Sensory seeking behavior

DS will be 3 in two weeks. He attended a daycare/preschool program 6 hours a week this year. He was given a SEIT for summer camp bc he doesnt sit still (for circle time and crafts ) His teacher also had concerns about lack of socialization as well. He gets speech also.

His SEIT believes he has sensory issues, and I truly dont understand. He doesnt shy away from situations, its not that kind, I guess more sensory seeking.

He jumps a lot, when hes excited, dancing, wants something. He sucks his thumb.

I guess I dont understand the difference bt sensory seeking, and active preschooler. And how does OT help these behaviors?

If anyone could share their experiences I would appreciate it.

Re: Sensory seeking behavior

My son is definitely a sensory seeker (and an avoider too in certain situations). I hope I explain this well, it's all still fairly new to me, but there basically is a problem with the way some children process stimuli coming from the senses. Some seek more sensory input, some avoid sensations, many do a combination of both. In our case, I see a lot of pinching, grabbing, pulling, pushing, mouthing objects, sniffing, etc.

The book "Out of Sync Child" is excellent--it's weighty, but you don't need to read the whole thing to get an introduction to the topic, and you can get a better idea from looking at this if your child may have sensory issues. This is also called sensory processing disorder (an older name was sensory integration disorder). I didn't find much on the web that was from a truely reputable source. There was an article in Time a few years ago: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1689216,00.html

As you said, it can be hard to differentiate this behavior from that of any active preschooler. I think I would say what makes it problematic is the frequency with which your child engages in it. Also ask yourself if the sensory seeking causing problems for your child or other children. At least for us, the frequency, problematic behavior, and variety of sensory seeking activities all seemed excessive.

OTs help in a variety of ways, but they work with your child to help integrate his/her senses. They also will help your child with fine motor delays and the like, which may or may not also be present.

Hope this helps!

Re: Sensory seeking behavior

I agree the book "The OUt of Sync Child" is a wonderful resource that you might find helpful. There is a companion book, "Raising an In Sync Child"

Re: Sensory seeking behavior

My dd has really no sensory defensiveness either, (aside for certain food textures). However, she most definitely has sensory seeking behavior and is constantly dealing with sensory processing disorder.

Read everything you can on SPD . Many times the different systems that control the senses...vestibular, proprioceptive, visual, auditory etc do not know how to work together correctly. An OT who knows how to treat the sensory system, will know how to come up with an activity that can alter the entire system. It's amazing to watch, when it's done correctly.

Your ds may be so much of a 'seeker" it's hard for him to filter out unnecessary stimuli. He is taking in too much, and can't just sit and attend. Just the mere fact that he is jumping and sucking his finger during times of excitement, shows, that he is trying so hard to regulate himself so he can "do" what he is expected to do.

I was a former teacher. One of my students I had when teaching fifth grade, could not physically stay in his chair. He tried to, he was a really sweet kid, he just would squirm all over the place and sometimes end up out of the chair. He wasn't trying to start trouble. He could however, sit under his desk, and remain there. And not knowing a thing about sensory processing disorder back then, I just went with the whole "sit under the desk" routine (at times, when he was overloaded) because he was able to "learn" that way and honestly it was such a waste of time to try to get him to just be still in his seat. Now, that I have tried to educate myself on this subject, I completely get why sitting under the desk worked. He needed the boundaries of the desk above in order to filter out everything and focus. Of course, he would have benefited from more appropriate proprioceptive input throughout his day so he wouldn't need to be under a desk, but....I had no clue about this stuff, then.

Re: Sensory seeking behavior

I'd recommend The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Processing Didorder by Dr. Roya Ostovar ... It's very thorough but also reader friendly and easily applies to preschoolers.

Re: Sensory seeking behavior

Thanks for all the replies. We are requesting an OT eval to find out more, and that we can place him in the best setting for Sept.