Tactile defensiveness is when kids develop lasting aversions to textures after bad sensory experiences. Ming @ Agents of Speech explains how this shows up in autistic and delayed children, from refusing jelly to avoiding certain foods, and why forcing them to try disliked items backfires.
There's a term called tactile defensiveness, which means someone had a bad experience and therefore it becomes a defense mechanism to stop doing that kind of stuff. Same with children, especially autistic children who are rigid. They think that everything from now on, whenever they eat that thing, it's going to create that bad feeling. I've had children who hated hated with a capital H. They really disliked eating jelly because whenever they ate jelly it reminded of them choking. Another child doesn't like to eat rice because of the sensory profile and the motor stuff. It got all got stuck here underneath his lips. It became very uncomfortable for him so he doesn't want to do it anymore. So you have to remember these happen to children and people in general. Bad experiences equals I don't want to do that anymore. Whatever you do, try not to force your child or the person to try out the things you want. It's very difficult because sometimes we put our needs in front of the child.
