Amidst all my praise for all the progress Roger has made, there is one area in which he has not improved. It’s his feet. When he was little, Roger never wanted to be barefoot. Then, there were a couple of years that Roger would only wear rain boots. It was when he was 3-5 years old. Any other shoes would cause him to meltdown.
Sneakers have been really tricky. We used to be able to do Velcro sneakers. But, alas, the Velcro starts to be less effective/less sticky and Roger would meltdown trying to reattach the Velcro over and over again. We decided, since the Velcro were never tight enough, to do lace up sneakers. He has been using lace up sneakers since he’s been in baseball. That was how we got him out of rain boots for one day a week — he had to wear sneakers if he wanted to play baseball. Thankfully, he eventually gave up the rain boots and will wear either sneakers (for school and baseball) or flip-flops.
Every morning has gotten increasingly worse since spring break. It used to be tying his shoes 2, maybe three times, for him to be okay with them, for the shoes to be tight enough for him. This morning I tied his shoes five or six times before we left for school. He was in tears, screaming and hitting his head. They still did not feel right to him. I told him we had to leave or he’d be late. Once we got to his school, he asked me to tie them one last time. I did.
It’s so heartbreaking to see my son react like that. When he was younger, he had many more meltdowns and would hit his head. He outgrew/out-therapied the majority of that. It’s just the damn shoe issue that keeps rearing it’s ugly head. It will subside for a bit and then get ridiculous, and then subside, and then get out of hand again. I am wondering if it is linked to anxiety. Obviously there is a sensory component but for it to flare up, I think there is something else going on: anxiety, OCD, control issues. These are the only times he gets violent — recently with hitting himself in the head and in the past (January 2018) with him hitting his head into my back.
Tomorrow he has baseball and I know the shoe tying will be a nightmare in the morning. He’s also informed me that he is getting a small hole in the toe of his shoe and that he wants to buy new sneakers tomorrow. Oh boy, sneaker shopping with Roger is a whole other story!
I look forward to Sunday when he can wear his flip-flops.
Spinning Wheels 
Just a question for you. Have you been able to teach him to tie his own shoes? Will he understand that if he ties his own shoes he can tie them as tightly as he wants to, it just takes practice. If you make it a challenge for him, will he respond? I’m sure it breaks your heart to see him act out. It breaks mine to hear about it. Too bad we don’t have shrink wrap shoes that stay tight, yet allow the foot to breathe properly. Here’s another suggestion, a support sock that holds his foot tightly, may help. God bless you Leah, you do have the patience of a saint, even if you don’t believe in them! LOL Love you, Aunt Nancy (You really should be used to me by now, I’m a problem solver, or at least I try to be!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
He ties his shoes first, then I retie them. He does wear tight athletic socks too. (Which reminds me, I have to order more!)
LikeLiked by 1 person