4yo and impulse control/touching issue

[Raine]

I have a 4.5 yo ds. He is a very strong-willed child and there a few things we are currently working on but the two biggest are his need to be physical with people and putting things in his mouth/touching things. Let me explain.

He can't sit still long (and I don't put him in situations that require him to usually) so if he is sitting next to another child he will kick with his legs or tap them with his hands. Or if he is walking by another child he will lightly "punch" or bump into the child. The other child will either hit him (especially if s/he is younger) or get mad. I don't believe that he is doing it to be mean necessarily, but of course the other child doesn't know that. Sometimes he gets a sudden rush of energy and HAS to play fight. He is normally very active, but he gets bursts of even more energy at times. Then he crashes hard.

Secondly, he has a NEED to put things in his mouth or touch different textures. For example, today we did a project and the little kids were sorting poms poms and other items. He comes over and first bites the foam shapes and then later, after being reminded that they are not for the mouth, chews on a pom pom. We went to dinner last night and as we passed by a grate in the road he had to reach down and feel it. He picks up liter on the ground constantly (sometimes for the right reason and sometimes he puts it in his mouth. If he paints, he literally paints himself too. When he was really young he used ball his fists up for long periods of time or put socks on his hands. It may not seem like a big deal, but it is constant and I worry 1) about the germs and 2) about his social appearance (he gets looks from the other children when he does this).

Any advice? Do you think the two are related? I have always let him explore his environment and I allow plenty of activities were he can have textures to touch. I have tried so many things and nothing is working. I even had him tested for lead thinking PICA or something. I haved watched what he eats and have not found any correlation to his actions (but of course I may have missed something). I do know that high fructose corn syrup makes him wild, but we avoid that! He eats many healthy snacks during the day b/c I want to avoid low blood sugar issues.

Thanks for any input you can give!

[kaydee]

My son does the hitting/touching sporadically; it definitely causes some problems at home and at his school. We are just broken records, explaining that it's not okay to use his hands on people that way, and to give him alternative outlets for the energy (for example, patting his own body). Sometimes it helps, sometimes not, and sometimes he's not so touchy for who knows what reason.:

Our ds doesn't have the tactile issues you mention, so I can't really speak to that.

[fizzymom]

To me, it sounds like he may have some sensory processing issues. Bumping into others, the need to be constantly in motion and the need to put things in his mouth all suggest that he is searching for/ craving a particular sensory experience.

I would highly recommend reading The Sensory-Sensitive Child by Karen A. Smith and Karen R. Gouze. If this sounds like what you are experiencing, please consider having him evaluated for sensory integration dysfunction.

Another good book (although not as easy to read IMO) is The Out-of-Sync Child by Carol Stock Kranowitz.

HTH,
fizzymom