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Sense Cycling

Kelly, very clearly, has sensory integration delay. From what I understand, this is actually a pretty normal thing for adopted kids. Because of their less-than ideal way of starting life, they did not get to develop their senses at a common pace (think – a baby putting everything in his mouth).

Kelly will go through these periods of deep sense development (at least I hope it’s development!) that are fascinating (and, sometimes, concerning). These periods are usually triggered by a change up in schedule which, we think, stresses her out. Kelly really likes routine and predictability.

Here’s the order of senses we’ve been through.

Taste

When we first got Kelly she would taste everything. Doorknobs, people’s hands, toys, dirt, whatever. Watching early videos of her you can see her little fingers always touching and tasting. The tongue was a way of understanding the world. Very much like a 6 month infant .

This stopped after about 3 months. While gross, this was a pretty easy sense cycle to deal with (with the occasional humorous apology for “my daughter licking your hand”).

Touch

This sense exhibited itself in humorous and painful ways. I can remember being at Young St Park and watching Kelly slither and writhe in the sand – trying to get as many grains as possible to rub their way into her skin. She loved the feeling.

We also went through a period of chewing. Kelly chewed the outside of her mouth raw. She looked, frankly, like a clown. It alarmed us and her teachers. And it was this habit (or tick) that we first tried to stop directly (to little affect…we’ve found that most of these cycles need to just burn themselves out). We’re very fortunate that this tick has not returned.

Sight

It seems like every few months Kelly will start to obsessively blink. Blink, blink, blink. Scrunched face blink. It lasts for a week or two (usually around big changes in her life like the start of school, the end of school and start of summer, winter arriving, etc.) and then fades.

When this happens we like to smile and kiss her eyes. I’ve also waved the occasional onion under her eyes while cooking dinner. She laughs.

Smell

Smell started about a month ago (we can’t really figure out what triggered it…perhaps Thanksgiving?). Kelly likes to “cup her hand” around scents and bring them to her nose. You’ll see her, sometimes every 15 seconds, bring a cupped hand to her nose and sniff. She appears to want to smell everything and anything.

Kelly Smelling

On a related note, she’s also had strep-throat 3 times since the start of school. I’m leaning more towards causation than correlation.

We’re still waiting for this one to fade (and I’m sure it will). One thing I’ve learned with working and visiting elementary schools the last few years: all kids are weird (almost equally so). So our kids’ “not normal” is usually pretty normal (especially when put in the context of how they started their lives).

We still love them bunches.

And we’re still waiting for hearing.

4 replies on “Sense Cycling”

Love Renee sitting in the background. 🙂

I think about your girls a lot with my kiddos, especially my 1st/2nd graders. I have a few who touch everything. Whenever I set things down in front of them, I have to say, “Don’t touch,” and often repeat it for every single child as I’m passing materials out. Some of the kids will remind their peers, “Don toush, don toush.” But you can see them really struggling to keep their hands in their laps!

One thing I’ve learned with working and visiting elementary schools the last few years: all kids are weird (almost equally so). So our kids’ “not normal” is usually pretty normal.

This has been one of the biggest and most comforting discoveries I’ve made in raising a special needs kid.

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