Sensory seeking but it dosnt all 'fit' out of sync book

[DrWhoOnRepeat]

Ive been reading my out of sync book in the hope of understanding more about sensory seeking and its really intresting but just when i think 'ahh' i read something else and think 'no not at all'

For example ds (6) is sensory seeking in that he is always moving, fidgeting, cant cope in busy areas without running of or sliding about floor etc, finds it hard to sit still, but he is NOT a daredevil, he DOSNT want to climb all the time or be a risk taker, in fact at the park he stands out as the child who approches everything with caution, the child who screamed because he was to scared to climb the climbing frame or come down the sliding pole, he does love to swing and swing high but cant swing himself at all he is most definatly not a 'climber' as the book would assume. He WOULDNT try and crash a trolly into a shelf of items in a shop to see the effect either, he would be over enthusiastic in pushing it though and want to take full control. He IS the crasher and basher and loves roughhousing as the book suggests but he DOSNT ignore pain or love jabs infact he is so melodramatic its unreal to give you an idea he once came to me screaming that something was wrong with his skin and it hurt, it was a crumb! on his skin, i wiped it off and peace was restored, a knock or graze that more boys wouldnt think anything off reduces him to tears, and although he likes pressure and likes play fighting he is REALLY tickly and is in hysterical laughter if you touch his neck or help him with clothes or gently touch him. Is it possible to have bits and peices of differnt erm sensory categories?

and one other question, ds used to have a fab memory and his long term memory for details is still good he will tell me something that happened 3 years ago and remember what we ate or something i said but his short term memory seems to be getting worse by the day, he also as my name suggests loves dr who has for years and we watch it daily often the same episodes repeated he dosnt get fed up of seeing the same one again and again so you would think he would know all there is to know about dr who yes? well no he hardly knows a thing about it bar a few of the aliens names surely this info should be going in?

all in all im enjoying the book but not sure its helping my understanding so far...

Ds dosnt really do quiet he talks CONSTANTLY or makes little throaty noises hes started clicking for some reason , noisy places really rev him up and get him overstimulated so he will start running off, being over emotional and generally defying me. He does seem to struggle with temperature hates wearing a coat hates being hot dislikes taking his socks off though even though that would cool him he comes out in a red rash when hes warm too but if we go into say the chiller aisle of a shop he starts complaining its too cold and fake shivering.

You can have whatever sensory elements all at one go - some on one day and not on the next - that's the message I got from the book.
DS1 was assessed by OT and is a sensory seeking child - hypo - but is also sedentary. So is loud and full on, but less likely to be actively swinging from trees. Some senses could be under sensitive, some over sensitive.
He has hyper sensitive olfactory sense - which also affects his sense of taste as the 2 are really linked. Taste itself is sensory for him as he loves spicy food, but loathes and can pick out even the merest hint of citric. You would think that someone who liked strong tastes would always like strong tastes, but it does not work like that.

Dd3 is both hypo and hyper sensitive. She is fidgetty and touchy feely but cant bear others touching her.

She is really loud and makes constant noise but hates certain noises such as motorbikes, drills, hand dryers.

Supermarkets and shopping centres send her loopy especially when they are busy.

I think sensory issues are like this, they are unpridictable and can change for many reasons.

Dd3 is always much more sensitive when tired, hungry, ill or stressed.

I have gradually learned what things set her off and what things help her to settle.

Good luck

It varies in this house from day to day.

DS has auditory processing and visual processing issues also tactile (firm touch fine light touch a no no and clothes bite) sensory seeking.

If he is stressed the clothes touching him annoy him, footwear, socks even a hair tickling his neck drives him potty.

If he is happy then he will loop the loop off a tree and has to climb and jump yet he cannot swing himself either and its scared of heights

The more he has to concentrate in a busy enviroment the more excercise or figeting he needs to regulate himself.

He talks loud, non stop and quick and makes strange loud noises but if someone else shouts, road drill, dust cart or hand dryer goes off he runs for it and covers his ears.

He has a high pain threshold due to his body holding it together when he is out and has fractured limbs etc however on wind down at home all the feeling comes back and he is crippled and just wants to hide under a duvet and not move.

Its a funny world this sensory world

Light touch (crumb) and deep pain use different receptors, so it's not unusual for someone to be oversensitive to skin sensation but maybe not so sensitive to deep pain or any other combination of seemingly incongruous oddities.

I find that my boys vary as they grow. DS1 used to be fascinated by the dyson, then went through a phase of not being able to tolerate the noise it made. He was born craving noise and aural stimulation - needed the TV on to sleep, sometimes - but by the time he was a toddler and ever since, too much noise has been over-stimulating for him (though he does like music to help him blot out other sounds - I used to be like that, too)

For years, he wouldn't keep anything on his feet for any longer than he had to and now, he only takes his socks off for a bath (and on the beach, as we found out, today!)

I recognise my son in all that has been said so far especially the variability. DrWho the brilliant long term recollections but poor short term memory is also very familiar. Ds has difficulty recalling names and naming words, I think his memory is heavily influenced by his interest and attention at the time. He notices a level of detail that would clutter up my brain if I tried!

Really grateful for the responses, the sensory world really is very confusing its intresting to hear how other children are affected. Ds seems to me to have a high anxiety hence the crumb scenario. If he THINKS something is going to hurt he cries like it does, he had a raggy bit of nail the other day just hanging on it wouldnt of hurt at all it wasnt attatched to the skin or anything but i heard him crying from the garden rushed out to him he told me what was wrong had to coax him to let me look, soon as i pulled the little bit off and there was no pain he was calmed instantly. This happens alot hes a really emotional boy he cries over anything and everything that dosnt go his way.

Also he told me cutting his hair with scissors the other day hurt and it hurt when it fell on his face but he was ok with me using clippers with lots and lots of praise throughout and squirming about a good improvment though i used to have to pin him down he HATED it.

The memory thing is a strange one sometimes i wonder if hes having me on, its common for him to now say 'i dont know' or 'i cant remember' when he dosnt want to speak to you i suppose. Also lots of 'oh i forgot' when its comes to changing pants or brushing teeth etc (even with picture cues) friends tell me hes just lazy and didnt want to he didnt forget. i read about children on here who are quite obsessional with long intrests like ds with dr who he could watch it all day and its all he really does when playing even tries to get his friends to play it even if they obviously arnt interested BUT he dosnt know lots about it or anything (granted ds is not ASD) so maybe thats why.

With the loud noises when he was a toddler he hated them and would sit on the spot and cover his ears and scream 'its too noisy' especially if he was already upset then the radio being turned up for example would reduce him to a wreck but this got better with age. Now he loves fire engines going past, hand driers, put his ear to the stereo speakers in shops etc but he does sometimes randomly tell us to stop talking or we are being too noisy if he feels like it but copes fine just likes to tell us.

The hard thing about ds is he has lots of little things like all the above, but nothing obvious so nobody thinks anything is wrong with him its all me seeing things apparently, he is just a boy, just young, totally normal, all children are differnt etc

Cutting hair was a major issue here DrWho. The OT explained to me which helped that a child was under her and when he got older he explained to her what it was like. He said he could hear and feel the tearing of the scissors and that grated on him and the hair falling down felt like lots of needles sticking into him. He said once his mum wet his hair and put conditioner on the ends he couldnt hear the tearing so much and because it fell in clumps it was ok and thudded instead of hurt.

I now take DS to a hairdressers with his hair damp and I comb conditioner through it and taxi it down. Then put him in bath at home and wash it out and that seems to work at the moment :)

DrWho - do you remember the bit in the book that gave the scenario of walking in the park and seeing something lying on the bench and not knowing whether to run from it, fight it, scream at the top of their voice, or 'hump it'. All reflex actions in a young child. I suppose on different days our DCs respond differently to different unknowns. Raggedy nails - scream, broken leg scream, fly landing on your arm - scream.
Your DS knows what a fire engine is, he can recognise that, he knows that he will hear it in the distance, it will get louder then it will fade. Someone talking loudly, or the radio on, when is it going to finish, is it going to get louder ? its a unknown experience. Which response to give, fight, flight...
The way I look at it is: as long as he doesn't "hump" the cause of the noise (hump is the word the book chose!) - then the response is understandable

auntevil - no ive not come across that bit in the book yet i do admit to reading parts here and there rather than straight through. Oh i really hope he dosnt ever start humping things! lol its bad enough he is obsessed with his willy and talks about it LOUDLY in public despite numerous tellings that is not appropriate!

todays been a hard day we went shopping and he was running around the shops, pulling things of shelves, being generally as defiant as possible! he told me tonight he wants to be bad because being good makes him sad

I hate to say it, but obsessions with body parts and functions is entirely age appropriate. I got my DS books such as farticus maximus and anything with that kind of topic - guaranteed to make him do his reading!!