Friends, Romans, Countrymen...Cover Your Ears

If you've read more than 3 of my posts this month, you know FrogBoy has sensory issues. He can't stand loud noises, crazy flashing lights, extremely cold temperatures (translation: anything below 70), and he doesn't like crowds. In some circles this is known as being "difficult."

Whenever FrogBoy has a problem with his sensory issues, like most autistic kids, he has no way to verablize it. He's getting better at trying, but he's still well below the 50/50 mark on that one. Oftentimes we have to quiz him to find out exactly what's wrong (if we don't guess right off, we're in for a long night). Luckily, we've had a lot of practices, and even though it may seem totally out of the ordinary to guess that he's spinning in circles because he can't stand the sight of corn, it's just something we all know and love about Mikey.

Anyway, one of the more endearing ways FrogBoy demonstrates his sensory issues is to cover his ears. This would be normal if he only did it when he is experiecing a loud noise that is bothering him. Ah, friends, but that is not the case. He covers his ears when it's raining (because he'll get wet). He covered his ears this weekend when the waitress dropped his plate on his head (because he was surprised - and it was unpleasant). He covers his ears when he's getting in trouble (not because we're yelling, because yelling really isn't appropriate with autistic kids - they don't really "hear" the different sound in your voice; no, he covers his ears because he's getting in trouble...and he knows that's not good). He covers his ears when his hands get dirty, when we wash his hair, and when the mosquitoes are bad at horse therapy. He covers his ears when he's nervous. That's his thing.

We're pretty used to it. In the beginning, we automatically would try to make him put his hands down from his ears, because frankly, it looks a little strange. Now, the minute we see his hands shooting up into The Position, we gently try to talk him down from whatever's bothering him. Sometimes we succeed. Most of the time we don't.

In the grand scheme of things, it's another thing I've learned just doesn't matter.