I was reading a SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) blog the other day and some Twitter tweets relating to sensory issues in younger children -sensory issues including not being able to tolerate large groups of people, intolerance of certain clothing fabrics and clothing tags, sensitivity to certain foods, overstimulation, etc. etc. – and it dawned on me…my son has outgrown a lot of the sensory issues he had as a younger child.
For example:
When he was younger Rye absolutely could not play football. He could not tolerate the helmet, the pads, any of it – but particularly the helmet. The helmet drove him crazy. Now, at 13, the helmet still bothers him a little but definitely not enough to stop him from playing. He now loves football.
When Rye was younger he could not stand certain clothing materials and shirt tags. He literally would not wear certain materials and would get so bothered by some clothing tags that he would just about burst. He no longer does this. At all. He does not notice tags anymore and although he prefers some materials over others, he can still wear the ones he does not like.
Rye used to completely hate amusement parks due to the amount of chaos, stimulation and large amounts of people and lines. This is no longer the case. While he still gets overstimulated and does not like long lines, he does now like amusement parks and can deal with the crowds and lines as necessary.
And these are just a few of the examples.
Now, it should be noted that Rye does not have any form of Autism and is not on the Autism Spectrum at all. So I am not saying this is the case for all children, by any means. But in our case, a good deal of the sensory issues that Rye had as a child ( including a significant milk allergy) are gone at 13 years old.
I thought this information might be helpful for some parents of smaller children with sensory issues to know that some of those issues may not stay with their child as they grow older. I know when Rye when younger I wondered if this issues would stay with him for life. And in our case, they did not.
2 Comments
Agreed. I think that sensory issues have to do with an immature nervous system; as that matures, the issues can improve. Carter (even at just 8 years old) is much improved compared to where he was a few years ago. He still has significant SPD issues, but they’re better. Much better.
Last night we went to his parent orientation night at school and we were there for 30 minutes before he started showing signs of overstimulation. For him, that’s major improvement! While I doubt Carter will ever overcome his SPD, I expect we’ll continue seeing improvement in that ares.
Oh, and for almost a year, he’s been able to wear jeans or pants most of the time. He couldn’t tolerate anything but “soft pants” (sweats) before that. Now, he only needs the sweats occasionally.
Hooray for things that are improving for both our boys!
This is really encouraging since my son has these issues right now. The doctor keeps saying that maybe he’ll outgrown everything, wouldn’t that be a dream!