angelgarden wrote:
buzzing sounds in his head or being able to hear the blood pumping in his body. He has also mentioned visual oddities, like how sometimes things get 'swirly' in front of him . . . (usually when over-stimulated).
Um, so I guess everyone doesn't have this? (I do.)
I don't know if it's pertinent in this situation, but something to remember with kids on the spectrum is that they have difficulty communicating. He may be trying to explain something that you would see as normal, but it's coming out in a way that makes it sound odd. For instance, I could see where kids with photographic memories might have difficulty telling the difference between something that's actually there and a very vivid memory. (Just an opinion, I'm not a doctor.)
Also, I remember DS going through a phase in 1st grade where things suddenly appeared to be huge and frightening when he was nervous (His teacher's feet and hands, for instance.) I think this was due to a combination of nerves, hyperfocus on details, and perseveration. At any rate, this symptom disappeared quite suddenly, so we weren't able to explore it further - but I read somewhere that it is something that can be linked to migraines, which DS does get.
Yes, I suppose my point was that we haven't worried about it too much, because we have seen it all as mostly coming from his heightened senses (be it ASD or sensory processing issues). Of course to an extent we all experience such things . . . and I like your point about their ways of expressing maybe being different--or not typical for his age. And your point about kids with a photographic memory getting confused makes a lot of sense (to me anyway). My son has mentioned his 'head hurting' from time to time as well. His neurologist said that *could* be from mini-siezures in the brain, or it could be from the stress that processing stimuli gives him. I don't think the 'average' child has issues like these, but I don't think we have to read the interpretation as schizophrenia either. Like you said, little kids--particularly those with some kind of language delay or quirk--may not be able to explain what they mean as well.
16 May 2012, 8:04 pm
