Hello everyone! Recently, I visited my family out of state and my Aunt has a son with SPD and she said it was obvious within 20 minutes at her house that my son shows many signs of SPD as well. I have been struggling with him for so long and this is very emotional for me to finally have an answer. We have not seen a doctor yet to do any sort of testing. I just wanted to come here and maybe get some insight and advice.

My son is 3, and since he was a baby he has always been very particular about things. He would do anything (sweat or freeze) to sleep outside. He would scream endlessly at night, some times for 3-4 hours and I could never seem to soothe him. He was slower with meeting milestones than my daughter who was extremely fast! We had to force him to walk (15 months) and talk (18 months). He used to have this weird obsession with socks. He would take my socks and rub them all over his face and chew on them. He also used to sit in front of a cupboard and open and close it for about 30 minutes to an hour, just watching it. He LOVES towels, has for about 2 years now. Sometimes it's the only thing that calms him or puts him to sleep. Currently, he throws tantrums from 15-40 minutes long, screaming, hitting, scratching, gritting his teeth, flailing around on the ground. It's impossible to calm him down and usually I don't even know why he is freaking out. He obsessively watches power rangers on tv or youtube, most of the day and has a meltdown when I take it away. He loves to be outside, but I cant always do that since I am in school and work on my laptop a lot. He eats like a bird, and it's hard to get him to try new things. I have to occupy him and feed him or he wont eat. When he has meltdowns it takes me a good 10 minutes to strap him into his carseat and he is strong! And I swear he has selective hearing!!! A lot of times he will ignore his name being called even if I yell if he is engrossed in an activity or tv. I count his meltdowns and measure the days by them.

I am not even sure if this is SPD for sure or if my son is just going through a stage. Is there anyone here who can relate to this or who can offer some insight?

Hi Shelly,

I have two sons with SPD, ages 19 yrs and 11 yrs. I feel I have developed it as well over the years as I live inside their world. lol

My suggestion to you is go get ALL the testing done, the whole thing. SPD typically is a "characteristic" with something else. (i.e. Autism, PANDAS, etc..)

Have you tried swaddling him? A pediatric neurologist gave us some FANTASTIC advice years ago-we didnt know it was at the time. He said, separate the sensory from the education. You can always learn social skills later, but you need them on track with their education. We had to adjust our lives, after trying multiple school IEPs etc.. with complete failure for our sons (each experience will be different). Once we adjusted our income and lives, and began homeschooling, (separating the social challenges from the education) we achieved great accomplishments with our now 19 yr old.