Any experience with "sensory" kids??

I have been watching very closely the actions and behaviour of a little person in my care (he's 19 months) as I feel like something is just a little bit different about him. He is very strong willed (I've posted about it recently) and at first I thought perhaps he was showing some of the tendencies of kids on the autism spectrum. The more I do my own research, though, the more I think it's more of what seems to be a "sensory disorder".
Don't get me wrong; I despise the process of labeling kids, especially so young. My nephew's parents were told he was on THE SPECTRUM (sorry, but that's how they discuss it) before he was one, and as I feared, it has become a crutch for how they raise thier son. Ugh... I won't even get started on that one, lol!
But there are a number of things that I am seeing that seem... excessive with him.
- he licks things constantly (my couch, the trampoline matting, toys, the floor, even my pants one day)
- he seems to have a compulsion to put things in his mouth (yes, I understand that to some degree it is normal. I have a strict "no mouthing" policy, though, and I find that with kids over about 14 months, they pick up the idea. It's almost as though he can't help himself. I have had him since before he turned one, and it's still a daily struggle)
- he "rocks" fairly often, on a daily basis (I have taught him that it's ok to do so in one specific chair in my house, not the couches, his highchair, etc as he used to. But he will get going so enthusiastically that he has knocked chairs over)
- he sucks his thumb (this in itself is not a concern, but with all else combined....)
- he will spin around and around until he cries (because he is that dizzy. Most kids would have stopped before that point)
- he has recently started to put the top of his head to the floor, as if he was about to do a somersault, and just sort of sit there (again, not really concerning, but apparently this is a fairly common thing with a sensory disorder, due to the feeling of the blood rushing to the head)

Sooooo.... is this a big deal? Do I correct some of these behaviours? Or try to, anyway? Do I mention anything to his parents? Or is this just a quirky thing, that we deal with and accept?

I don't like to label kids either. I am not adequately trained to diagnose kids but ya', what you describe, all combined, is NOT normal behaviour. I too, would be concerned for him.

I'm with Judy, no clue about diagnosing or even what to do about these symptoms. I'd say it's a bit odd, but he is still 19 months so maybe he is just exploring his world? Lol in a strange way? No, really I can't be of any help...my only suggestion would be casually mention behavior to the parents. Like..."hey I noticed Timmy likes to rub hid head on the floor, that can't feel good. Have you noticed this at home?"
This might open the parents eyes to see something, especially if this boy is the only child...they might not know it's unusual.
Good Luck!

As the parent of a sensory kid, they can be HARD. Draining, high needs, just exhausting.
Sensational Kids is a great book to read, but i would suggest to the parents to get him evaluated. occupational therapy, sensory therapy etc can be life changing

Thanks to you all.... mamaof4, he IS exhausting!!!! The little guy absolutely cannot sit still for longer than a minute or two at a time, unless he is "stimulating" himself in one of the ways I mentioned above. He is very persistent (NO means very little to him) and as I said, strong-willed. He is the first child (mom just found out she is expecting) and altogether a sweet little man, but PHEWF.
I will observe his behaviour after they return from my month off.... I think if he is still doing this, or much of the characteristics are still there anyway; I will try to summon the courage to mention it. Yikes. I dread having to ask/mention anything. People can get soooooo defensive about thier kids.
:unsure:

I bet the mother is just as exhausted. After a crazy day spend dealing with my sensory child- I just collapse!

Theres no short response to this so I forewarn you lol.....

I have had experience with this and boooooy do I feel for you. I had a dcb from age 12 mths for nearly 2 years with very similar problems. What you mentioned about putting things in their mouths was a constant thing. this little boy also didn’t just put things in his mouth but chewed everything from the table legs to the side of the toy boxes to people’s hands and feet and circle time and ate every wall decor I had. No Exaggeration!!
The first telltale that there was something going on came at about 14 mths old. He was unable to make eye contact when I was talking to him. Whether it was good or bad what I was talking to him about, I'd be down on his level and his eyes couldn’t stop moving. This is a big telltale sign of being on the spectrum. It took until he was 26 mths old to tap on the bridge of my nose and say look at me **** repeatedly for him to start to focus. It eventually worked but whether it was my persistence for over a year or not is beyond me but I was very pleased when this happened.
He was non-verbal and had problems socializing with the other kids. In fact in general he had difficulties playing. He broke so many toys from biting parts off. He could definitely understand what you were saying though, and could easily follow direction, but quite often after a short time wouldn't, just because he got to that age of challenging requests and power struggles. This was when he became behavioural. Of course aside from all this he was turning 2 so mix that in and you've got trouble. He constantly threw toys. Not just small ones but big things. Pulling down the play kitchen and the grocery stand. throwing cars etc. I can hear everyone now saying I'd of got rid of him for the safety of the other children but, I knew this was beyond normal 2 year behaviour problems so I took the hazardous things out of the room and basically shadowed this kid. Yes, at the expense of the others, who really were still happy and having fun with their friends, but I felt that if everyone passes these kids off, then they are not going to get the help they need early in life which is when it makes the most difference. In the US, early diagnosis of autism for example is quite common as the children can actually have their brain reprogrammed to a certain extent. Not in Canada though, but that’s a whole other thread lol.
He would also run in circles, sometimes around the room, sometimes around the table that we would be working at with play dough or other activity. He also spent months running from one end of the room to another. For a while I treated this as unacceptable behaviour and would put him on time out as I knew he understood that he was wrong but we were talking close to 10 time outs a day. EXHAUSTING!!!
When he wasn't running, or chewing he would be lying on the floor making what I noticed to be "oral stems" These, along with all his other behaviours threw up huge red flags to me. After a couple of months of these behaviours gradually coming up and a very steady increase in frequency and severity, I came to the conclusion that this wasn't something he could necessarily control.
I had constant communication going with his mother and she was very receptive. She did ask me if I though he was adhd or autistic but I told her I was in no way qualified to comment on this and if she had concerns she should most definitely take him to see the family dr.
He was completely non-verbal till 2 1/2 but boys are typically late talkers and as a mother of a boy who at the beginning of Grade 2 couldn’t even be graded at jk level I know this can be quite common with the boys so just reassured her not to panic and just monitor it and keep up with the dr's recommendations. (my son is now an average grade B+ student after I arranged for him to have a psych ed assessment that I paid $2K for, he has been identified as having both an LD and a gift so now the school actually teach him in ways that he can understand. Sorry off topic for a moment there. Proud mum moment lol ;)) The dcb went for early speech therapy where the mother finally got a good talking to about how she has to stop labelling for her son as this was a huge part of the problem. This boy is 3 in a couple of weeks and he can string about 3-4 words together now which is fantastic progress.
I eventually did some research as I could no longer cope to be honest, but didn’t want to just turf them out. I found some developmental milestone observation sheets online from Nipising CFS which were exactly that. I could check yes or no if they were doing these things without having any kind of opinion which would be beyond my role. I filled these out and also wrote a report similar to the things listed above but I wrote the first part as his strengths, the second part as his areas requiring attention and then finished with how it was my number one goal to support him and his parents and help him grow in to a safe, healthy and happy child. I then arranged to have a meeting with his parents. I went round to their house to talk and was there for 3 1/2 hours till 11:30 at night....
HIs mother was very good at receiving and her husband didn’t chip in till the last hour saying that everything child Psychologists and dr's say is subjective and that it is normal for children of all ages to put things in their mouth. He proceeded to enlighten both me and his mum that he allows his son to put branches and leaves and dirt in his mouth outside because it’s normal to do that. Also went on to say it is normal just like when a tween/teen puts a cigarette or alcohol in their mouth. Yes my heart rate shot through the roof and so the calm breathing commenced lol I have older children so was in a much stronger position to politely shut this stupid uniformed man down, in the nicest way possible of course. I went on to educate this man on how those older kids were not doing it to stimulate their mouths but for completely different reasons like, to taste and to feel the effects in their mind and also because of other peers and to see what all the fuss was about. That’s definitely not something you can compare with a 2 year old, chewing feet, table legs and tree branches!!
I handed the paperwork over to mum who was in shock at what her husband had said and told her that while things were difficult at daycare, I would continue to work with her as in a couple of weeks they were taking him to a child development paediatrician and I was very interested to see what they said and I'd come this far so thought I'd see it through to this stage at the very least. I just said that I was observing some sensory and social areas of weakness.
Well, it never got to this point as dad took it upon himself to send me a very patronizing email saying how he was reducing his son from 5days to 2 days a week as I couldn't cope with him. I was livid as you can imagine as how is it going to help a child with social problems keeping him at home. He probably would have benefited from going to a daycare centre which could accommodate him and his needs and provide him with some 1 on 1 support, if this even exists before school age. I ended up not keeping him as I said that it was full time or nothing.

Good lord - just because human beings have a predisposition to do something does not make it ACCEPTABLE to do so or appropriate to ENCOURAGE a child to do so ... yes children are sensory orientated and will put anything in their mouth - it is our job to TEACH them what is acceptable and what is not and when they are given mixed message it takes them longer to figure that out themselves through trial and error - aka when I chew on a stick I get a soar splinter mouth!

Seriously by that mans logic if a child was curious about a knife cause it is NORMAL for kids to be curious after all and so if left in their access they would pick it up we should just LET HIM or they are often fascinated with their POO so hey lets just leave them diaper-less and go to it - save on creative art supplies :rolleyes:

Honestly we are a civilized society because we have learned what is safe and what is not safe and what is socially acceptable or what behaviour leads to anarchy and put 'rules' in place and we pass that ON to younger generations so they do not have to keep recreating the wheel but can instead build on that knowledge!

Sorry I always try to think of termination as a last resort but I would have terminated that client as well Brights because I cannot work with someone whose values are so varied from mine!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inspired by Reggio

I cannot work with someone whose values are so varied from mine!

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This dcb's dad never had anything to do with him. He worked away for and was just at home on the weekends up until a few weeks before the meeting so working with mum on this was never a problem. Like I said she was very open and a great communicater. On several occasion she did express huge amounts of gratitude toward me for all the extra attention I was giving **** with his struggles. Ultimatly it was when dad got involved and is the polar opposite of mum that things broke down extremely quickly. Even the dcb's mum was dumbfounded as any issues I brought up that dad had said he'd seen, she had not and he had never told her. Coincedently, she has left him now. I do still have this child for occasional days and only if I have space, and its nice to see that he is getting some help and progressing in some areas.