10 year old with SPD

by Dawn
(mpls, MN)

My son is 10 years old and starting middle school. We have really been struggling with him with his SPD. He was diagnosed in 1st grade with SPD issues (tactile and bilateral?) and he refused to go to his OT therapy. At first I made him go and we struggled through the sessions. The problem was he was missing way too much school and we were contacted by the school with concerns on truancy and we took him out of OT. We've managed to get now to 5th grade, but it has been hell, it's a morning and night struggle. I don't know if I can go through another year. My son is such a great kid, he's smart and catches on quick but he HATES learning. He hates school, he hates getting dressed in the morning. He will try to wear the same clothes everyday, which as you all know, will not go well in middle school. We struggle to get him to shower, I don't know why. He will rip and stretch out all of this shirts under the arms because he says they are too tight. (he can get his leg through the arm holes, but they are "too tight" in the arms.) It's a daily battle and he ends up in tears everyday. I don't know what to do. I've tried all of the different types of clothes.

The sensory clothing lines do not have clothes his size (he is almost 5.3 and 110 pounds) I think of just giving up and homeschooling him, but THAT would be even worse. I feel that taking him away from school and friends will only isolate him and make his self esteem issues worse. I can't seem to get him to want to do anything that involves learning. He seems very selfish and only wants to do things that are on his iPad, friends, or baseball. That seems very normal for a pre-teen, but the struggle to get him to do anything else, isn't normal. He cry's at the mention of homework, even if school is months away and it's summer. I keep thinking that his behavior has to be SPD driven, but at the same time I hate to push the blame onto something else to quickly. HELP!!!!