Aspergers and Sensitivity to Touch

Question

My eight year old son was diagnosed with aspergers syndrome two years ago. He has major trouble wearing anything but basketball shorts and very soft t-shirts on a daily basis. Is it wrong to force him to wear things that he doesn't like? I forced him to wear jeans and a dress shirt for picture day at school and it was horrible. I don't know if I'm doing the wrong thing by forcing him.

Answer

I wouldn’t say it is wrong  …inconsiderate would be a better term. A common thread discussed by parents with Aspergers children is sensory issues. These children can have either Hyper- or Hypo-sensitivity. Some of them even express the sensory issues from birth. The sensory issues can be specific to one sense or across several senses.

Examples of hypersensitivity:

• Touch: Does not like touch (especially when unexpected). May be sensitive to textures or different fabrics
• Taste: Easily gags due to texture or tastes. A "picky" eater
• Sounds: Showing great discomfort to loud noises such as fireworks, movies, or parades. Or easily distracted by sounds
• Smells: Avoids the meat aisle in the grocery store (too stinky). Detects odors that others may not even notice
• Sight: Bothered by bright lights

Children and Aspergers are anecdotally said to be hypersensitive to touch. They will often report that some – or most – of their clothes are “tickly.” Aspergers kids with touch sensitivity are often in the state of “red alert”. Many of the sensations that we take as meaningless, they view as a physical threat. Kids with touch sensitivity also experience tactile sensations differently than others. Something that we experience as smooth can seem to them painful. The result is that often their behavior is affected.

To give you an idea of how Aspergers kids experience the world, imagine the feeling you have when someone scrapes his nails along a blackboard, or the feeling you have when you cut your nails too short. This is how a touch sensitive youngster might experience a warm caress. There is a difference, however. When you cut your nails too short, it bothers you for a while, but the discomfort goes away. If a child is touch sensitive, the discomfort never goes away.

The Aspergers youngster may not be able to wear his dress pants because the feel of wool is too uncomfortable to bear. He may not be able to concentrate in school because he is enduring the hardness of the chair or the rush of air blowing on him from the ventilation system. He may be quick to lash out when another child bumps him because of the perceived attack by the other child. He may be unable to make friends because of the fear of being bumped prevents him from interacting in a normal fashion.

Here are some of the things that may indicate that your Aspergers youngster is touch-sensitive:

• Craves certain sensations the he finds calming, like rocking or firm pressure
• Fights irrationally when you are combing or shampooing his hair, cutting his fingernails, or brushing his teeth
• Gets distracted because of the things that are touching him are bothering him
• Insists on having certain textures of clothing
• Makes you cut all the tags and labels out of his clothing
• Reacts strongly to sensations that most people don't notice
• Soles of feet, mouth and tongue are usually most sensitive areas
• Tries to avoid tactile experiences
• Won’t eat certain foods because of their texture

Treatment—

Treatment of touch sensitivity is usually done under the direction of an occupational therapist. If you feel that your Aspergers youngster may have touch sensitivity, you should first try to confirm the diagnosis by going to someone who is trained in diagnosing sensory integration problems. You should first consult your doctor with your concern and try to get a referral to a “Pediatric Occupational Therapy Service” for diagnosis and treatment. They will manage your Aspergers child’s treatment plan and teach you what you can do at home to help your child.

What Can Parents Do?

A common approach is to spend the time and money needed to find alternative fabrics and styles of clothing. Tolerance for fabrics will vary from child to child. So take your Aspergers son or daughter with you to the clothing store and have him/her experiment with different clothing items. For each shopping excursion, plan on spending at least two hours. You may have to go to several stores. And if you find only one item that your Aspergers child can tolerate per trip – consider yourself very lucky!

Help for over and under-sensitivity to tactile experiences:

• Cook meals with different size pieces of vegetables and different texture foods.
• Encourage and offer tight squeezes and hugs.
• Encourage gardening and patting down soil and working with sand.
• Provide clothing the child is comfortable in.
• Supply a bag of different textured items such as feathers, leather, silk, tinfoil, sandpaper and sponge and encourage the child to rub them and feel the different surfaces.
• Use tactile-rich decor such as cork, sisal rugs and furry blankets.

Other sensory issues—

Help for over and under-sensitivity to oral experiences:

• Encourage bubble blowing.
• Ensure the child is on a multivitamin to make up for any dietary deficiency.
• Offer chewing gum, lollipops and hard candy.
• Supply simple wind instruments such as recorders and harmonicas.
• Supply straws or cups with built in straws.

Help for children with auditory sensitivity:

• Expose the child to a variety of music and see which is most enjoyed.
• Supply earplugs or earmuffs when at a loud event or sports match.
• Take the child to quiet places on outings such as the library, art galleries, coffee shops and parks.
• Teach the child how to cope with or move away from loud noises such as a passing train or screaming children.

Help for children with olfactory sensitivity:

• Don’t bring home magazines with perfumed pages.
• Give permission for the child to leave the room if an odor is too strong and try and make the same provision at his school.
• Supply a small vial of a perfume the child likes that he can sniff if he needs to.
• Teach a child to breathe through his mouth to minimize unwanted smells.

Help for children with visual sensitivity:

• Build 3D models.
• Do jigsaw puzzles with the child.
• Encourage activities where the child sorts items into shapes and sizes.
• Work on collages.
• Work with an ophthalmologist as different color and strength lenses can help.

It is helpful to get the child assessed professionally and then integrate the occupational therapist’s suggestions into everyday routines.


My Aspergers Child: Preventing Meltdowns in Aspergers Children


Comments


Do any of you have trouble being touched? For me, around my belly, I am incredibly sensitive... It tickles so much it hurts... My girlfriend can barely touch me and it nearly broke us up...?"


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Yes, this is a common trait amongst a lot of AS people.


I have a patch of skin above both hip bones that if touched lightly by another person will actually cause me to convulse.


Many of us have a strange disproportionate pain threshold. I've been run over by a car before (note: not hit by a car, the tyres went over me and I was dragged) and that was fairly painless. I've also had surgery that left me with a big scar across my throat and staples holding me together, I never asked for pain relief and went home the same day - to the horror and amazement of hospital staff.


But if I have a migraine I weep like a kid. The feeling of something brushing across my top lip and even having cold objects against my skin are excruciating to me. It's all screwey and upside down.


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I also experience it. For me it's pretty much my entire body. I find warm water (showers, hot tub, etc) desensitizes me.


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I think I have a good pain tolerance. However, it really hurts when I get my back patted hard, like my mom does to me..Don't like having my back touched at all.Strong back muscles, but the nerves ache..

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I have read that people with AS can become quite agitated over little repetitive sounds in the environment that other people can tune out. The ticking of a clock is one example of this.

I find that for me it's chewing noises. I have yet to meet a single other person who is as bothered by them as I am. Often I can't even eat in the same room as other people for this reason. It also limits what jobs I can hold. Perhaps that's why I am making a career out of call centres - if it's your job to talk, usually there is a rule in place that you can't be eating anything at the same time. But sometimes people will stick gum in their mouths anyway. Others don't seem to even notice, but to me it's as loud as thunder. It's even affected my schooling - inevitably there will be at least one person in every classroom that will be chewing loudly on a daily basis. One class I quit attending; the other I actually failed because I would come home so exhausted from the stress of having to hear that all the time that I didn't have any energy left for homework. Even when I'm on the bus I have to select my seat based on who is chewing - I'll usually sit ahead of them so I don't have to see them, and I'll put my music on so I don't have to hear them.

I am on an anti-depressant called Mirtazapine (generic Remeron) which helps to calm me down a little but it doesn't quite take care of everything. I have been like this for at least 10 years, so the best I can hope for is to be in situations where things are quiet and controlled. 

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Very sensitive skin here, especially in winter. A hot bath using a firm brush usually cures it (kind of drowns out the irritating sensation), otherwise I'd be itching all the time. Nothing organically wrong, if I don't scratch, the skin looks fine. But the slightest touch can set it off.


I was once happy enough in a small circle of friends - we used to throw their arms round each other all the time and I didn't mind - quite the reverse. But that was a long time ago, and these days it's rare, I never initiate it (except with my partner when I remember), and when it's done to me it's too much of a shock, so they've tended to only try it once. I'm not rude about it and don't push them away in any overt way, but they seem to pick up that they've goofed. Nothing to do with sensitive skin though, I think I just need forewarning, and these days there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason why people do that with me, so it's usually a complete surprise and I'm not ready.


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I think I have a good pain tolerance. However, it really hurts when I get my back patted hard, like my mom does to me..Don't like having my back touched at all.Strong back muscles, but the nerves ache..
im the same way. my dad got into the habit of patting my back, usually the small of my back, and it really hurt!! i had to finally explain to him that it hurt and i didn't like it. also, rubbing my neck or shoulders... it hurts!! lightly rubbing is fine, but the way my dad does it randomly, i have to be like "owowoowowow" to get him to realize he's hurting me. i remember once, my aunt, who was a masseuse at the time, went to rub my shoulders without any warning, and it hurt so bad, i cried!! she was really surprised and just thought my muscles were really stiff. but, i was only stiff because she had done it without any warning. not that i would have let her do it even with warning!!

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yeah mel, my daughter uses her headphones regulary for this reason too, it really helps.

we have a fountain right in front of the house.. and the water running is very irritating to her. we also have a good supply of ear plugs, which have helped us out in unexpected situations.

So far my daughter as been able to avoid medications.. and I am glad of it, as I think it is hard to come off them once started.

I myself have had to resort to anti-depressants for a short while, and just after a couple of months I found, that when not taking them, I was very shakey dealing with my own emotions. I had been buffered, and already I had forgotten how to deal with them myself.. so the "weaning off" was difficult, even though I was told that they were reasonably mild antidepressants, and I had only taken them for a couple of months.

So I would recommend to anyone to get off them asap, and if you have taken any psychoinfluencing drugs for a while, to wean yourself off them slowly and with great care,- expect to feel shakey until the hormones can organise themselves properly again, and make sure you have support from friends and doctors/professionals for that bumpy time

I have had good sucess with tuina, herbal TCM and western herbal medications.. which seems to work for me.

for my AS daughter, for her it seems to be the most important that she has quiet periods in the garden, sitting by the pond, studying newts and insects.. stroking the cats helps too to desensitize


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im not sensetiv but i have a reaction if somebody touch me i dont exspect it


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I'm extremely ticklish... I also get scared around lighters and hot steam hurts me more than it seems to hurt others.
This might be some strange muscle thing, but the odd time when I wash up and stuff like that my arms ache real bad... and when I write.


I don't think I'm weak as such, but it seems I'm very sensitive and my muscles can't seem to cope very well sometimes. I don't know why.


And when working, I might feel exhausted and my body reacts badly with the heat... just when thinking about it I guess... I don't know what it is. In such circumstances my back might sting a bit too.
I don't know what causes all this... I haven't had to work as such for a while though so I haven't felt any of that for a fair while.


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 My greatest problems regarding hyper-sensitivity have been with smells, especially when it comes to perfumes and chemical smells.

When I was a child my mother, who could not afford a car, would take me everywhere on the bus. The smell of the diesel exhaust would make me absolutely sick and I would require a great deal of time to recuperate from the ride. This made my mother severely irritated with me. To make matters worse, there were many times I became so nauseated by the fumes I threw up when we had reached our destination. One such incident took place in the center of the downtown mall. (The whole thing is quite entertaining in retrospect.)

To this day I cannot stand certain perfumes that women wear. If I cannot get away from the smell, such as when I am at work and trapped in the same room with a particularly fragrant person, a massive migraine inevitably results.

Fluorescent lights have had this affect on me, and, when I was a child, the colors yellow, and brown, especially when combined, made my head hurt.

I could go on and on…however, on a more positive note, it does seem that my hypersensitivity has improved, or lessened, with age. I am not as sensitive as I was as a child. 
 
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This does seem to be a common thing.
I am not all that fond of being touched, anywhere.
Having said that, if someone touches my head, it triggers my "fight or flight" reflex, in a big way.


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I don't mind the (mild fall) early-morning cold most of the time, which is all well. But I'm terrible during the solstices.


Whenever I feel a ball fly past my face, I can feel the air rush by my head. Yet, if a ball actually hits me, I'm fine unless it's a headshot.


It's very odd. I'm very odd.




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I have to wash new clothes before I wear them...something about the chemicals bugs the *CRAP* out of me.


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 I completely identify with the smell and sound issues both. As a child, I would get horrendous headaches when it would rain during the night and in the morning sun, fumes from the tarry steam coming from the streets would make me nauseous. Diesel fumes too.

As for sounds, it isn't a particular sound that irritates me, but *any* sort of background noise becomes so overwhelming that I can't even hear someone talking to me a couple feet away. I have practiced reading lips just to help me make out what they're saying! 

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This is so interresting. We all so similar in our quirks, having not been similar to anyone much, it's funny. My mom spent time being anoid with my foibles. I try and cut my son huge slack because of that. He hates that styrofoam sound, a lot. Slurping or squishy chewing sounds have always irritated the hell out of me. In the Oasis guide I was surprised and amused to read that out of all the posible annoying sounds that aspies percieve, chewing was the number one irritant.
Colors...I get it, but I was drawn to one...I can't explain, it just is my color, always was...it speaks to me or something. Deep red. I see it and I feel complete in some way. 

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I seem to have a high threshold for pain from scrapes abrasions and punctures but a low threshold for burns & scalds.
Some parts are strangely sensitive.
I'd swear my mother was attempting to saw my ears off with that comb... 


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I hate having anything wet on my face, even just a little. It took my fiance a while to understand why I wiped my lips after he kissed me.


I'm severely ticklish. I can't stand the feeling of having wet hair on my hands.


At the same time, when I'm touched just right, I get this intense, druglike feeling of euphoria that I can't put a name to. It reminds me of Soma, a prescription muscle relaxer.


I can also get this feeling from visual stimuli.


I used to have a high pain tolerance. But years of being on SSRI's have upregulated my pain receptors. Now, everything that used to kinda hurt can hurt so bad that it causes anxiety and panic attacks.


I also cannot stand the heat. I'd rather be cold than hot, because it's easier for me to get warm than it is to cool off.


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 Wow...I had no idea this was so common! And yeah I know what you mean about not finding anyone similar to you and then suddenly in this tribe it turns out to be such a common ground. I don't post here too often but this tribe means so much to me...so very much. It's so validating. I think about these discussions often. 

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Do any of you have trouble being touched? For me, around my belly, I am incredibly sensitive... It tickles so much it hurts... My girlfriend can barely touch me and it nearly broke us up...




Interesting, I hate being touched around my fits.


Is there a study on oily-skin types and sensitivity?


My cutaneous sinsitivity considering my skin type is number 3[darker than a nordic ike you) or an an average white but lighter than a mediterranean european], I burn and may tan under UV:


Heat and cold - I prefer cold.
epidermis and dermis: almost no sensibility.


I think, maybe it has something to do with your endocrine system(whatever you say in english, mah english too bad), it may interfer in the blood vessels of your epidermis(the sensitive part of your skin), also consider that your muscular mass and your adipose can change your skin elasticity. I have high triglyceride rates in blood and I follow a diet(brazilian) close to the mediterranean diet -veggies, fruits, blah-. So I sometimes I am bleeding and people say "hey, she is bleeding!!" and I tell them: "where exactly?" . Low sensitivity compared to most of people I know


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 I used to get sick on long car rides because of the gasoline smell (getting refules was the worst). What you said about perfumes really resonates with me. Most perfumes are too strong and too sickly for me. Another major thing is cigarrette smoke. If I smell it, I start to gag and my breathing closes up. Hmm I wonder if that's an allergic responce now that I think abou it. 

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My kid is four and has a huge clothing sensitivity. Her twin brother and older sister also have a mild case of it but nothing in comparision. I am constantly using sensitive lotion and even baby oil in their tub to try and help. I have removed all tags and decals, etc. and even tried undershirts. I have not changed my soaps and use senstive "everything". She sometimes has to change 7 times before leaving the house in the am. I am exhausted. Something that she wore yesterday will not be good tomorrow. I am allowing her to choose as it is worse if I pick the clothes. Underware is another huge problem. Most days she wears shorts or pj's if we are at home. HELP!


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 Scent has always been an issue for me. Less so in recent years. I'm now able to walk down the detergent isle of a grocery store without nearly gagging like I did when I was younger. Perfumes and colognes are still a bit of an issue for me. Even (and perhaps especially) unscented commercial cleaners were a big problem for me as a child. I can remember walking into a bathroom in any school, store or hospital when the cleaning crew had finished within 30 minutes or an hour before me and getting an intense headache from the smell of either bleach or amonia and finding it difficult to breathe. It was like an invisible elephant that only I could see -- nobody else had a problem with it -- I was basically incapacitated by it. 

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I feel your pain. I have a 7 year old boy. In all other areas he is very typical. However, we have been dealing with this clothing issue for years. First it was underwear. Then socks. Shirts with sleeves. Shoes ... oh my gosh! He always has an issue switching from pants (in the winter) to shorts (in the summer). Then, once again when the seasons change. I have found that he likes boxers best for underwear. We still have a problem with socks and shoes. I found socks that he will wear but Costco stopped carrying them and I am unable to find them anywhere else. We are currently playing Baseball (his 3rd season) and the uniform is such an issue. Unfortunately I am not able to accomidate his "clothing" issue because the uniform is standard. I have become so frustrated that I have contumplated not letting him play. He gets into total "freak outs" over his unforms. It then ripples down onto our entire family. I am just so tired of dealing with it. I truely believe that certain clothes bother him, but I am at a loss of how to constantly accomodate him. I looked up tactile disorder and is has so many other issues that I don't believe that he has that. Do you have any ideas that you could share to help ease the tension and "getting dressed time"?


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For all of you who have kids that are very sensitive to clothes, etc. I highly recommend them taking the supplement 5-htp. (sold in health food stores). One 50 mg. capsules daily can be broken open and mixed into a small amount of apple sauce, yogurt or the like. You will notice a diffence in your kid in about a week. Their mood will change as well as the sensitivity; all for the good!!! My 7 yr. old daughter has been taking the 5-htp for 13 months and I can totally tell a difference when she misses a dose.


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I am a therapist, and I work with kids with Autism and Sensory Intergrative Dysfunction ages 3-7. I am starting a clothing line for kids who have extreme sensitivity to clothing textures and cuts, and for parents who want to stop fighting with their kids about clothes, and who want to find clothes appropriate for varied occasions, that their kids will actually want to put on (and keep on!). I have worked with numerous kids who demonstrate challenging behavior as a result of being highly reactive to the touch and feel of their clothing. I have been working with parents, kids, designers, and cotton experts/manufacturers to try and design clothing that will "work" for all kids.


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 hmm... hadn't occurred to me that might be an effect of autism... but recently I've been really put off by our downstairs neighbors... particularly the issue is that all 3 of them smoke -- in their apartment -- constantly... There's probably not a one of them (the youngest 14) who doesn't go through at least a half a pack a day. So walking into their apartment is a challenge for me. When Tiff is down there for 20 minutes or so and comes back up, she reeks and I have a tough time kissing her because she tastes like ash to me. I used to be sensitive to smoke as a kid and thought I had outgrown it, but I guess more likely I just haven't been around it as much. 

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My kid has a terrible time with seams in her clothes. She used to have meltdowns every morning. It was a nightmare. Socks were the worst. She would put them on and tear them off because the seams bothered her. The seams had to line up perfectly on her toes. After so many morning melt downs I finally found smartknitkids socks online. They are seamless and didn't bother my kid. It is so amazing! We are still working on the clothing seam issues, but it seems to be better. Now I'm looking for seamless underwear. Any suggestions?


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 I hate high pitched sounds, such as the screech of sound equipment being adjusted and creaking metal joints that need to be oiled. Police and firetruck sirens are also hard for me to deal with. Fortunately, they don't last very long. The Bank of America ATMs in Arizona high high pitch beeps when I push the buttons to enter my ATM code, and I can't stand them. I repeatedly ask the employees to adjust the sound, but they never do anything. Sigh.

The sound of chewing bothers me when I focus on it. Fortunately, other sounds tend to drown out that noise, so I hardly ever notice it. I also mainly eat alone, most of the time. 
 
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I have had the same problem with my kid since she was 2; she is now 5 and will cry for 1 - 5 hours each morning when she gets dressed. The socks have to have the seam right on her toes with no bumps. The underwear tickles. Her panties are too big..... too little. The seam in the back is crooked. etc. etc. etc. I am about to go crazy. It is such a relief to read that other kids have the same problem..... that I'm not just crazy even though I feel that way. We can not afford to buy any thing new just because something "tickles." I am at the end of my rope. I have tried telling her that it is not the clothes, that it is just in her mind, but she doesn't act that way. It is something very real to her. Something I cannot fix. Even at bed time, the blankets can't have any wrinkles, and the pillow has to be just exactly right (which doesn't happen sometimes!) It is such a relief to read all the other entries; even if it doesn't solve the problem!


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