The Need for Sensory Overload (or underload)

I've talked before about Sensory Integration Disorder and how before we had the diagnosis for Asperger's, that this is what they thought MJ had.

I find this as a large part of Asperger's. There is this need for some sort of over stimulus in sensory, or maybe there is the need to not have it at all. What I mean in this is that maybe a person might need to be moving all the time or touching and feeling, but then another person with Asperger's might be someone who hates touching or spinning or jumping.

With MJ, he always seemed to be spinning. Jumping, dancing and spinning, he had to be moving all the time. He didn't like to sit still. Along with his spinning and toe walking, it didn't surprise me when one day he came to me and asked if he could take ballet classes. He already didn't like any sports, and so I thought this would be something fun as an extracurricular activity that he could do.

Not just the spinning and moving, but another thing we always noticed with MJ was his lack of personal space. He was always overly groping people I thought. Now, I don't mean this in an ugly way, but he just would be a little too grabby or huggy snuggly up with people. Surprised? Most people who think Asperger's think anti social and don't like to be touched, but really it still breaks down to the not understanding social rules or norms so to say. MJ would sit too close to people, hang on them, snuggle up to them, and always talk to them right up to their face.

This has caused a lot of problems when it came to school or church. He didn't understand or maybe he didn't realize how close he was getting to people. Once at school another boy punched him in the stomach for getting in his space. It's nice for a boy to be loving and snuggly, but it's not great in any given situation. You probably shouldn't be snuggling on up with your new church teacher or whoever strange person you come across.

Now, as far as underload, or the need to not touch or feel---this comes across all sorts of ways. The whole walking on toes things was pinpointed to the sensory need to not have his heels touch the ground. Or what about the way clothes scratch and poke? As an NT, I don't seem to have that much problem wearing something a little scratchy or whatever, but give a stiff shirt to an Aspie and they will just about freak out. I find this more with my husband who thinks he is going to die sitting through a church meeting in a button up shirt.

Or, what about the need to not have people touch you? I am very lucky that my husband is not an Aspie that hates to touch or be touched as far as in a relationship, but at the same time he says that he can't stand to be sitting in a group in a small setting where his knee might possibly touch someone elses. It about kills him trying to focus on not moving his legs or feet in the chance he might touch another person.

We work with MJ as far as his sensory issues by letting him be in dance and spinning away, and then trying to teach him about personal space and when it's OK to hug someone or not. Everyday is a teaching day as far as "what should you do in this situation".

The Autistic Spectrum

Do you know there is this whole "spectrum" thing when it comes to Autism? Yeah, I've always thought autism is where the kid doesn't talk hardly at all and sits in a corner and doesn't react to any human contact or something, but actually there are all sorts of degrees of autism that we learned while we were being evaluated. It is this sort of swinging pendulum that you can fall anywhere in a certain range and still be considered "being within the spectrum" of autism.

We went through a lot of specific tests and questions that were rating MJ on this kind of thing. And this is where things became very interesting.

Sure, I figured it was normal all the things MJ did. Well, maybe not normal, but I just figured he was an extra sensitive kid, or just extra observive or picky or emotional. Then when they started rating our responses, I began seeing that other kids really weren't so freaked out by transitions or by certain changes in routine or schedule. Other kids weren't lost in a trance looking at a glob of glue on the desk for an hour, and other kids weren't so obsessed with lining up things in rows and such.

I guess maybe I had realized something different recently---Well, MJ was our first child, and I just figured this was fine the way he talked or acted or whatever, but over the last years since school started for him, I began to take notice that he didn't respond the same way as the other kids did.

Like even in Kindergarten, all the other kids were talking one on one with others, and when they left to go home they all hugged the teacher or high fived and said goodbye as they left the door, whereas MJ was like a robot and would only react socially if I specifically instructed him to do something.

He had friends in K and 1st grade, and when I saw them communicating with their parents or siblings or other friends, it was a dramatic difference in how little I was getting from MJ. Not bad, not really less, but just different. It was as if MJ's ideas and thoughts came out in jumbled bursts as if you were watching somebody who had been in a war and was having "flashbacks" or snipits of something. It's hard to explain.

BUT anyway---we were answering all these questions and beginning to see that we were measuring on this autistic scale, and it was an eye opener. It was not high on the scale, but it was still there.

Sensory Integration Disorder--what is it?

Of course, even before seeing the therapists, I was on the internet all the time typing in key words trying to find out what was wrong with MJ. I would type in "walk on toes" and "sensitive to textures" or "afraid of heights" and out of everything, this is what I was coming up with--something called Sensory Integration Disorder.

So kids with this have some sort of extra need for like an over stimulus amount of sensory, like they may spin a lot or need to be moving all the time.

OR,

They may have this extra sensitive thing going on that everything is TOO much for them, like they can't handle the way things feel or taste. Well, not taste, but the way the food feels in their mouth. Or they are overly afraid of jumping or climbing or touching things.

Or it can be a mix of the two--an over sensory need AND an over sensitive thing.

This is what made sense with MJ. He could eat foods mashed up--like he would still eat baby food veggies, but if it was the chunks and real, he couldn't handle the texture. He freaked out if anything got on his hands or made him dirty. He couldn't handle tags on clothing, or if his pants or socks weren't perfectly stretched out touching his skin. And then of course he was 3 years old and he had never even been down a slide or swung on a swing really because it frightened him so terribly much.

But really---was this thing even REAL? Or did someone just make it up? It all sounded crazy.