My small but very proud break through.

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Hi all!
I have done alot of posting here about sensory issues, J my 9yr old son is having a really hard time at the moment with sensory problems. So bad infact that he is getting completely over whelmed by them to the point where he is having problems breathing.
One of the things that J's evaluation team have said is that this is something we will have to teach J. How to recognize his triggers before things get to bad, and to teach him it is ok to break internal rules sometimes and remove himself from situations that are causing him stress.
Yay I believe we had a small break through. J's teacher took it upon herself to change J's classroom around ( wonderful, the day after she was told of his diagnoses). J handled this situation very well though.
He was given the small consession of being able to choose his new seating postion first. Well he did and was happy till he'd sat there for a little while and realised he was very uncomfortable. He told his teacher he'd made a mistake, His words were "I made a mistake, I have sensory issues and the light through the window is annoying me, I have to move my seat sorry!". Teachers response " Oh, hmmmmm hurry up then", all said with her hands on her hips. J said she wasn't to happy. I had to laugh and congratulate him with a big high 5. J is usually so complacent/ nonconfrontational and will not upset anyone on purpose ever, this was hugh.
Just had to share my small but very proud break through. Yay!! !!

That is AWESOME! !! Man, that makes me happy! Give him a big hi-five from me, too!

That's awesome!

Those of us with sensory-integration troubled kids around know how big it can be to make a bit of progress like this. . .

Congratulations.

yay!! !! !

Excellent!

I wouldn't call that a small breakthrough, I would call it a huge breakthrough!

The fact he can recognise that the teacher is able to help him, and he asked for help is fabulous!

I'm happy to hear the teacher is supporting your son.

Helen

this is a day for dance

Yea. He is making progress. Step by step...

Congratulations to both of you!! !! !!

That's excellent.

That's fantastic!

huge breakthrough! Way to go!

that is really wonderful that he did both recognize the problem AND ask for help!

Only dx'd few yrs. ago, so it takes work trying to integrate new info. & insight about ASD & sensory problems that I've had all my life but never knew of (didn't have the words for, nor did I know how to explain) consciously.
Often doesn't occur to me that I have other choices in a situation, it helps if someone can remind me what my options are-because I tend to get narrow focus & feel stuck. Not wanting to complain (and draw negative attention), not wanting to be uncomfortable (and behave negatively due to that, which will not exactly draw positive attention).
If I complain, I worry that I'll use up my chances to change/switch (if we're talking about where to sit, as in your example)-the other person will become impatient & intolerant. Don't want to have situation like in story of "boy who cried wolf"-so feel I have to put up with (and try to ignore) things that bother me, because I never know when I'll really need that chance to complain about something much worse.

It's a big deal to me, too. I'm an adult (not a parent) and have plenty of sensory issues-some of which I'm not conscious/aware of (one can be affected by things one doesn't know about or notice-extreme example is carbon monoxide, which kills people yet it's odorless).
Anyway, I take it seriously when I can see something happening before it reaches critical point-that's progress towards prevention (or at least minimizing the disturbance & distress). It's very hard for me to say I've made a mistake, it's so embarrassing for me to do. Being able to tolerate admitting that, changing one's mind, and telling someone about it-those are steps worth noting.

That's AMAZING!! So proud of your son! Mine's the same age and I would LOVE to hear he'd done something like this for himself. YAY!! !! !! !! !! !

Do your happy dance.

That is one big step forward.

Just caught this...all I can say is.... "Way to go J!"

It can be really hard to speak up about things like this...even for adults. People who don't have sensory issues really can't relate and can be less than understanding at times. But the better he can become at vocalizing about problems before they become "big problems" and lead to overload the better it should be.

I still have trouble with asking for uncomfortable things to be fixed and it is only slowly getting better. Most of the time I thought I just had to put up with it and was terrified of getting yelled at (as this happened a few times when I was younger).