Autism & Me: My Son’s a Crasher

Think about that word for a moment. Crasher.

Those on the spectrum often have sensory issues. Some are oversensitive. (Actually, my son is oversensitive to loud sounds. The sensory stimulation of a movie theater, for example everything is dark except the hyper focus of the movie, which is larger than life, and sound, loud sound, is all around, vibrating the seats and the skin, can actually shut him down, like when a baby falls asleep from too much stimulation. This is why he often moves around while we’re watching a movie, going from lap to lap, or floor to lap.) Some are undersensitive, which can lead to some annoying or even dangerous behavior.

My son is a crasher, which means he’s undersensitive when it comes deep tissue stimulation. It means exactly what it sounds like, he “crashes”. Bouncing is a very common behavior. Hugs or squeezes often help him calm down and focus (which he can do by himself with the use of stress balls, playdough or those waterfilled donuts and tubes you can find in toy aisles).

But there are days (like today, which is last Thursday to you) when none of this seems to be enough. Days like today he walks down the hall slamming into the walls. Or he repeatedly flops onto the bed as hard as possible.

Over the years he’s become very good at knowing how hard to “crash” against what. But that doesn’t make it less alarming to people who don’t know, or, to be honest, less annoying on the days when it gets real bad. In the past, people have suggested that he was actually self punishing, or wounding himself with this behavior.

It could be worse (let the them “anal exploration” sink in for a moment.) But it is one of the larger challenges we’ve had to face over the last eight years.