Touching

[Entertaining_Angels]

My seven year old son (AS) is of course not your stereotypical child with autism but really, what percentage really are? He has craved touch since he was a baby. He still wants to snuggle all the time and loves it when you rough house. I know the rough housing is pretty normal in boys but it is fairly extreme in him. We've been trying to teach him that he has to keep his hands to himself when he's around other kids but he really doesn't realize he is doing it. If we discipline him, he gets really upset and cries because he doesn't realize he did it. He doesn't hurt kids but he will lean on them or just put his hand on their backs or something. Sometimes other kids will start roughhousing with him and he loves that but he does have one older kid who is really mean to him. The kid is just a bully and has literally hurt him. The kid's mother doesn't really have control over her son so we just try to keep them seperate.

I just wonder, does anybody else have a child who has to always be touched or be touching others?

 

[kayd1966]

I haven't been around for awhile, so I'm catching up...

The first thing that came to mind is: it sounds like your son 'needs' the extra touching which would make it a sensory issue. Is there someone professional that you can talk to about teaching him how to provide that stimulation in an appropriate manner. They should try different things, like pressure, brushes, etc. He's still young enough to learn something to substitute the 'reaching out to his peers'.

I also have a 'touchy' / 'huggy' boy...right now he's only 4 and its considered ok, but I've been watching him lately and thinking about the same thing...

 

[Entertaining_Angels]

When he was in preschool, they did the brushing to help him. We try to make sure he gets enough snuggles and hugs throughout the day because if he doesn't, he starts acting out.

He'll be starting wrestling again in a month and that was a huge blessing for him last year. I think that was one of his all time favorite sports simply for the physical contact portion of it.

Thanks for the reply. God bless you.