My daughter is the flower girl in a wedding Saturday and will be wearing a flower girl dress that is not comfortable for her. It has been altered (got it back yesterday)and is now the correct length, and also has had several layers removed to decrease the weight of it. She still has a meltdown every time we try it on and can’t articulate to me why it is uncomfortable.

I think it is probably the straps or the rough edges around the armpits, but I don’t know what I can do to fix that for her without it looking ridiculous.

Any ideas?? I am going to try and find something to put under it tomorrow morning.

My first post here.

Looking for support from parents of children with SPD and autism or adults with similar condition.

I have a sweet, beautiful 3 year old babygirl and we are currently on the waiting list for an autism evaluation. I know she will be diagnosed. I have suspected SPD since infancy. She is hypersensitive to visual, oral, tactile, and vestibular input and the world often seems overwhelming for her. The only thing that helps calm down her senses is heavy work/proprioceptive input.

Around 15 months, after an illness, I noticed a significant change in her social skills and anxiety levels. She was very social and developing typically before that, all milestones were on time. When she is regulated, she can be happy, social, make eye contact, and interact with us. But when she is overwhelmed, she goes into fight-or-flight mode.

When go outside, she experiences sensory overwhelm and cries or bolts. Crowds, visual clutter, movement and changing visuals can trigger intense distress. She is afraid of swings or any climbing equipment.

She is in sensory overload most of the time where she has multiple meltdowns and is unable to tolerate textures or eat or drink anything, tolerate going out etc. When she is regulated, she can do all these things.

She also has a significant speech delay. She understands simple instructions like "come here" "give me" "pick it up" "get inside" and communicates using limited, repetitive two- or three-word phrases heard from us and she doesn't yet form her own sentences. She loves toys and does pretend play. People are difficult for her but objects are easier. She isn't very social and likes to play alone. She is also very hyper-vigilant, if someone touches her or makes her do something she thinks it's going to hurt her. She is even afraid to put a thermometer to check temperature. She won't let doctors touch or examine her. She won't let anyone check her weight on a weighing scale.

As first-time parents, we didn't know much about SPD or autism until her teachers recommended an OT assessment and an autism evaluation.

I love my little girl more than words can express but it breaks my heart to see her struggle so much in a world that feels too overwhelming for her senses. When she experiences sensory overload, she has multiple meltdowns and severe anxiety and it is heartbreaking to watch her struggle to cope with things that seem so simple for other children. Sometimes, I feel helpless and even guilty about bringing her into a world that is so difficult for her to navigate. She is deeply loved and cared for but when she is dysregulated, she looks like a quiet, traumatized, and neglected child, when in reality, she is a deeply loved little girl who is struggling with so much internally.

Parents or adults who have been through something similar, what helped you or your children? I would love to hear your stories and any advice you can share. I am looking for understanding and a little hope. ❤️

My doctor wants me to wear a watch that can monitor heart rate, but I find it unbearably uncomfortable. I’ve tried different types of straps (Velcro, stretchy) but the longest I can stand it is about an hour. It makes my arm ache from my wrist to my elbow and makes me feel nauseated/ constantly distracted by it. I just hate that I never stop feeling it. Advice or hearing from people who can relate would be great.

i (22F) have ocd which brings me lots of fun treats, along with severe sensory-related stress in a couple very specific areas of my life, with my most sensitive areas being the back of my neck, feet, and upper back. i’ve struggled with this for my entire life and am on 40 mg fluoxetine and 150 mg bupropion currently which help IMMENSELY.

currently my biggest issues are clothes and washing my hair, with clothes always feeling dirty, wet, tight, heavy, or just wrong and sending me to the brink of a panic attack until i can strip naked (sometimes in the bathroom at work for a few minutes (,: ). luckily i have an “escape” from this, with getting the clothes off and showering if i’m able relieving these feelings, although hauling loads upon loads of laundry to be washed multiple times a week isn’t fun.

regardless, washing my hair has been extremely rough lately. apart from wet hair on my back, i can’t seem to get the feeling of conditioner off of my back or get any part of my body to feel normal until i suffer through the feeling overnight and take a long, hot shower in the morning. i shower 2-4 times per day (thank GOD my landlord has a fixed rate for water), putting my hair up in a high bun and using the wand shower head to avoid getting my hair wet. when washing my hair, even if i put my hair up in a towel/hair-wrap and then take another separate shower just to wash the feeling off, it remains there.

when i look up anything to do with sensory issues with showers online, i only find resources for children or people who can’t do showers at all. im thinking of trying shampoo and conditioner bars since i assume they have less residue and may help with these sensations, but i wanted to see if anyone else struggles with this. i’ve had these feelings for so long but am sick of suffering through it; im tired of feeling like this.

tldr; i absolute LOVE showers but cannot stand hair-washing. looking for advice.

SPD is causing severe anxiety in my child. We moved houses and first 2 weeks he was fine due to novelty and then after 2 weeks he got severe anxiety to the point he cannot even tolerate eating.

Outside, he gets overwhelmed specially in new environments, grocery stores etc. He needs to bolt/run to regulate or he cries.

If anyone goes through or HAS GONE through this. Please let me know what helps.

Im looking be or a bit of guidance /help as I’m yet to undertand what exactly is wrong and I’ve seen so many doctors, psychiatrists and neurologists. I get severe sensory disturbance which I live with 24/7, it never goes away and it happened following a traumatic incident, where I also got severe DPDR around 6 months ago. Since that day something in my brain changed and I no longer sense things the same. I can feel things in my head I should not be able to feel. Ive had this internal dry sensation in my head for months and it feels like my head is being dried out. Prior to this I had feelings like liquid sensation, furry and fluffy sensations mostly all in the head area, sometimes face and body. I no longer can tolerate water, showers or baths are very hard and anything touching my hair or head can trigger it ro worsen. I think something went very wrong with my nervous system and sensory processing and it’s really bad. I especially get numbness which worsens daily. Symptoms are so bad I wake up 3-4-5 times a night. Barely sleep. Medication hasnt helped me so far it’s made it worse . Does anyone else have anything like this? I feel very alone and to develop it so suddenly was such a shock. I literally never come back to any baseline.

For parents of sensory sensitive children, when did you first start noticing signs of sensory sensitivities? Did they develop gradually, or did you notice a sudden shift in your child’s behaviour? Did anyone experience a change around 18 months? My daughter wasn’t having any issues up until now and is now very sensitive to change (circle time ending and going outside), loud noises, laughter (only certain laughs), and adults talking loudly. Completely understand this could be normal. Just wanted to hear from other parents. This is happening more at Daycare but we are noticing some of it at home. Thanks!

My 7 year old daughter has sensory issues around food especially with anything leafy, mixed, mushy or strongly scented. We’re already getting professional help and slowly working on exposure but I’d really appreciate some advice and support from parents who have been through this before us. It’s such a slow process and while I’m not expecting anything to suddenly fix her food aversions I’m still very concerned about supporting her diet in the meantime.

She accepts milk and smoothies much more easily than unfamiliar solid foods which made me wonder whether a greens drink  could be useful while we continue feeding therapy. Has anyone here discussed something like this with their pediatrician, dietitian or feeding therapist? I’d really appreciate hearing what worked or didn’t work for your family, especially from parents who understand that expanding a sensory eater’s diet isn’t as simple as telling them to take another bite.

Anyone else able to sleep absolutely anywhere but as long as you have your pillow to sleep with or you have trouble?

My pillow finally just died and although I’m completely exhausted I can’t fall asleep because I have no head support and it’s driving me crazy, gah!

I hate tossing and turning trying to find any position that’ll work with it to no avail and can’t wait to buy a new one tomorrow but I can’t remember which one I bought last time and don’t want to accidentally buy it again because it was worse than anticipated after initially seeming amazing, lol.

Thankfully the retail store I work at usually embeds a tag with the UPC # on it into the pillows we sell so if I didn’t cut it off I can use that to make sure I don’t buy it again.

Is this also a sensory issue for you?

Thankfully my weighted blanket is helping me a lot but nothing is right without the cushion of the pillow and I hate it.

I have really bad issues regarding getting my hands wet and being wet to the point I’ll vomit. This has caused me to stop washing my hands and showering completely for a while until I found some solutions!!!

Plastic gloves for the shower, for me it keeps me from feeling the prune, water WILL get trapped underneath however I just hold a hair dryer to them for 20 minutes. You win some you loose some.

Hand sanitizer! I carry like 4 different kinds and smells with me everywhere and it avoids the stress of the prune. I also like smelling things when I’m overstimulated

Claw clip for yucky wet hair on back, you can quickly just put it up and not feel suffocated :,)

This is what has helped for me, leave more tips if you want!!

Has anyone developed temperature sensitivity?

Idk if this is the right sub to post it but i hate the texture of my nails on my nail bed i sometimes wish i had naked fingers. help me pls tell me how can i stop it from bothering me

Let me begin by saying that when my son was diagnosed with SPD, we worked with him, made tons of changes for him in our household and beyond, went to therapies, did the exercises, sought help. We accepted how he was and worked to improve his comfort. Now he's much better at tolerating things that used to bother him, and knows how to advocate for his needs.

But now, I'm on a medication that has caused skin hypersensitivity and I'm constantly overwhelmed, bothered, in pain, etc. All I can think of is how this compares to how my son felt/feels and how this is only bearable for me because I know it will eventually go away, and I'm an adult! To experience this as a small child, without communication abilities, without independence to choose my clothes/activities is heartbreaking!

This has really given me a new perspective on SPD, especially skin sensitivity. I'm even more proud of how far my son has come and how hard he works every day to function.

Im not bothered by tags or seams or things like that. I feel it deeper in your body, not necessarily on my skin. it’s just the feeling of any clothes at all on my body and it causes a fight or flight response.

i have 3-4 tops and 3-4 bottoms that i can comfortably wear. pants have to be baggy and loose and can’t be tight on my waist at all. I usually buy pants too big so that they don’t touch my waist. tops have to “puff” out so they don’t actually sit on my body.

It causes an extreme amount of depression because I can’t do anything normal or do normal fun things, especially things that require a dress code like weddings, a normal job, nice dinners etc. Also things that are supposed to be fun are just dreadful and heartbreaking, because I want to be able to dress up and be fashionable instead of sweatpants and a giant t shirt everywhere i go. I want to be able to take pictures with friends or family without sticking out like a sore thumb. I also just want to be able to dress up for me, because it’s such a huge part of life. I see so many girls getting dolled up and dressed up together and i’ll never be able to be a part of that. right now it’s no vacations, outings with friends or any other “fun” events because it just makes me so, so sad.

I’ve worn a handful of nice-ish clothes before for a really short amount of time, but in order to do that it takes extremely meticulous planning and a ton of anxiety. also on the rare occasion this happens the clothes don’t look the way they’re supposed to because I always have to get items a size too big or manipulate it in some way to make it semi tolerable. Even then, I can only make it less than an hour before it becomes too much and i have a panic attack and rip it off, which would happen immediately if i just wore it “normally”

anyways, does anyone else experience this? I’m 22 and have been dealing with it my entire life and it’s only getting worse as time goes on.

Hi, I’m a uk medical doctor and I’ve just released a web app called SensoryMe. We’re very early stage with it and I would really love some feedback on it as we plan the next stage of development. The idea is that adults with sensory struggles can go through the senses one by one to figure out which tools might be helpful for them. It could be used alongside young people but for now it’s been developed with adults in mind. I can’t wait to hear what you think!

SensoryMe.app

> Falls ihr hier upvotet, würde ich mich sehr freuen, wenn ihr auch kurz die Petition unterschreibt.

>

> Die deutsche Wirtschaft wächst ohnehin kaum noch und wir merken gerade deshalb die negativen Auswirkungen des Wachstumszwangs.

>

> Sollen wir nicht mal eine Wirtschaft ohne Wachstumszwang ausprobieren? Eine Wirtschaft, in der freiwilliges Wachstum möglich ist, aber nicht erzwungen wird?

https://www.change.org/AnderesWirtschaften

Hi!! I’m a fashion design, MA student focusing on sensory issues in fashion, I’m needing some responses for my questionnaire about sensory issues and clothes. Anyone can respond to the questionnaire, but I’m mainly focusing on sensory issues. It is completely anonymous and will not be published, only used towards my project. I will NOT contact you after it is done. Thanks! 

originally posted to r/neurodivergent — i have not been diagnosed with spd but i’m hoping yall have some suggestions 🙏🙏🙏

This topic gets oversimplified in both directions, sometimes marketed as if swinging on a swing will unlock speech, and sometimes dismissed entirely as pseudoscience.

The honest answer sits somewhere in between, and I want to walk through why.

The theoretical basis isn't unreasonable.
The vestibular system (which governs balance and detects motion) is anatomically and developmentally linked to the auditory system, they share embryological origins and neural pathways. There's a real biological reason someone might hypothesize a connection between movement/balance processing and speech-language development, this isn't invented from nothing.

Where the evidence gets genuinely shaky:
A rigorous controlled study looking specifically at whether vestibular sensory stimulation (slow, linear swinging) improved outcomes when added to standard speech-language therapy found no evidence that it did. That's a meaningfully more careful study design than a lot of what gets cited to support sensory-based approaches.

Where some evidence does exist, but with real caveats:

• An older 1981 study found increased spontaneous verbal language use in developmentally delayed preschoolers immediately following vestibular stimulation, but this was a very small sample, and "immediately after" doesn't tell us much about lasting change.
• A single-case study on vestibular stimulation and communication in a preschooler with autism found some positive effects, but the authors themselves note in their conclusion that more research is needed, which is honestly the appropriate takeaway from a single-case design.
• Broader review literature on sensory integration therapy generally acknowledges the theoretical connection between sensory processing and speech-language development, but doesn't present it as an established, standalone treatment for speech and language disorders.

My honest take: Movement, play, and sensory-rich activities in therapy are genuinely valuable, but mostly for reasons that don't require an unproven vestibular-mechanism explanation. A regulated, engaged, motivated child is simply more available for learning, language included, regardless of whether the specific sensory input itself is doing something neurologically special. That's a much more evidence-grounded reason to use movement and play in sessions than claiming a swing or trampoline directly builds language pathways.

What this means practically: If a provider tells you sensory integration therapy alone will resolve a speech or language delay, I'd want to see that claim held to a higher evidence standard than currently exists. If movement and sensory activities are part of a broader plan that includes actual targeted speech-language intervention, that's reasonable and can genuinely help engagement, just don't let it substitute for the evidence-based language work itself.

Curious if others here have had experience with sensory-integration-heavy therapy approaches, positive, neutral, or skeptical, genuinely interested in real experiences on this one.

Hi, I've always had issues with underwear and just found some that I finally find comfortable but I tried them on over the pair I was wearing and so I didn't notice when I bought them that they have a whole bunch of print on the inside of the back and it goes down so far because it's translated into a bunch of different languages 😭. It's like a 2in x 4in area (5.08cm x 10.16cm) of tiny words and I've never seen this much text on the inside of underwear, it's crazy. It is sooooo itchy and uncomfortable and I can't focus on anything because all I can think about is how uncomfortable it is against my skin. I think it's screen printed on cotton. Does anyone else have this issue and have you successfully removed the print, and if so how? I'm going crazy (also they're already washed so I can't return them, and everything else about them works for me so I'm not going to buy new ones after I just spent months finding these ones)

Hello, I have issues with haptodysphoria. For me, I can't stand velvet. I don't even want to be in the same room as something made of velvet.

I am going to a fantasy ball in November and was looking at gowns on a website. One caught my eye, but on closer inspection it looked possibly velvet. The description says it is not velvet, but a polyester velour.

Would that be tolerable for someone who can't stand velvet? Does it feel like velvet or does it feel completely different? Has anyone in this sub been able to compare the two fabrics at all?

TYIA!