Tactile Sensitivity

Adapting to tactile changes

Adapting to Touch
Another dimension of touch is how rapidly we adapt to tactile changes. Most of us quickly get used to the feeling of light touch or deep pressure, while we take longer to adapt to sensations of pain or change in temperature and so are more likely to be aware of them. For instance, you probably don't feel your socks soon after you put them on. A child with tactile issues may continue to be aware of his socks for hours afterward. His body perceives his socks as a new sensory event that is starting over and over again. When you get off an airplane in Florida, you may feel uncomfortable for several hours even if you're wearing warm-weather clothes because you're still used to colder weather. But your child may complain for your entire vacation that he is unbearably hot even though he's wearing shorts and a tank top.

It can be difficult to judge when you're pushing too hard to help your child with tactile issues. For instance, some parents, and some parenting experts, believe tickling a child is always wrong, hurtful, or overstimulating. Interestingly, tickling sensations travel mostly along the protective touch tract, which makes sense if you imagine that the tickling feeling could be a scorpion traveling up your leg! For the tactile defensive child, tickling can be intolerable. Yet many parents of kids with SI dysfunction have noticed that their undersensitive and even oversensitive children adore tickling, ask for it, and even are calmed by it. You need to be the judge of whether tickling should be a part of your plan for tactile desensitization. You may need some guidance to figure out which techniques help your tactile sensitive child – and how to gauge the amount of tactile input your child can safely tolerate.