Hypersensitivity to touch is a problem that causes discomfort when irritated by a label attached to the clothes or when they are simply touched by someone. Children with tactile sensitivity may avoid cuddling, playing where they can get their hands dirty, and many different foods. What are the causes of tactile hypersensitivity and how to treat it?
Contents:
- Hypersensitivity to touch: causes
- Hypersensitivity to touch: symptoms
- Tactile sensitivity: recognition
- Tactile hypersensitivity: treatment
Tactile defensivenessmay be one of the symptoms of sensory integration disorders. In recent years, more and more attention - both among doctors, educators and parents - has been directed towards disorders of sensory integration.
This term describes various disorders that result from incorrect integration in the nervous system of various stimuli, such as tactile, visual, auditory sensations or the perception of the position of various parts of the body in space.
Hypersensitivity to touch: causes
Under normal conditions, the human nervous system deals with the integration of various stimuli with which a person comes into contact - after carrying out a specific "analysis" of the experiences received from various sensory organs, it becomes possible to react to the information coming from the environment, appropriate for a given situation.
As mentioned above, stimuli received by various sensory organs reach the nervous system - one of them is the sense of touch.
In general, the sense of touch is considered to be the most developed of all human senses, and it is also the one that develops the earliest.
The tactile receptors (located mainly in the skin) are responsible for the reception of tactile sensations, the individual types of which are sensitive to cold, heat, pain or pressure.
There are also two types of touch that people feel. The first is protopathic touch, the role of which is to receive information about a tactile stimulus and initiate a possible defense reaction when the stimulus may pose a threat.
Secondwhile the type of touch is epicritic touch, responsible for the differentiation of various tactile stimuli.
Under proper conditions, the sense of touch develops with the passage of time after birth, which increases the awareness of one's own body and increases the awareness of orientation in space.
In some people, however, this process does not go smoothly, which may result in hypersensitivity to touch. What is responsible for it, however, unfortunately, it is not known.
It is noted that the increased risk of the problem may be increased by the mother's use of various stimulants (e.g. alcohol) during pregnancy, in addition, the prematurely born children may also have an increased risk of this kind of sensory integration disorders .
Among the theories about the causes of tactile hypersensitivity, it is worth mentioning the one that focuses on the incorrect reception of tactile sensations in the central nervous system.
According to her, the problem would be that in some people, first of all, the experiences perceived by protopathic touch are analyzed, while at the same time neglecting the analysis of information received through epicritic touch, and this would lead to the fact that for a patient with tactile hypersensitivity almost any touch can be perceived as unpleasant.
Hypersensitivity to touch: symptoms
For a person with tactile sensitivity, any touch can be unpleasant - even one that would not draw their attention to other people.
The symptoms of this abnormality may be visible at a very early stage of life and may include difficulties in taking milk (resulting from difficulties in sucking), and later difficulties in expanding the diet (where when giving the baby new foods it may be with him to choke or even vomit).
With time, more and more abnormalities may appear - among the symptoms of tactile hypersensitivity one can mention:
- reluctance of the child to cuddle
- aversion, but also anger when trying to cut nails, wipe with a towel or scroll
- avoiding touching things with which you can get dirty (a child with hypersensitivity to touch rather avoids playing with plasticine or dough)
- avoiding going barefoot
- complaints about the texture of clothes (people who are hypersensitive to touch may experience very strong discomfort, e.g. when irritated by a label sticking out of their clothes), preferring loose, non-stick clothing
- avoiding touching rough or very soft objects
- aversion to all gamesmanual
Hypersensitivity to touch may result in various types of discomfort - in some patients the touch leads to irritability, and in others even to aggression.
It may happen that a child who is hypersensitive to touch may have difficulty focusing attention, sometimes he is also clearly hyperactive.
Tactile sensitivity: recognition
Hypersensitivity to touch itself, as well as other types of sensory integration disorders, can be diagnosed using standardized tests and questionnaires.
It is worth mentioning here that a child suspected of having such a problem should be examined by various specialists - it is necessary to exclude the underlying ailments other than tactile hypersensitivity.
In this case, it is advisable to consult a neurologist, but also a child psychiatrist. Sometimes tactile hypersensitivity is one of the symptoms of pervasive development disorders.
It also happens that a child who is actually hypersensitive to touch is diagnosed - not necessarily rightly - with a diagnosis of hyperkinetic disorders.
Accurate diagnosis is therefore crucial here, because only after recognizing a specific problem, it is possible to offer the patient an appropriate treatment.
Tactile hypersensitivity: treatment
Children diagnosed with tactile hypersensitivity should be referred to psychological and pedagogical counseling centers. Young patients should be taken care of by sensory integration therapists who will select exercises that are appropriate for them.
Parents' behavior is also important - they are advised to gradually encourage their children to play with objects with different textures (but this should be done slowly and never force the child to touch something that is just for him. unpleasant).
A child who is hypersensitive to touch should not be touched without warning - the most favorable situation is when it receives a signal just before that it will have its face wiped or put on some clothes (this increases the child's comfort and reduces the risk of a defensive response of the organism) ).
It is also worth emphasizing here that, just as in the course of tactile hypersensitivity, delicate stimuli can be very unpleasant, more intense sensations are sometimes better tolerated - as an example you can mention a situation where a delicate touch is unpleasant for a child, stronger and a hug may not lead to any discomfort anymore.
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