I survived

[integritysinger]

We picked up singinpraises at the Atlanta airport yesterday and went off to take Jessica out as an early birthday event because we thought we'd kill two birds with one stone. (my administrative assistant, AKA, integritysinger, has officially been fired after this faux pas!) The plane was supposed to land at 2 but it landed at 1:25 ish. Luckily we were there

Comments

[thatgirl101]

Can I ask what happens at the mall with Matthew? Is it just too much stimulation? I see that in my son, but he is fine and then has a lot of fun running threw the halls.

[integritysinger]

too much of everything - too much noise, too much strangers, too much lights, too much music, too much busy, too much "stuff" that doesn't seem to make sense, too much distance to what feels like no where to him, too much browing, too much killing time for the sake of killing time, too much weird smells, too much! lol it's just too much for him. He was just as bad at the airport. Big open spaces or too small/confined a space and he's going bonkers. As much as I hate our tiny house (1200 sq ft) if it was much bigger it would be HORRIBLE for him. Oh, and this might be useful for you, his room is very dark - dark blue, dark curtains, dark bed linens. My mother says it's a den but if I didn't do it that way it would be so hard for him to settle down.

[thatgirl101]

That's what I figured. How does he let you know that this is all too much? My son covers his ears. He does this around screaming children. It doesn't last long, but I know it's his nonverbal way of saying I am going to hide until this feels better.
My son's future big boy room is small and it's weird you said dark decorations because I unintentionally did that. I am going to paint his room a sky blue. It doesn't yet show me that he is visually overstimulated, but how would I know? He stims on doors. I think he likes more of the senses, rather than less, but then in a mall it can be too much, but it doesn't translate to a grocery store or anything like that.

[integritysinger]

how does he let us know it's too much: screaming. whining, crying, running away, hitting, punching, kicking, refusal to do anything, throwing his body on the floor and becoming a slug or worse, a stone statue, lots of shouting, laying blame on others ... it's horrible! as a baby he was so high strung I never bothered.

visually lots of color variation messes with him. I think the biggest issue is that he can't process all of the sensory at the same time. Lots of ANY sensory and he's toast. Compressions, weighted vest, vestibular swinging, trampoline jumping, running, vibrating chair, equine or aqua therapy or all of the above help his brain stop processing the "extra" so he can process the important things.