So, I often tell people who I started this blog as a way to help parents deal with the many health issues that children deal with and seem to come along with, sensory processing disorder.  When they ask me about my son I say, “Well we are pretty much past it now, we caught it when he was young, 18 months, and started actual therapy at 2.  So now, 5 years later, we are on the other side of it.”

However, I am constantly reminded that these sensory issues will be with him for the rest of his life.  Not that I care, mind you.  I actually think this is part of what makes him a fun quirky kid.  He likes to wear his dress shirts buttoned to the top, everything has to be in perfect order.  He rarely ever gets messy 🙂

Please note the nicely folded tissue in his pocket 🙂

Today, we were working on an art project.  He decided to get the glue out, and make a smiley face with glue and chocolate chips.  Knowing that he wasn’t such a fan of glue, I was fully supportive of his efforts.  Once he carefully, and I mean carefully, placed each chocolate chip on the glue, he decided to make glue spider webs over the chocolate chip smiley face.  I suggested that he could place yarn on the glue and make an actual spiderweb.  This seemed like a good idea, and he agreed.  Yet as he moved the yarn, it pulled through the glue instead of sticking.  I suggested he put his finger down on a spot as he moved it around the circle, “No” he said, “I’ll just make it looser”.  Then the strings got laid across, they were clearly not sticking, so I said “Sweety, you’ll have to push these down if you want them to stick.”  He said “No.”  “Why not?” “Because I’ll get messy”.  There it was.  The glue was OK as long as he didn’t have to touch it.

But I’m no amateur.  “Hey sweetie, look at this” I put some glue on my finger and showed him how all I had to do was rub them together to get the glue off.  “Really?”  he said disbelievingly.  “Really, and look at this.”  I rubbed a thin layer of glue on my palm, and started to blow on it, preparing to do the grade school stunt of pulling off a layer of skin.  This was very appealing to him.  But the hand is a funny place, so he put his glue on his elbow.  This was a step in the right direction.  He blew and blew, drying the glue. Mine was dry so I carefully started to peel if off, he asked if he could try, I let him pull it off.  He thought it as a lot of fun!  Then he used my “skin” to pull his off.  We made it!  Glue got a little less scary for today!  The picture was forgotten, but maybe a little of his sensitivity was too.  Once again reinforcing my motto, “Patient Persistence”

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