Tactile What? Wordy Wednesday
“Geez Wednesday again already! Has life speeded up?”
”And a jolly good morning to you too. No smarmy comments now?
“Smarmy? When will you ever learn to speak American?’
“I’m working on it. I just expect a hard time from you.”
“Hard time? That sounds vaguely rude.”
“Quash the rude antennae, I just slipped into foreign for a moment.”
“O.k. so down to business then. What do we have here? Don’t say I have to guess or I may just have to smack you.”
“Perish the thought! So you don’t think it’s self explanatory?”
“Your Wordless Wednesday posts are never that!”
“Well he’s playing with those winkum dinkum magnet thingummy do dahs.”
“Yup see those and your point is?”
“Well he’s playing. Or rather he was at the time. He was about four. It was a great breakthrough.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“Well ‘play’ can be a tricky thing. Especially if your fine motor skills are poor.”
“I’m not convinced that you know what ‘fine motor skills’ really are?”
“I do, sort of. The ability to make your fingers do what you want them to do, or toes for that matter.”
“Geez. Do I really wanna know what your toes can do?’
“No, you probably don’t but it’s the principal. Control over those extraneous bits and pieces.”
“My fingers aren’t extraneous.”
“Yours maybe not, but for lots of people, especially those with tactile defensiveness, fingers are difficult to control.”
“O.k. so you’re saying two things really, non functioning fingers and tacile…..?”
“Just think texture, how things feel, although it can also be affected by temperature.”
“Temperature too? This is getting awfully complicated. I didn’t come here for a lecture you know?”
“True. Try it this way. Say that being the experienced woman of the world that you are, you reach out to touch an ice cube and the sensation you feel is heat.”
“Er o.k. so you’re saying that……he doesn’t feel what we all feel?”
“In part, it’s more that whatever it is that he does feel, he feels in ten times more intensely than we do, either too many nerve ending or maybe more sensitive. Haven’t you ever touched something so hot or so cold you weren’t sure exactly what you were feeling?”
“Actually I have! That would be confusing, quite scary in some ways.”
“There you go! You’ve hit the nail on the head again. You get so that you don’t trust your fingers, you want to protect them.”
“So that’s like the kids that wrap themselves up in a coat all day.”
“Could be for some of them but there could be a lot of other sensory reasons too. Don’t want to jump to conclusions.”
“So his fingers are being brave touching those magnet things?’
“Yes, and they’re great because they snap into position. You don’t have to be able to manipulate them that accurately.”
“So all good stuff then?’
“Indeed.”
“You have high expectations?”
“Well you know, years ago I used to say that I hoped that my children would be healthy, happy and normal.”
“Pretty low expectation then. Well I kinda knew you were a pessimist.”
“True but in todays world, I thought that those goals were pretty high expectations.”
“You’ve changed your view?”
“A little bit.”
“How so?”
‘Just one bit. ‘Normal’ is very overrated.”
“Oh and one last thing?”
“Hmm?”
“Why does the photo have ‘left hand helps right hand’ on it?”
“Ah well I didn’t want to complicate the matter with midlines.”
“Midlines? What on earth are midlines. I don’t have any of those.”
“You do! Everyone does. I’ll leave that for another time or you can check out “Slice and Dice” if you’re feeling brave?”
“Til next week then?”
“Cheers dearies.”
Stumble it!
December 11th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
That photo makes me think of the Escher drawing of one hand drawing another—-who’s drawing who?
December 12th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Normal is definetly overrated!
December 12th, 2007 at 1:27 am
I think normal is overated! I actually love those magnet things. Izzak had fine motor issues as well they are pretty good for him.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:33 am
I agree - normal is definitely very overrated…
December 12th, 2007 at 4:15 am
My Tess has SPD, but she is a seeker/craver, not an avoider. What an eye-opener it has been to try and imagine experiencing the world the way she does.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:16 am
“I am going to leave a comment.”
“Why bother? You have nothing to add to the discussion.”
“Just to say that I think the writer has an excellent ‘grasp’ on the finger thing. Don’t think I’ve ever heard a non-autistic person describe so well what it feels like, to me anyway.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“Not at all.”
“Well, go ahead then and leave the comment.”
“About what?”
December 12th, 2007 at 4:42 am
That picture and it’s caption reminded me of a time when Connor’s hands would not help each other. He wouldn’t use one hand to hold something still so he could manipulate it with the other. The result was he was chasing down things one handed.
December 12th, 2007 at 5:08 am
This is excellent. My Noddy is a sensory “Seeker” and Junior tends to be more sensitive and avoids or covers his ears or backs away from certain sensory stimuli. Noddy just goes after it full and does not think about danger. He is the more frightening.
This is all very well put
December 12th, 2007 at 5:16 am
I am PRAYING that normal is over-rated.
Believe it or not, I got that same magnet kit for Christmas last year.
LOVE IT!!
Old hands fumble too………
Love,
Suzy
December 12th, 2007 at 5:29 am
Hmmm…. I see over at Kario’s post, you called me “that name”.
Okay…..you’re excused this once. Brits are tough and I won’t dare cross them…
Love you
Suzy
December 12th, 2007 at 5:40 am
Blog is down now. Gmail is still there so email anytime.
Normal is over-rated.
Midlines is one of those words that we need to get in that dictionary of words, they should and don’t, hand out with the dx’s.
S
December 12th, 2007 at 6:29 am
well see, you covered fingers and toes but how about tongues and lips, also fine motor (but you know that, and wow, can we have all sorts of tactile issues there…probably part of why the edible food list is what? 13 foods or so?). crossing midlines is quite an amazing thing that most folks take completely for granted. heck you can’t tie your own shoe if you won’t cross midlines. but all this is pretty fascainting stuff when you see it in action and every little step is a cause for celebration.
btw, those magnetix are fab, i could play with them for hours. patterns, patterns, patterns…they are so comforting.
December 12th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Well I had a comment until bev made me laugh out loud at her comment and mine flew out my ear. Normal is definately overrated…and also undefinable. Patrick seems to be a sensory seeker and avoider…different reactions at different times to different things. But I’ve always known he was atypically atypical.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:13 am
Normal is a relative term.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:53 am
What a great and real post. I just love how you write!!
December 12th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Normal is lamron spelled backwards.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Normal…it’s being redefined at our house.
This is a great post. Perfectly explains the sensory issue thingy.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:58 am
ahhh, the vocabulary you learn as a parent of autistic/ sensory defensive children.
once made a video a joint activity play routine that involves good proprioceptive stimulation, joint compression, and turn taking initiation. (wrestling with Dad)
December 12th, 2007 at 8:59 am
still waiting for my kids to try “gooey” things…
like touching pumpkin guts or finger painting.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:21 am
My kids are at the other end of the spectrum from yours. Some days, like you, I think about what normal means.
I think this is a cool post. I learned a lot from it. Thanks!
December 12th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Maddy, you are brilliant! I get it, I get it I get it! If you haven’t thunk it, you ought to have a website dedicated to this autism. Or a book. Or a forum. You’re an excellent communicator, God is using your gift here.
And…..it seems trivial now, but I tagged you for the Christmas tag–you done that yet? If you haven’t, I hope you’ll play along!
December 12th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Normal? Who really can define that? Aren’t we all a bit “off”?
Happy WW~
Stop by if you can Sassyfrazz
December 12th, 2007 at 10:18 am
I look forward to your Wordy Wednesday posts
I remember when we were first getting a diagnosis for Little Bug and a lady told me “I think we’re all a little bit Autistic, don’t you think?” Yep. We all have our quirks that would probably land us on the spectrum somewhere!
December 12th, 2007 at 10:30 am
I believe that…
“Normal is just a setting on the washing machine!”
…is one of my favorite magnets on the fridge and totally applies, here!
Happy WW!
December 12th, 2007 at 10:33 am
We’re big fans of magnetix over these here parts, too. Love his work!
December 12th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Wonderful explanation. And I threw all those insert explative magnetic building things away as someone with a baby would always visit, find the loose marble, and promptly pop it in its mouth. I became convinced that DS didn’t like them that much because loose legos were never being found :-).
December 12th, 2007 at 11:37 am
I too wonder what normal is anymore.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Hi. I have seen your comments on a few blogs recently and wanted to let you know that you can still link to a non-blogger blog, despite the changes in the commenting. If you have gmail or a google account of any sort, you can create a blogger page that links to your non-blogger blog. Don’t ask me how — I figured it out once but don’t think I could repeat the miracle. Just log into google and give it a whirl.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
my son and I both are toucher’s. Wonder what that means. We have to touch all sorts of things to see what it’s really like. Gotten ourselves in some ouchie trouble before.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Awesome post. My youngest has fine motor skill problems. Maybe I should try these magnet thingies.
Love the format. Brilliant. Going to read next post now!
Heidi
December 12th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Left hand helps right hand - very cool.
December 12th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
My daughter loves those magnets too. I enjoy them a lot less after she’s thrown them around the room. Her sensory issues aren’t so much with touch, but we are working with her on small motor stuff. I hadn’t thought to incorporate the magnets into that until now. Thanks.
December 12th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
I agree with the other comments. Normal is overrated!
December 12th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Ditto.
The idea of wrapping myself up in a coat all day is very appealing.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
And they call Wednesday “hump day”. Bah.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Yeah, what Bev #6 said…
December 12th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
My parents said the first time I touched snow I said HOT.
I love playing with those toys.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Oh those precious hands
December 13th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
I love the wordiness of your wordlessness!