Sensory Overload!!

It is always very interesting how certain activities can exacerbate a condition such as autism / ADHD when senses are triggered. It's a bit like someone with a dairy intolerance having milk and getting stomach ache or someone with hay fever reacting to pollen. What am I rambling on about?!

Well, today we went off roading, stopping off for quad biking and horse riding and then over to a very beautiful beach with VERY choppy waves and red flag warnings. Boy Wonder is hypo sensitive to touch which means that he doesn't feel things to the extent that we would. A bear hug to him feels like light touch. We use firm hold technique to calm him as when he is anxious this hypo sensitivity worsens and not being able to feel whatever is under him or touching him as you can imagine would be a very insecure feeling. This doesn't help the anxiety so we use firm hold to 'ground' him.

So back to today, the off road was in an old Land rover with bench seats. It was a very rough ride through the Balkan Mountains, throwing us about and making us cling on for dear life at times! It was just how off roading should be. After about an hour of this, Boy Wonder was noticeably more high and erratic. He was very giddy and struggled more and more to process as the day went on. The horse riding and quad bikes added to the sensory overload as did the brief spell on the beach where he ran straight into the waves over and over again until it was time to leave.

Boy Wonder absolutely loves these sort of activities as he gets to experience his physical sense, however learning to cope with it is a whole new matter. As part of his programme of activities at home he has massage therapy in an attempt to help manage this which I have spoke about before.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day but it made us very tired and less well equipped to manage Boy Wonder's high 'wild child' mood.

Boy Wonder and Cat Girl made a friend on the trip, a little boy who came with his Dad. Boy Wonder took it upon himself to look after him and play with him. This was lovely to see however it did require an explanation to the boy's very understanding Dad why Boy Wonder's games and stories always resulted in death and destruction! Later in the evening we met the rest of the family in the arcade bar and the children had their electronic games fix.

Boy Wonder took some settling tonight as his mind and voice was racing ten to the dozen!!