Sensory seeking help - Stay-at-Home Moms | Forums | What to Expect (2024)

Sounds like your son could benefit from occupational therapy. I would make an appointment for an evaluation with them.

My oldest is autistic and is a sensory seeker. I let her spin and jump and do whatever so long as it's safe. We have lots of sensory toys. Some I would recommend - a body sock, textured balls, theraputty, a beanbag, or something for him to crash onto if you have space, glow sticks, Montessori busy board (Amazon), water bins, and glow sticks. Ark Theraputic sells tons of chewers for kids. I'd also suggest looking up animal walks (walking like a bear on all 4s or a crab) and yoga poses. Those can be really good for helping kids who need physical input. My daughter also just loves lots of squeezes, and now I can ask her if she wants a hard squeeze or a light one. She also has a weighted stuffed animal that she loves and helps calm her down.

My younger one (2) is not autistic but has SO much energy and sounds more like yours. My husband and I regularly set aside time (multiple times every day) to let him chase and "attack" us. He also loves to pull the bean bag around and then throw himself on it. He will, on occasion, bite (or try to) when he gets really wound up and excited. Thankfully, it's not usually too rough, and I can either stop him or he gets my clothes instead of me. I put on Super Simple Songs and try and get him to do the movements to burn some energy that way too. He also always wants my attention, whereas my older one prefers to play alone 95% of the time.

Yes, look into OT and in the meantime try exercise and heavy work like pushing/pulling a large garbage bin, wagon full of stuff, wheelbarrow, moving chairs, carrying books or a gallon of water around, yardwork, etc.

You can put him into a gym. They do exercises and all the jumping, bouncing is helpful. In the meantime you can find videos online of examples for his sensory processing.

my son is the same.

It sounds like a pretty normal 3 year old boy to me. I understand your feelings of it being difficult to balance his energy with your other child in cold weather, been there, done that.

By all means ask your doctor but I think we pressure kids to act beyond their ages too early when in childhood, they have so much energy and are learning to adapt to the world around them which is a hard thing to do for people of all ages and they are doing it with less language, less experience, and a still developing brain and body.