Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion sensual overexcitability help

Hi all,

DD4 has a few over excitabilities, the most pronounced being sensual. Everything I read suggests a lot of control in environment and stress relieving strategies which is fine as much as you can go with a 4 yo. However the latest manifestation is licking/sucking her hands and our faces - it's sub conscious for the most part, and no amount of gentle prompting (or less gentle at times) is having any effect. She claims to be relaxed while she's doing it and although I see it as a soothing activity I really don't see any triggers.

Although I tend to accommodate her quirks, this is becoming a social and hygiene issue. We got a bit of a snarl from the piano teacher this morning after she licked her hands before playing (fair enough really) and her age peers are starting to stop this behaviour while it is escalating in her. Any advice?

Maybe substitute a more acceptable item to mouth like a chewy necklace or bracelet might work.

Chewable necklace, gum - my son does this too and gum chewing helps - but he is older. He had a chewable necklace for first and second grade

DS did that a lot at a age four - he'd lean close to tell me something then start sucking my nose. Drove me bonkers. The chewing and biting on my hair was worse, though, and the septic fingers he got from chewing on himself.
He found his own solution - I was looking out old teething toys for Dd, a few months old a t the time, and he snatched a rubber hand with a structured surface, filled with fluid, saying I want that! Chewed on it whenever he needed to relax, and mostly left his fingers alone. Non of the necklaces ever worked for him, but that hand did.
For ourselves, I talked a lot to him about people not being chew toys to suck on, and at night, when it was worst, offered several minutes worth of back rub for every ten seconds of not touching (chewing, yanking) my hair. Yes, he had trouble keeping his hands under control for that long - he'd talk about not doing it again, really, mama, while his hand was already creeping towards my hair like something from the Addams family...
This too shall pass. It was one of the worse phases,socially and hygienic ally, Though he is currently in a verbal tic/stim/whatever phase and that can drive one bonkers' too.

Mahagogo5, I would consider OEs, but also keep in mind that some children have sensory processing issues (including sensory-seeking behavior). With gifted children, this all becomes more complicated:

http://www.sengifted.org/archives/a...on-in-the-gifted-and-talented-population

DS7 has gone through phases where he sucks or chews on things (usually his sleeves, gloves, etc) and his OT gave him gum to chew during the sessions. It was never a constant thing, seemed to come and go and it was hard to see if it was related to anything else. I always suspected his teeth, but now he has three teeth coming in and hasn't been doing it for months. It always struck me as odd how he never showed any interest in sucking a pacifier or his thumb as a toddler, then all of a sudden he was sucking his fingers, clothes, at age 4+

Thanks all - some great ideas, black cat that is us!

I think I am going to try a few ideas directed toward OE side of things and if after a month or 2 if we don't see any success we'll go down the road of SPD diagnosis. I really want to have a plan before school starts.

I think we are just now stating to see the difficult/special considerations of having a gifted kid, TBH there has been a rather large amount of denial in our house about the gifted stuff and this too, but I think everything is escalating so rapidly we now have no choice but to accept a few truths and deal with some issues...

Thank you so much for that excellent article, it described our experience exactly. I never could understand where to draw the line between OEs, SPD and high sensitivity and intensity, (or, for variety, traits of ASD or ADHD.). It does appear that in HG+ Kids a lot of lines get blurred and you have to approach each problem from a clinical/functional viewpoint. What's the kid doing, is it a problem, what might help?

Ini DS7's case, it even varies with the seasons...fall and winter are much worse than spring and summer...