I Gonna Suck You Up My Tail Baby
"My vi-year-old is a squeezer," says Amanda Ponzar, of Alexandria, Virginia. "He used to squeeze the flabby underarm of every lady he encountered: Me, his grandma, his teachers." Sometimes he'd accidentally squeeze besides hard, or sometimes he'd squeeze a stranger. "I was e'er apologizing for him, and his male parent punished him," says Ponzar. "We didn't know why he was doing this."
Erin Haskell'due south girl is a rocker. "Ever since Mollie was 2, she would lie downward with her hands clasped together over her chest and stone dorsum and forth for a good 20 minutes earlier she went to sleep. I didn't know what to make of it," says Haskell, of Windham, Maine. "I was worried plenty that I brought it upwards at her well visits until she was eight years quondam."
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Me? I've got a mouther. I'm always barking at my oldest to take the Lego, the remote, or the random bit of a deconstructed action effigy out of his mouth. And he's not a babe. Far from it. He'southward nearing tweendom, and yet, still, Legos in the mouth all the time. Your kid? Maybe she constantly fidgets with her backpack Beanie Boo, or sniffs an sometime blimp animal, like, a lot, or spins in circles a little too long for your condolement.
These "quirks" often baffle, irritate, embarrass, and legit worry parents. "Present, if you search 'rocking dorsum and along,' you may land on a website most mental affliction. Or you describe a few quirky behaviors on a parenting board, and the next thing you know, a 'helpful' mom is diagnosing your child with autism, sensory-processing disorder, or feet," says Lindsey Biel, a pediatric occupational therapist and coauthor of Raising a Sensory Smart Child. While no i wants to rewind to a time when parents weren't aware of early symptoms of neurological differences, the pendulum has no doubt bonked a few only-patently-quirky kids as information technology's swung to the other extreme.
In fact, upward to seventy percent of typically developing kids engage in repetitive and seemingly purposeless movements like leg shaking, nail bitter, or hair twirling, according to a 2018 report in the journal Seminars in Pediatric Neurology. And non but are these quirks normal (hello, what adult doesn't do at least i of these things), but kids take them for a reason: They're a way to self-regulate ane's senses.
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"Once you sympathize why your child is doing what she'due south doing and the purpose information technology serves, you'll no longer look at it equally a quirky addiction only as behavior with a purpose," says Amanda Bennett, Thou.D., a developmental pediatrician at the Children's Infirmary of Philadelphia.
Sucking on Things
"Kids who gravitate toward mouthing, chewing, and sucking may be doing and then because their mouth is somewhat undersensitive," says Biel. In other words, your shirt sucker may have decreased oral sensory sensitivity and require more in-the-mouth input to satisfy that demand. "For these kids, it's likely that this mouthing behavior releases experience-good, soothing neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which help them feel calm, less bored, and more than engaged," explains Biel.
Mouthers are frequently the same kids who drooled past babyhood, experienced a oral communication delay, or are messy eaters, says Biel. "They often take trouble mastering precise movements of their lips and mouth because they merely don't process those tactile sensations besides as other children."
While these behaviors are generally harmless, you'll desire to begin and redirect if your child's chewie du jour is a germ fest, a choking risk, or otherwise harmful. For instance, if thumb or finger sucking continues beyond age two to iv, information technology tin bear upon the shape of a child'south oral fissure or cause an ortho event like an overbite, according to the American University of Pediatrics.
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"When I spot my ain 10-year-erstwhile daughter chewing a necklace or a pen cap mindlessly while watching Goggle box, I try to remember to hand her a piece of gum—not snap at her to cease," says Dr. Bennett. "Gum fulfills the same oral need, which is probably why many progressive schools now allow kids to chew gum in class." Not only is gum chewing a rubber alternative for the over-iv ready, but the act increases alertness and enhances noesis, co-ordinate to a study in the Journal of Behavioral and Neuroscience Inquiry.
There's a real reason she wants you to spin her around once more and again.
| Credit: Priscilla Gragg
Rocking and Spinning
While a kiddo who rocks herself to sleep may seem worlds apart from ane who spins in circles after a long day of school, she's not. Both are working difficult to jostle the fluid, the hairs, and the tiny calcium-carbonate crystals in their inner ears that make up the vestibular system, which monitors motility and residue, says Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., clinical director of STAR Institute for Sensory Processing Disorder, in Greenwood Village, Colorado.
Kids who naturally rock, spin, swing, or bounce likely take a vestibular arrangement that requires more motion than most because they have a lower-than-average sensitivity to the stimuli. The key with these quirks? Knowing when enough is plenty. "In that location'due south something called an inverted U-bend," says Dr. Miller. "When a kid spins, her arousal goes up and her ability to stay calm and focused improves. That is, until she gets to the acme of the bend, when arousal continues to get up just operation goes down."
Going overboard can bring on both immediate and delayed sensory-overload issues. "It's important to work with your child, and possibly an occupational therapist, to pinpoint the top of the curve," says Dr. Miller. For instance, you may want to limit your spinner to one revolution a second for no more than ten revolutions, and then switch directions. "Stopping and restarting benefits kids by giving the most information to their vestibular receptors, which procedure motion information," says Biel. Information technology'south also smart to have special toys at home that fulfill your child's sensory needs, like a hobbyhorse, a rocking Rody rider, a Empty-headed Disc Jr., or a Sit 'n Spin.
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While Mollie still rocks to settle down for bed (she curbs her quirk on sleepovers), her mom jokingly wonders whether Mollie will be rocking her way into college and beyond. Chances are, she won't. As rockers and spinners age, their habits frequently morph too. "One of my young clients was a bouncer and bed roller, and she wound up going to college on an equestrian scholarship," says Biel. "Similar a lot of kids, she turned to athletics that offered her a lot of whole-body sensory input, including stimulation of the vestibular organization, deep pressure, and joint compression." Besides horseback riding, gymnastics and swimming have a similar effect.
Sniffing Things
My kiddo is also a sniffer. He'southward been carrying effectually a stuffed duck since forever. He snuggles that old bird up to his olfactory organ and inhales deep yoga-worthy breaths. Biel isn't surprised by my son's continued love of the lovey. "Does he do information technology when he's sleepy or when he's upset?" she asks me. Aye and aye.
"Smell is the 1 sensory organization that connects direct with the limbic organisation, which is the emotion, memory, and pleasure centre of the brain," says Biel. "It's all about association, and kids often sniff things that conjure up pleasant memories that they find comforting."
These soothing smells tin can but help a child feel more prophylactic and secure—or relaxed enough to facilitate sleep. And when you think about information technology, we all have throwback smells that we plow to for an olfactory hug of sorts. "It's why realtors utilise the smell of apple tree pie to help sell homes," says Biel. "It'south just that some kids are looking for more than sensory information than others; they're hyposensitive and sometimes seek out smells that aren't traditionally considered comforting, like Play-Doh or crayons."
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Fidgeting
"Touching, feeling, squeezing, poking, hair twirling, and all other like forms of fidgeting generate sensations that feed a child'southward hunger for touch—and often his need for a very specific type of small movement too," says Dr. Miller. The body releases the feel-adept neurotransmitter oxytocin in response to finger and hand tactile-seeking movements, like repeatedly touching a soft tag or gently stroking one'south pilus, according to one study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Beyond the calming upshot, fidgeting can aid kids concentrate also. "We know that all children movement more during challenging mental activities than they do during ones that are less challenging," says Michael J. Kofler, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Florida State Academy, in Tallahassee. "Children are using small movements to stimulate their brain. For some kids, peculiarly those with ADHD, the fidgeting helps go on their brain engaged and bolsters working memory."
Yet, the once-popular fidget spinner has really been constitute to do the opposite. "When kids use fidget spinners in the classroom, they're actually more distracted," says Dr. Kofler.
Information technology'due south of import to find a way to fidget that actually works for your kid—without disrupting form. "Nosotros were lucky," recalls Ponzar, mom of the series arm squeezer. "My son's preschool teachers took it upon themselves to make bootleg squeeze balloons filled with baking soda. They kept them in their apron pockets and handed one to my son when he needed to squeeze." And his arm squeezing came to a stop—most.
"Sometimes when he sits in his fuzzy bluish bean-bag chair while we're reading a story, he'll start to knead my arm again," says Ponzar. "I'll say, 'Let's get your squeezy airship,' and information technology's a quick fix. He loves that balloon so much, he sleeps with it under his pillow."
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When A Quirk Is A Bigger Deal
If your child'south behavior interferes with his everyday performance—say, he'southward so bothered by racket that he hates recess or won't ride the schoolhouse jitney—information technology could exist a sign of a sensory-processing disorder, says Sara O'Rourke, an occupational therapist at Nationwide Children's Hospital, in Columbus, Ohio. Kids with the condition can't reply appropriately to the signals coming from their senses, while those with normal quirks have found a way to self-regulate.
If you're concerned, talk to your child's pediatrician, who tin can refer yous to an occupational therapist for strategies. And continue in mind: It's okay if you're embarrassed by your child's quirk.
"That'south a valid feeling that parents experience," says Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, of STAR Institute. "Nosotros want our kids to fit in, and we don't desire others to estimate them." While a quirk itself is probable no biggie to children, ane report in the Seminars in Pediatric Neurology plant that their frustration mounts when their parents and teachers try to finish their behavior.
And so before you do, ask yourself: Is my child embarrassed? If not, and the quirk doesn't interfere with other aspects of life, ignore information technology and know that other kids fulfill their sensory needs too. Kind of like how yous chew gum instead of putting Legos in your mouth.
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Source: https://www.parents.com/kids/development/behavioral/kids-sensory-development/
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