Sensory Issues in Autism Spectrum

Elena Ghionis

Autism Specialist

McCarthy Teszler School

Sensory Issues in

Autism Spectrum

Sensory dysfunction or different

sensory experiences?

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Sensory systems

• Vision- the faculty of seeing

• Hearing- the faculty of perceiving sounds

• Vestibular system- refers to structures within

the inner ear that detect movement and

changes in the position of the head

• Olfaction (the sense of smell)- the faculty of

perceiving odors or scents

Sensory system (cont)

• Gustation (the sense of taste)- the faculty of

perceiving the sensation of a soluble

substance caused in the mouth and throat by

contact with that substance

• Tactile system- the faculty of perceiving touch,

pressure, pain, temperature

• Proprioceptive system- the faculty of

perceiving stimuli produced within an

organism, especially relating to the position

and movement of the body

Sensory experiences in Autism

• Students with autism have unusual (from a

non-autistic point of view) sensory perceptual

experiences.

• These experiences may involve hyper- or

hyposensitivity, fluctuation between different

“volumes” of perception, difficulty interpreting

a sense.

• Different experiences broaden the range of

knowledge about the world.

“Literal perception”

Students with autism seem to perceive

everything as it is. It is a sort of “ literal

perception”.

“Gestalt perception”

• Children with autism may experience gestalt

perception in any sensory modality.

• They often feel “drowned” in the “sea of

background noise” and cannot isolate the

words of the next room, outside.

• In crowded places, their brains seem to try to

process all stimuli around them- what every

person is saying, and what other noises mean,

and sounds coming from all directions mean.

“Gestalt perception” (cont)

What to look for:

• Is not fooled by optical illusions

• Notices every tiny change in the environment

• Does not recognize a familiar environment if

approached from a different direction

• Gets easily frustrated when trying to do something

in a noisy, crowded room

• Does not seem to understand when trying to do

something in noisy, crowded room

• Is unable to distinguish between tactile stimuli of a

different intensity

• Is unable to distinguish between strong and weak

odors/tastes

• Clumsy; moves stiffly

• Resists change to head position/movement

Most commonly reported

sensory experiences in autism

• Hypersensitivity and/or hyposensitivity

• Disturbance by certain stimuli and/or

fascination by certain stimuli

• Inconsistency of perception (fluctuation

between hyper- and hypersensitivity)

• Fragmented perception

• Distorted perception

• Sensory agnosia (difficulty interpreting a

sense)

• Delayed perception

• Sensory overload

Hypersensitivity and/or

hyposensitivity

Carl Delacato (1974) classified each sensory

channel as being:

• Hyper-: the channel is too open, as a result too

much stimulation gets in for the brain to

handle

• Hypo-: the channel is not open enough, as a

result too little of stimulation gets in and the

brain is deprived

• “White noise”: the channel creates its own

stimulus because of its faulty operation and,

as a result the message from the outside world

is overcome by the noise within the system

Hypersensitivity / Hyposensitivity

• Hyper/ Hypo vision

• Hyper/Hypo hearing (hearing “inaudible”)

• Hyper/Hypo taste

• Hyper/Hypo smell

• Hyper/Hypo tactility

• Vestibular hyper/hypo sensitivity

• Proprioceptive hyper/hypo sensitivity

(See attachment)

Inconsistency of perception

(fluctuation)

• Two types of inconsistency: 1) fluctuation

between hyper- and hypo-; 2) fluctuation

between hyper-/hypo- and normal (“in” and

“out”).

What to look for:

• Responds differently (pleasure-indifference-

distress) to the same visual/auditory/ olfactory/

gustatory/ tactile stimuli, movement activities

(swings, slides, spinning, etc)

• May have different muscle tone (low- high)

• Pencil lines, letters, words, etc. are uneven

(sometimes too tight, sometimes too faint)

Fragmented perception

(perception “in bits”)

When too much information needs to be

processed simultaneously, very often students

with autism are not able to “break” the whole

picture into meaningful units and to interpret

objects, people and surroundings as

constituents of a whole situation. Instead they

process “bits” that happen to get their

attention.

What to look for: resists any change; get lost

easily; does not recognize people in unfamiliar

clothes, in photographs; hears a few words

instead of the whole sentence; complains

about parts of clothes, smells of some pieces

of food, etc.; is confused with the food he/she

used to like; resists new motor activities.

Distorted perception

Distorted perception means not fragmented but

rather in the perception of the form, space,

sound, etc. distortions are reported to become

worse in the state of nervous overarousal and

information overload.

What to look for: fears heights, stairs, escalators;

has difficulty catching balls; appears startled

when being approached; compulsive hand,

head, or body movements that fluctuate

between near and far; pronunciation problems;

unable to distinguish between some sound;

hits eyes/ nose/ oneself; difficulty with

hopping, jumping, skipping, riding a tricycle/

bicycle; climbs high into a tree, jumps off tall

fences, etc.

Sensory agnosia (difficulty

interpreting a sense)

The consequence of being unable to filter sensory

information and being flooded with sensory

stimuli at the rate the person cannot cope, is

being able to sense (see, hear, etc.), but unable

to attach the meaning to the sensation.

Sensory agnosia- interpretation of any sense can

be lost; students often act as if they were really

blind, deaf, numb, “dead”. If is a very frightening

experience. Each individual develop his/her own

strategies to cope with it.

What to look for: feels/ acts blind or deaf; rituals;

has difficulty in interpreting smells/ tastes;

seems not to know what their body is doing;

becomes disoriented after a change in head

position.

Delayed perception (delayed

processing)

A student can be delayed on every sensory

channel.

What to look for:

• Response to visual/ auditory/ gustatory/

olfactory/ tactile stimuli is delayed

• Echolalia in monotonous, high-pitched, parrot-

like voice

• Any experiences are perceived as new and

unfamiliar, regardless of the number of times

the person has experienced the same thing

• Very poor at sports

• Seems oblivious to risks of heights, etc.

• Holds head upright, even when learning or

bending over

Sensory overload

Many students with autism are very vulnerable to

sensory overload. They may become

overloaded in situations that would not bother

other people. The causes of information of

overload can be: the inability to filter out

irrelevant or excessive information delayed

processing; delayed processing; distorted or

fragmented perception, resulting in anxiety,

confusion and stress that, in turn, may lead to

hypersensitivity.

What to look for: sudden outbursts of self-abuse/

tantrums/ difficult behaviors; withdrawal; tires

very easily; gets nauseated or vomits from

excessive movements.

Sensory Overload

Video

Calming and Alerting Sensory

Activities

See attachment

References

• Ayres, A.J. “Sensory Integration and the Child” Los Angeles: Western Psychology Services (1979). • Ayres, A.J. and Tickle, L.S. “Hyper-responsively to touch and vestibular stimuli as a predictor of positive response to sensory

integration procedures be autistic children”. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 34, 375-381. • Bill ‘Face Blind: Bill’s face blindness (prosopagnosia) pages”. www.choisser.com/faceblind (1997) • Blackburn,J. “Autism? What is it?” www.autism.org/library • Bogdashina, O. “Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome”, London and Philadelphia (2003) • Сенсорный мир аутизма симптомы проявления и проблемы http://www.aspergers.ru/node/56 • Нужные вещи для приодоления сенсорных проблем http://www.autist32.ru/forum/topic-t116.html • Сенсорные проблемы и поведение http://sensoricinru.wordpress.com/2011 • Wendy, L “sensory Issues in Autism” East Sussex Council, eastsussex.gov.uk • Winnie Dunn, Lourann Rinner, Breanda Smith, Taku Hagiwara “Sensory Issues in Children with Autism and Asperser Syndrome”,

Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 2004, 39(4), 283-290 • Winnie Dunn, Breanda Smith, Stephany Orr, “Sensory Processing Issues Assosiated with Asperser Syndrome” The American Journal of

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