Thanks, Susiestar. I don't know... J doesn't really have this level of sensitivity to clothes, etc - he has
never complained about labels or seams (and, believe me, if he had any cause for complaint, he would!). Occasionally he has said a place was too loud, as though his ears were hurting, and when he was a baby I used to think that he became overstimulated by noise, colours, etc. In any case, no-one in my part of France seems to have heard of sensory integration disorder, so what good going down that road? I can't explore it any further in terms of analysis or treatment.
Thanks also, Janet. I think J is explosive, unfortunately... at the same time, he is much less explosive than he was so there's a moral in there somewhere. Main thing with him is really this physical hyperactivity - he doesn't ever, ever, walk slowly when we are outside. He runs, he races, he zooms... I've got used to it and it doesn't faze me any more. For me it is now "normal" - not so for others who do not know and accept him, of course. This morning there was a vide grenier in our village (= what I think you call yard sale?) and this rather catty old lady that I've never really warmed to saw J racing around saying "Attack! Attack!" (playing with a toy) and said to me as she has before, rather snidely "How does he get on in school, your little boy?" (translation: "Is he a horrific nuisance in school, your little boy?") In other words, physical hyperactivity = little hooligan... I can see the progress I've made, let alone him, by saying to her in a rather pointed tone, "Oh yes, fine - he's really no different from the other children!" I could see she was a bit put out...
All my life I've been so full of middle class shame, put there by my parents and particularly my father, so crippled and tortured by "what others think". The coming of J into my life is like some forced liberation from all this... I honestly don't really care much any more what others think... The good people understand and are compassionate, the less good ones never will but will criticise and blame. So let them!