Q: iPod Touch 4G Keeps Crashing Apps

I couldn't think of a title that would well enough describe my issue...

For the longest time I had no problems with my iPod Touch 4G. I will not be updating to iOS 6, will not as long as I can use this iPod; I am running 5.1.1. About a half a year ago, the Home Button got stuck down inside the device, so I had to establish Assistive Touch. I can't technically use the iPod without using Assistive Touch.

Lately, it's started to crash apps that I'm running, and have VERY LITTLE tolerance for heavy work. What I mean is, say a game is running and I accidentally hit "Tweet" instead of "Continue", it takes a moment to load the Tweet window (which I can just close to resume the game). However, it's started to crash when I do this, which it never did (I've had said app for maybe a couple weeks now). There's no update for that app right now as far as I know, but it never did it before.

That's not the only issue.

It happens when I'm browsing Safari too. Almost always will I just have one window open, and I can barely get one google search in without it crashing. I cannot try to look something up without it crashing way too frequently. This also happens with some of my larger apps, but even then they shouldn't be crashing as much - it's as if the iPod is just "giving up" under even a little bit of work.

Time for some notable specs that might help:

-I'm running iOS 5.1.1. I do not want to update.

-My iPod is a 32 GB model.

-I have 4.52 GB of "Other" space on my iPod when the iTunes window is syncing it, and this number has been like this for a little while. However, I think it was there BEFORE it started with crashing issues. I don't quite know a particular way to get rid of this, as the methods I've tried haven't worked (reset, reboot, clear all settings).

-There is 6.29 GB free on my iPod, so I don't exactly think free space is an issue...

-I have roughly 14 GB of music on my iPod, but it's never particularly crashed that besides once or twice; the others have dealt with crashing much more often. This I'm thankful for; if I couldn't play my music, I'm sure I would have flipped MUCH sooner.

I've about had it with this iPod, I can certainly go find something else that will hold my music and not give me so much trouble. If I can't use it for what I bought the system for, it gets a bit frustrating especially since nothing major is shouting out at me for WHY it isn't working. The crashing is quite frustrating. I've never had helpful answers beforehand, so I'm really hoping something will come through with this.

I don't want to buy a new iPod, but if this one is pretty much done for, I'll either save up or look into alternatives.

Please help.

Thank you.