Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion sensory integration...

Sounds like my ds6. Only, he has heightened sensetivity 90% of the time. Like Kriston had mentioned above, it more than likely goes along with the GT. My son has issues with tags, socks, belts, pants. He likes to eat very plain foods, same ones again & again, super sensetive to smells & tastes.

As for appetite, with him it is all or nothing. Either we are in a stage of not eating or continuous eating! Food is just not important to him. He only eats to survive & even then, it is hard to get him to actually sit in his seat.

He never sits still unless focused on writing a story & making pictures. That is his creative outlet. Otherwise, he has to be doing something...building something, role-playing or creating a new game for him & his brother to play.

My ds4 will actually give me a break & sit still for 30 minutes once or twice a day for a cartoon. But, my GT ds6 won't. He wants cartoons on in the background, but will continue with what he is doing.

As for sleeping, your son needs quiet, but mine needs white noise AND classical music. Nonstop stimulation.

Sometimes the fluctuation in sensitivity is related to stress. Tags, socks and clothes bothered my son much more in the last couple of weeks with the transition back to school. Jeans that he tried on at the store and LIKED while there are sitting unworn in the drawer - he continues to wear his old wornout jeans from last school year because the new ones "don't feel right." I'm just waiting patiently until the day he decides to try them because sooner or later he will be able to handle the "new" feeling. We had to cut tags out of shirts that he's worn for months now *with* the tags but all of a sudden they bother him.

We try to just ride the tide and let take it all in a matter-of-fact sort of way. I'm encouraging MrWiggly to take more control over his own sensitivities by being more independent to "fix" the problem. So I just say that I'm sorry he's bothered by the socks and suggest that he either change to another pair, take them off and try again with the same pair or go without out. He actually seems to do much better when I support him problem solving these issues on his own. I think the sense of control over the hypersensitivity should be comforting to someone who feels like he's the victim of noxious stimuli.

You can try also to address the stress issues that might be underlying the new onset of hypersensitivity. BTW, I find this to be true whether there is a diagnosed SID or overexciteabilities - they look the same in some cases.

Wearing socks inside out worked for ds6 all last school year. This year, not as much. Just another option...

DS8 wears his "as soft as cloud" socks inside out too! He complains abt the other socks being too "hard" but I didn't do anything abt them. I used to have to cut his clothes tag too. When he stopped complaining (I think when he was 5-6yo), I stopped cutting. At home, he is still wearing his 6yo tees because he says they are comfortable! Thks for the checklist! I didn't know there are so many categories!
The other thing I notice abt ds is his extreme taste for sour stuff and food which most kids will pass (even for some adults). He eats passion fruits (more than 4 at one go), grapefruits, lemon... ginger, garlic (raw and cooked), cilantro,basil etc. He is also game to try any food. Also, he gags easily....so no turtlenecks for him!

Ya know, Floridamom,
My whole family had 'the itchies' growing up: tags felt scratchy, resturant seats always had a vent directly over the most sensitive person, socks a hassle, so when my son was born, I just expected those kinds of things to be difficult.

If I had known that OE's were correlated to Giftedness, I would certianly have gone on compensating. But I didn't, and in 2nd grade, in the search for 'what's wrong with him' we came across the idea of Sensory Integration, and got him some time with a private OT and the school OT. Of course who knows if it helped, or if he would have had a growth spurt in that area, but boy-oh-boy he sure did 'mature' those 6 months.

Bottom line - if suff is bothering him 90% of the time, you have a referal from an MD, if insurance is picking up the bill, and you don't have to stress over the 'one more thing' in your schedule - I say: "Give it a try!"

Your son may actually be compensating for much larger difficulties than anyone realizes, because he has the brainpower. Anyway, that's my advice based on my own experience.

We are still cutting the tags off of shirts at age 12, but shoes and socks are much much less of a big deal than they were back then.

BTW - some Very Highly Gifted People don't have any OverExcitabilities. Some have them but are so used to them that they seem like the normal way to be.

Love and More Love,
Grinity