Tag Archives | sensory

People Need to Realize that Autism Is Not Less, It’s More

By on June 18, 2010 in Autism

I think that something that is lost in the translation to people who do not deal with Autism, is that yes, Autistic people have less communication skills, less social skills, less ability to understand non-literal speech and on and on…. but that does not mean that there is less to the person. In fact, it could be argued that there is so much more!

What most people fail to realize is that a person with Autism does not miss details, they get it all. All the sights, sounds, smells.. everything. When you walk into a grocery store, your mind filters out the white noise… the buzzing, humming, mumbling, background music, stuff being moved around, people walking, doors opening and closing… on and on. An Autistic person can’t. And that’s just sound.  Next you take the harsh lighting, things moving everywhere, glints of light off things, flashing lights, labels on everything, colours everywhere, people constantly doing something with something… there’s a lot to see. We say excuse me to the person in front of us and look for items on our list or that’s on sale. And Autistic person can’t do that.
And then there’s the smells… I’ll spare you the gory details on that one.

Now, on top of the sensory issues, you also have to take in the fact that the computers in their heads are working a mile a minute as they process every conversation, work out the math on all the numbers in the place, study the geometry of the fruit… all of this is happening faster than any science fiction computer you’ve ever seen.

What happens is, and is to be expected, a mental break down where even the best and brightest on the planet would agree that it’s simply too much to bare. We’ve all heard of that fun little torture technique where you poke someone in the forehead long enough it drives them crazy, or there’s a high pitched sound you can’t get out of your head?  That’s one… one thing that happens for a matter of minutes… and it drives you crazy. Now imagine a thousand things… for an hour… for a day… forever??

If you are not touched by Autism, then it’s hard to understand… even harder still to understand why we parents and friends are so vocal and fight so hard for our loved ones… and why we hate you oh so ever much more than you hate us while you stare at us because our child screams in line at the cashier.

And if you are touched by Autism, your child, relative, friend… always try to remember that if it seems like they’re behaving irrationally, there’s likely a very good reason for it. Have more patience than you thought you could as you take a deep breath, slow things down a bit and have a look and listen around. You may find that they’re dealing with a lot more than you ever thought someone should have to.

It’s not their fault… it does not make them less… it makes them different.

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Sensory Issues – How Do They Affect You or Your Child?

By on June 11, 2010 in Autism

Sensory issues are often a bi-product of having Autism, an unfortunate little tag along issue that many Autistic people get to tack onto the rather large list of issues they already endure. They come in all shapes and sizes as well, much like the rest of Autisms little gems, some people can’t handle loud noise, bright lights, strong tastes… some simply can’t handle multiple sounds, flickering lights or any taste at all.

In our case, Cameron has a problem with loud noises and food textures. If we put on a movie too loud, or turn up the music, he’s the first to speak up about it being too loud. That’s not too much of a problem, we can keep it quiet… but it does mean things can be a challenge such as taking him to see a movie at the theatre.

The big issue comes from his food texture problem… there’s literally only a handful of foods that he will eat. He’s never eaten meat, except what we can grind up and hide in his food. He’s never eaten any fast food, refuses to even try french fries and doesn’t want to eat most vegetables. The only fruit he likes is bananas and won’t eat berries or nuts either.

Luckily, my wife is very creative and is very good at finding the foods that make up for these things, such as eggs, bananas, peanut butter and beans. These foods alone make up for almost all of what he’s missing and we can find ways to make up the rest… and we pad it with mashed potatoes and rice pasta, which he really likes.

But imagine, no gluten (wheat) and no casein (milk) and then take all meats (including fish and chicken) and almost all veggies… what’s left??

Quite literally, we find ourselves deciding on which of the 4 meals he’ll have for each meal… because that’s what it boils down to. We were quite concerned at first but after visiting a child nutrition expert and having all his blood levels tested, he’s doing just fine.

Sight and touch and other things seem to be right on par, or pretty close. It’s just the pesky food texture thing that drives us wild.

I’ve talked to a lot of other parents however that have other issues, such as having children that must wear special head phones to tone down the sound levels, or some that wear tinted glasses and even some where they virtually never touch their child.

On one hand, I curse this stupid Autism for already making life hard enough and then having to tack on something so dumb as this, just to make things more inconvenient… on the other hand, I kinda think it’s like having a super power, like Wolverine (xmen comics) where he has a heightened sense of smell, taste and hearing.. like an animal. Maybe my boy will grow up to be a super hero? taste texture man??  Uhmm… anyway…

If your child has not been diagnosed with Autism but has these types of sensory overloads that seem almost painful for them, definitely get them checked. It might not even be Autism as there are simply conditions dealing with sensory processing and sensory integration disorders.

Most importantly, I implore you, if your child can’t stand the lights, the sounds, the taste, the feel of something… it may seem trivial, or even stupid and you will likely feel compelled to just have your child deal with it… but it could be something so much more than that and you could be causing them real pain/discomfort. If you pushed them through something and found out later that it was a real issue, you’d probably feel pretty bad… it’s better to listen to your children and at least check and be sure.

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