Last week I caught my 7 year old son attempting to throw out his coat. I thankfully caught him and redirected him to write down his feelings. This is what he wrote :

The Evil Coat.

INTRODUCTION:

The evil coat is very bad. It holds on to 7 year old David all the time and makes him so hot. Now this is the bad part. You have to wait until you are at least eighteen to be on your own to go to Antarctica. Even when it is boiling outside. So this is the story of the evil coat:

Once there once was somebody named David. David had a coat and it made David so hot that David called his coat the evil coat. So David hatched a plan. David took his transformer computer and turned his coat into an ice shaped like a coat. But when David put on his ice coat it turned in to 100 degree water. Then it got David all wet and hot David hates getting wet and hot. Then David took his transformer computer turned his coat into $900, 000, 000, and David brought a plane with his $900, 000, 000, and flew to Florida. But the transformer computer malfunctioned and turned the leftover money back into a coat. So David took his transformer computer which put some sand into David’s coat. David then threw his coat into the ocean and a shark ate the coat. David was very happy. But the coat came out of the shark’s tail and floated onto the sand in China. David saw this on his transformer computer and was very angry and he tried to give away his coat instead, but no kid wanted his coat. So David decided to throw out his coat, but when the coat was in the dump there was a cave under the dump with a man in it. This man loved coats so he took the coat and gave it back to David. David then decided to rocket the coat up to space. Then, then the sun turned the coat into a fireball that fell into the Pacific Ocean. The same shark ate the fireball and the shark died. David finally got rid of his coat and lived happily ever after.

THE END

Many children , especially those with sensory processing disorder have sensitivities to the texture, design and fit of their clothing. They might complain about a host of issues including but not limited to getting dressed, feeling itchy and scratchy, seams, tightness of clothing, tags and scent of their clothing. They might refuse to get dressed in the morning, insist on wearing only one outfit and yank off their socks/pants/shirt as soon as they return home. These sensitivities can affect social and scholastic performance as their focus is shifted to the way they feel.

Adults have the control to choose what they want to wear based on their feelings and sensitivities whereas children are often told what to do. If an adult chooses to wear something soft it is a “personal preference”. If a child insists on wearing his soft shirt he is “stubborn”and “rigid”.

We are out to give children more control over the design, style and fit of their clothing with our our new website www.ByKidsOnly.com. By Kids Only encourages children ( with parental supervision) to draw and design their dream clothing. Submitted designs can be shared with other adults and children and voted on. Winning designs will be turned into real clothing!

As for my son– we now let go out into the cold with an open zipper. It sure beats moving to Antarctica.