Have you parents notice the things in your ASD kids who are in mainstream....

[adrianna22]

Hi everyone,

DS has been in mainstream for about a year now. Since January, I have noticed that DS has becoming very sensory, up until now, which is very unusual. It seems to be getting worse and I suspect maybe it's his mainstream environment that's the cause of it. Could this be true? Is this a sign of his needs not being met? Have any of you parents notice your kids with ASD become very sensory due to the mainstream environment?

[2boysnamedR]

Ds hasn't got asd so maybe I'm not the right person to comment - but DS never flapped or tip toed until he started school. It reached a peak but is now going down. Replaced with leg giging and clothes chewing!

Ms is a busy noisy place. School have been told what he needs so I presume that's why it's going down. I also think he is getting very aware he's a quirky kid so is self regulating a bit better.

If you think about all the lining up, pushing, shoving etc that goes on...

[fairgame]

Mine struggled in ms with sensory overload. He got a bit better in coping as he got older but it was still a huge issue for him even with school implementing everything the OT recommended. He is much less anxious now he's in ss.

[adrianna22]

Thanks for your posts 2boys and fairgame, I knew as much..

[Lesley25]

For me I think my ds's needs are changing and his sensory needs are becoming more pronounced as he is getting older. I can't see much of what ds does sensory wise (flapping, hands over ears) disappearing as such when he's at home - although in the last year it's become much more pronounced. I think it may be a combination of self regulation in a busy Ms environment coupled with his autism becoming much more obvious as he gets older. Like your ds mine makes the move to ss in September, it would be interesting to see in 6 months of his sensory needs increase/ decrease. I'm expecting an increase initially as the anxiousness of a new place takes over but I hope as his learning is geared towards communication, the anxiety reduces and so does his sensory needs.

[Elisabennet]

My own personal opinion is the lack of engagement or understanding of expectations which have resulted in increased sensory seeking behaviour.

[adrianna22]

Elisa.. What do you mean?

I definitely think it's a combination of things eg. His getting older, etc...

[adrianna22]

Yes Lesley, I'll be very interested to see how DS gets on at his SS in September . His therapy provision in part 3 of his statement is quite intensive... so it would be again quite interesting to see how he takes to that.

[LeChien]

Ds2 shows more sensory seeking behaviour during term time. During holidays, depending on how well things are handled, his sensory stuff can seem like it's gone away completely (and lulls us into thinking we've cured him, which backfires on us when we get complacent).

[Lesley25]

Oh I second the "lack of engagement", I do feel that ds had been left with an iPad numerous times and has been bored as a result- during the days at Ms I've always noticed much more sensory seeking.

[Elisabennet]

I agree about the combination of things; stim to cope with stress, but in my DS case, if he is not engaged by someone he will stim because he doesn't know what else to do. Loads better now we taught him lots of appropriate play, but we had to teach it. Just being in MS surrounded by NT kids did not mean he learnt to play from them. Hope makes sense.