I think you have had very good advice so far -- I agree with pp's about looking into issues such as vision by a developmental optometrist, food allergies, and so on.
Much of what you are describing sounds somewhat familiar to me with our ds. He was speech delayed and after a few evals. we found out he had an oral motor issue that was making it difficult for him to produce speech. He also had food texture issues and would often pocket food in his cheeks for hours - refusing to swallow but not spitting it out either. He was a self-soother and he has just now stopped sucking his thumb. He had quite a bit of anxiety in new places (he had vision issues that were finally discovered when he was 7 years old - so new places were difficult to navigate until they became familiar. He had perfect 20/20 vision, but had other issues that went undiagnosed because he learned how to compensate even if it meant avoidance.) He was tactile defensive, so sitting with other people who might lightly brush into him set him over the edge (like kids in a school.) Transitions were tough in general, and transitioning to new therapist were extremely difficult because there's a high level of trust that is involved to work with a therapist. He also would hide under tables/chairs. It generally took him 2 months to fully transition into a new environment if they were patient. He is still sensitive to sound, and even today he sat through church with ear plugs because the organ music blares and he hates that.
So we dealt and still deal with SPD, but what was really a problem for him was the anxiety surrounding all this heightened sensitivity to his environment and not being able to "see" well enough to make visual sense of his surroundings. His speech delay did not help this as it took him too long to adequately explain how he was feeling and what he needed, and he would frustrate his teachers, his therapists and his parents
. His anxiety over all of this manifested itself into tantrums, defiance, fear and immature behavior. But he was not ODD or anything else (we sought out evals. from a pediatric neurologist and a pediatric neuropsych.) -- he needed OT, ST and a proper vision exam. We also found out about a hidden food allergy to soy that was likely causing intermittent gut problems as well as sinus/ear congestion. Most of all, ds needed time to mature and support to work all of this out. And he has -- except for the organ at church and a few other little quirky things that are easy for him to work through.
Get the eval, but try to relax in the meantime. It sounds like your DS is really struggling and he's trying to control as much as he can since his world is a little out of control right now. The dev. ped should be able to help you help your ds.
Much of what you are describing sounds somewhat familiar to me with our ds. He was speech delayed and after a few evals. we found out he had an oral motor issue that was making it difficult for him to produce speech. He also had food texture issues and would often pocket food in his cheeks for hours - refusing to swallow but not spitting it out either. He was a self-soother and he has just now stopped sucking his thumb. He had quite a bit of anxiety in new places (he had vision issues that were finally discovered when he was 7 years old - so new places were difficult to navigate until they became familiar. He had perfect 20/20 vision, but had other issues that went undiagnosed because he learned how to compensate even if it meant avoidance.) He was tactile defensive, so sitting with other people who might lightly brush into him set him over the edge (like kids in a school.) Transitions were tough in general, and transitioning to new therapist were extremely difficult because there's a high level of trust that is involved to work with a therapist. He also would hide under tables/chairs. It generally took him 2 months to fully transition into a new environment if they were patient. He is still sensitive to sound, and even today he sat through church with ear plugs because the organ music blares and he hates that.
So we dealt and still deal with SPD, but what was really a problem for him was the anxiety surrounding all this heightened sensitivity to his environment and not being able to "see" well enough to make visual sense of his surroundings. His speech delay did not help this as it took him too long to adequately explain how he was feeling and what he needed, and he would frustrate his teachers, his therapists and his parents
. His anxiety over all of this manifested itself into tantrums, defiance, fear and immature behavior. But he was not ODD or anything else (we sought out evals. from a pediatric neurologist and a pediatric neuropsych.) -- he needed OT, ST and a proper vision exam. We also found out about a hidden food allergy to soy that was likely causing intermittent gut problems as well as sinus/ear congestion. Most of all, ds needed time to mature and support to work all of this out. And he has -- except for the organ at church and a few other little quirky things that are easy for him to work through.Get the eval, but try to relax in the meantime. It sounds like your DS is really struggling and he's trying to control as much as he can since his world is a little out of control right now. The dev. ped should be able to help you help your ds.
