Have you ever been in a place that made you uncomfortable? That gave you a feeling like, I just have to get out of here!? 

That’s how I felt last month when I was in Las Vegas. We went for my 9-year old’s cheer competition. That part of the trip was great. But, out of the two days we were there, the competition only took about 10 hours total, which left us with a lot of down-time. It was during that time that I felt extremely uncomfortable. Walking down the street, sitting in restaurants, navigating through casinos, it all gave me a very uneasy feeling.

I imagine that this is how many of my students and, in some cases, my own son feel a lot of the time. They are part of a world that they really don’t fit into, that provides them with too much sensory input to cope with, very similar to how I felt in Las Vegas.

My favorite book on the subject of sensory integration is The Sensory Sensitive Child. It is not a technical book. It is a book written for parents and provided me with tremendous insight and strategies to use with my son. This book was written by two women, mothers of children with sensory issues, who are also psychologists. This was the perfect book for me to read.

These women, while describing their own children, were describing mine as well. Within the book, there were several statements and reflections that resonated with me. They said, “…the child with sensory modulation difficulties experiences the world as an uncomfortable, out of control place in which it is hard to figure out how to respond…Our lives were full of argument and dissent about the simplest everyday things.” Wow, this is my life! …continue reading