Increase in sensory issues

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Can anyone here think back to their childhood and remember any increases in sensory issues? Were they temporary, or did they hit you at a certain age and you've been coping with them ever since?

My 8 yr old AS son seems to be having more issues in the last six months. The latest thing is complaining about the sun hurting his eyes (we are in winter and have had six weeks of rain), which is a totally new thing to him, even though I know it is common to AS people. He is also stimming a lot more at school and I see this often when I pick him up. Once he's back home he's a lot better.

I'm interested in knowing whether some of this is likely to just be a patch he's going through, or whether this is an escalation in AS symptoms that he is likely to have long-term?

I didn't have an increase in sensory issues when I was that young, but my sensory issues have been slowly getting worse for years. A lot on sensory issues can get worse when adolesence hits, but I'm sure it can hapepn earlier. There probably can be an increase in sensory issues due to other circumstances, but I doubt it happens very often. I doubt the sun issue is a temporary thing.

I'm sure you've thought of this already, but maybe the fact that he's stimming more at school suggests that maybe he's having issues there? At eight or nine my schoolwork started getting harder, and I began to be bullied around that age as well. I'm not saying that's it, but they could be.

I think my sensory issues have gotten better with age...or maybe I've just learned to cope with them better.

p.s. I always feel better when I get home too.

My sensory issues have gotten much worse as I've gotten older, but that started when I was about 16 or 17, not 9. They've stayed "worse", too. And in just the past few weeks there has been a change, too.

That's not very helpful or informative, but there it is.

For me I've noticed an increase related to how I'm feeling or how stressed-out I am. When I'm feeling crappy everything is an issue, when I'm stressed little things bother me that normally I can deal with, and I stim more also.

Before you classify this as age related or a worsening progression, take a hard look to see what has changed in his enviroment. Enviroment can definately play a factor.

Well I'm not an Aspie, but I do have alot of traits....

When I was little I would only wear dresses, no pants ever.

When I was a teen, all my clothes had to be tight tight tight. I couldn't stand loose jeans at all. It drove me crazy.

When I got older it became the sun.. I have to wear sunglasses, even when It's a cloudy day. This one is still around.

Now I HATE wearing clothes. Especially bras. I hate it I hate it I hate it lol. I can handle wearing clothes for the most part (altho I secretly wish I could live on a nudist colony) but Bras are the MOST uncomfortable thing in the world to wear. I never wear one at home, but put one on when I go to the store, and sometimes I sneak and just grab a cart and cross my arms.

I went on a SID board once asking questions about my boys. I said can sensory wax and wane? They said yes it can. It can show it's form when your most stressed, and relax when your relaxed.

That seems to makes sense for me and my boys alright....

Lainie

Not so much INCREASE, as in more severity of my perceptions and reactions, but sometimes a new thing will suddenly fall under existing sensory annoyances. I've had this happen with food and textures, that suddenly a certain kind of food that I used to like either completely annoys me or needs to be prepared in a different way because something about it annoys me. I used to eat cheese on pizza, and then at a certain point it made me feel sick because of how it felt, so I always took the cheese off.

My noise sensitivities change a little here and there, but not by much. I think at a certain point, I could go to events without people's whistling bothering me too much. Then at a certain point, it became difficult to go to major events with loud people because the whistling would be painful enough to make me cry.

However, with my noise sensitivities, as well as some of my more minor touch sensitivities, the reverse can happen too - something that used to be unbearable will become much less so, or even unnoticeable. I don't know why it is.

My sensory issues have gotten much worse over the years, especially my greatest problem, my sense of smell. I have ever-increasing problems with fragrance. I also need sunglasses outdoors more, and have increasing problems with the feel of clothes. My tinnitus is worse too, but I don't know if that is an "aspie" problem.

My son had an increase in sensory issues when he hit puberty. I have increases in sensory issues when I'm stressed or when I'm overstimulated or during "girl times".

I think that these things cause stress in my system, and thus heighten my sensitivity to sensory stuff.

I've had sensory issues with light and touch for as long as I remember. I have sensory issues with noise that I think have gotten worse in a past few years (I'm 26), at least I don't remember it being this bad when I was in school.