A Day Without A Compression Shirt

My son has been wearing compression shirts to school since early last fall when his OT at the time suggested it. Many children with autism have sensory issues and crave deep pressure. With Kai, we saw immediate results. From the first time he wore the shirts, he performed much better at school than he did before. So, he has been wearing them ever since.

There have been a lot of ups and downs over these past several months so the shirts are not any kind of magic cure for all of Kai’s behavior issues. In fact, most of these shirts now have holes in them from his biting during times when he is upset. But based on the positive early results, we stayed with it.

Because he’s worn compression shirts to school every day, we have not compared his performance without the shirts since those first couple of weeks.

Until now.

This week was Educator Appreciation Week. Toward that, the other day my wife went to Kai’s school before the start of classes to help serve breakfast to the teachers and staff. That meant that I had to get Kai ready for school by myself.

In the rush, I did not check to see if he had on his compression shirt underneath his other shirt. It was only after he left for school that I saw it on his bed where I had left it for him. He had not worn it.

That day, Kai had his worst day of school in two months. By contrast, his behavior on the rest of his days this week was very good. So, that day is a clear outlier.

Was it the lack of a compression shirt? A scientist would say that one occurrence is not an adequate test. And scientifically speaking it is not. But we are not taking any chances. It’s compression shirts every day from now on.