Extreme Sensitivity in my 5 yr old

[Grace2meandthee]

My 5 year old son has extreme reactions to daily situations.  He is scared to go to the potty himself because of the sound of the water, he screams for a variey of reasons some being: dropped a spoon, doesn't like show on tv, was touched, feels contantly "teased".  His random innapropriate behavior has us baffled.  I am worried as he is to enter Kindergarten this fall.  He is a very introverted, sensitive, very energetic and sometimes hyperfocused child. What should I do?  We had a three hour appointment with a behavioral specialist and have changed his diet and our behavior methods to help him with transitions, yet he seems to be getting more sensitive.  Please!!!  What can we do?

[elaine1972]

I agree about the sensory integration disorder!! I am an occupational therapist and work with many children who have SI issues. After reading the things he gets upset about I immediately thought sensory integration dysfunction.  There are so many different issues w/in the realm of SI that an evaluation by an OT trained in this is really necessary to get good information, treatment, and results.  The books mentioned by Dr. Kennedy are great and The Out-of-Sync Child is especially parent friendly and easy to read.  

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Some children are sensitive by nature - it is their fundamental temperament, not an emotional disorder. Stanley Greenspan's boo The Challenging Child is a good resource about this. Your son may alaso display Sensory Integration Disorder, and you might investigate this possibility by arranging an Occupational Therapy evaluation. Useful books about this condition are Kranowitz & Miller's The Out-of-Sync Child, Aron's The Highly Sensitive Child, Kurcinka's Raising Your Spirited Child and Smith & Gouze's The Sensory-Sensitive Child.