except when he occasionally wakes at about midnight crying for reasons we can't figure out - but at the chronological age of this part of the story,  2 1/2 - we were trying to figure out how to calm him down from his poor, bitter crying jags where we simply could not figure out what was bothering him. I noticed during his sessions at EECs OT gym that he seemed to calm down a lot when weights were put on him, and it also slowed him down from his manic jumping, spinning, and running. So I set out to find a weighted vest and a weighted blanket, first and foremost.

Unfortunately, they are far from cheap. Currently at TABAC he also wears an excellent deep pressure weighted vest that provides him with the sensory input he needs to sit calmly in his chair and do work. I'm not sure where they purchased it or what it's called. The one I purchased was from Abilitations.com and cost about $80. Unfortunately, I searched their site now and don't see anything for a manageable price there.

Swings and other Vestibular Sensory Solutions

I'm going to admit it from the outset. I am not an expert on OT issues and Sensory issues and such. I can only write about our personal experience with Dovi and his issues. So forgive me if I end up talking gibberish or even say something incorrect. If you're an OT or other professional with knowledge in this area - or even if you're a SN mom with experience in this area - please don't hesitate to speak up, correct me, and/or give your input. Thanks.

Now back to Dovi's constant need for motion.

Dovi likes to run back and forth large, empty spaces. I'm not exactly sure what drives the little demon inside of him to spin, spin, spin and run, run, run. I don't know if it's the inner ear imbalance, if he's running away from himself, if he wants to "find" himself in space, or if it's just something he likes to do for fun or boredom.

Carly Fleischmann (whose book you can buy here - admittedly, I havent read it yet, although it's on my planned reading list) - mentioned that she would rock back and forth to get rid of the 'demons' inside of her. For what it's worth, check out this clip from youtube by a person with autism spectrum disorder, on what it's like to have a sensory overload:

Introduction to Sensory Processing Disorder Aids and Solutions

Once Dovi's first SSI check arrived, I went on a big shopping spree and bought him all sorts of sensory equipment. Some of them were hit-and-miss, others were a hit. Instead of bunching them all into one post, I will divide all my purchases into separate posts, one for each of the sensory issues that Dovi deals with. These posts and products will obviously not be in chronological order, as I bought stuff - and am still trying out stuff - all the time, and I'd rather make it easier for casual readers and serious searchers to find the post and product they're looking for instead of scattered around the blog in chronological order.

I will also review products that I did not necessarily buy myself but heard about or saw,

With this introduction out of the way, here are the senses of the sensory system:

Auditory
Visual
Tactile
Proprioceptive
Vestibular
Olfactory
Oral

The "Five Senses" are really: Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste and Smell. Dovi doesn't seem to have any extra special issues with sights, sounds, tastes and smells - Yes, he gets overwhelmed and overstimulated by too much light and too much sound and he'll retreat to his own world when that happens. He squints at lights when he feels too overstimulated or upset, and he'll cover his ears when he's getting dizzy from the activity (although that can be more vestibular as well). He has a finicky tastes but I never bought anything to deal with that so I don't have any posts to show what we bought for that.

Sensory Processing Disorder and Barefoot Toddlers

I wrote this post on Sunday, but waited a few days for Hanna Andersson to approve me as an affiliate. After a few days I finally called them and went through a whole wild goose chase until I got to the right person and I got approved. I was so excited about this post because it is my first *real* Affiliate post and it's a pity it took this long to go up; in the meantime I had my school interview and raising money for Dovi's schooling took front and center so I pushed off posting this. But I'm still excited about this post and I hope it can help mothers of other kids who abhor shoes.

When ASD was born, he wasnt alone; he was born along with his triplet sisters, SPD and ADHD. And no, I'm not referring here to Asher Sam David and his sisters Sarah Patty Diane and Audrey Deena Helen Danielle. I'm referring to Autism Spectrum disorders and the twins Sensory Processing Disorder and Attention Deficity Hyperactivity Disorder. The three generally go hand in hand. They are very often joined by a Seizure Disorder, which luckily -knockonwood- is not the case here.

But Dovi's got SPD and ADHD BAD.

The ADHD reared its ugly head a little later; at this point in the narrative Dovi was still relatively well behaved, about as well behaved as a typical 2 1/2 year old. But the Sensory Processing Disorder is what preceded the autism; he was stimming as early as 17 months old. Grunting noises, checking out his fingers, eyeballs, ears, you name it. He was a sensory seeker instead of a sensory avoider. Rubbing himself on floors, needing to squeeze and touch things all the time, and so forth. I didn't know about any of this though, nor what it all meant.