Processing Information Causes Hyper-flexing and Shaking

My daughter is tactile defensive. She hates when people touch her. When she was younger, touch would make her hyper-flex her body and freeze. She would also do this when something was painful, like a fall. For a while I was worried that she wouldn’t be able to feel pain. Occupational therapy has really helped her brain’s response to tactile information.

When she started learning to process touch and pain her next reaction was to hyper-flex her body and scream or cry. At this point, if I continued to try to comfort her or touch her, she would scream or cry louder.

Recently, she started something new. When processing touch, pain, or new sensory input, she will hyper-flex her arms or legs, clench her fists, grind her teeth, and shake her shoulders and head. The first time I noticed this, I was very worried. I talked to my daughter’s Occupational Therapist about it and even pointed it out to the OT when my daughter did it in the lobby. The therapist put my mind to ease and said, “Your daughter is learning from different sensory experiences and how to process them.”

This totally made sense. My daughter’s two to three second shake and flexing of her muscles is helping her adapt as she gives herself instant input. I thought I would share to help comfort other parents experiencing this with their child. If your child is doing this and you think it could be more than sensory processing, please see your child’s pediatrician.