Raising a Child with Sensory Differences: A Journey as a Mum and Occupational Therapist, Part One

We're kicking off the new Year with a fantastic four part blog series written by Andrea Matthews, OT and Mum, from Creative OT.

In this blog series Andrea shares her very personal journey from recognising and understanding her sons sensory needs, to practical tools and strategies to help him. We hope this very candid and honest account of a real life family helps provide useful tools and strategies to support you and your child.

Recognising sensory differences

As an Occupational Therapist and a mum to a child with sensory processing differences, I can understand the pain of seeing your child struggle with things that other children seem to take in their stride. Wondering how to explain this to them and how to help them understand their needs, without them feeling like there is something wrong with them.

From a young age I started to notice his sensory needs.

  • From being very small I noticed my son’s tendency to crash down and move roughly.
  • At nursery he was a prolific biter, and my husband and I would be so anxious about the number of forms we’d have to sign each day to acknowledge the number of biting incidents.
  • He felt the need to touch, where other children where content with just looking, he would need that extra tactile feedback, seeking to touch the faces and ears of others.
  • Bright sun light was really hard for him, and he’d wear sunglass walking to nursery, crying if he didn’t have these available.
  • At toddler groups he would lie on the floor and cry by the door whenever we entered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As he progressed to primary school other behaviours started to emerge.

  • He would talk about how hard it was to concentrate when there were sounds around him, struggling to filter out the irrelevant background noise to focus on what the teacher was saying.
  • He’d insist on wearing his coat, zipped up and hood up, all year around while at the same time complaining that he felt hot.
  • The feel and sound of paper was distressing to him and the feel of his uniform really bothered his skin.
  • On hot days he'd be in tears at the prospect of wearing suncream, as he said he felt sticky all day long when wearing it.
  • He'd describe perfume smells as “disgusting” and had a big reaction to these kind of smells in the environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coping with sensory differences at school

My son would hold it together at school, masking these issues as he didn’t want to look different. But would become angry and upset very easily at home. He'd then feel remorseful while saying he had no control over his emotions. We could see that his sensory needs were causing overwhelm, especially at school. This was where he didn’t have control over his environment in the way that he did at home.

This was exhausting for him, and he felt upset by it. We were concerned that he was developing a negative self-image, believing that he was the problem rather than the environment not working for him.

Being a sensory trained Occupational Therapist I was in the privileged position of being able to support him through this. Over time he has come to develop a good understanding of his sensory needs and what works for him.

Now at high school, he still finds many sensory aspects of life challenging. He has now developed a good range of strategies that work for him. This has stopped his differences getting in the way of the things he wants to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next in Part 2: The strategies I used to understand my child’s sensory needs

Blog Series written and supplied by Andrea Matthews, Creative OT

 

Andrea is an Occupational Therapist and Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner. She specialises in neurodivergence, sensory processing and acquired brain injury. Her time is spent working in schools, clients’ own homes, clinic, workplaces, and the community with adults and children.  Andrea is Co-Director of Creative Occupational Therapy, Neuro Rehab Group and Creative Physiotherapy. 

Web: creativeoccupationaltherapy.com

Facebook: Creative Occupational Therapy

Updated January 2025