The Young Child with Autism: An Explanation of Possible Sensory Characteristics

Have you ever sat down to watch your child and wondered why it was he/she appears to be so clumsy, seemingly tripping over his own feet or bumping into walls? Does he jump off the couch or an even higher surface without hesitation? Does her face break into one of those rare smiles when you lift her high into the air or feverishly tickle her body?

My prior experience working in the field of Early Intervention led me to befriend many children who were, or were to become, diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum of Disorders, mainly with the definitive diagnosis of either Autism or PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder). Providing therapy for such a young population (birth to three years old), their parents were undoubtedly left with many questions after they were referred to our program for a developmental evaluation and many of these questions revolved around our sensory systems. There are a great many symptoms that a child diagnosed on the Spectrum can display (for further reading on characteristics, please refer to
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/200645/common_characteristics_of_a_toddler_pg5.html?cat=25). One such possible characteristic would be that of Sensory Integration. Here I am going to touch on the Proprioceptive and Vestibular Systems and how they link into your child's possible behavior.

Our sensory systems are broken up into three components: (for much more detailed explanations, please refer to http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/).

Tactile system (touch).
Vestibular system (input from the middle ear and a sense of where your body is in space [see also http://special-needs.families.com/blog/sensory-integration-dysfunction-what-is-vestibular-disorder and http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Help_for_Hyperactive_Kids/?page=2]).
Proprioception (movement and feeling in the muscles and joints).

When a person has a sensory dysfunction, it simply means that the synapses between the brain and any one or more of these systems are not in sync. For example, if a person has a tactile dysfunction, they may not feel a specific stimuli as we would feel it. I've had children in the past with whom I've worked that would vomit at the touch of play dough or paint. You may think this rather extreme, but that would be because you and I don't feel this to be threatening. We have no break in our synapses between what we are touching and how the brain perceives it.

So, pair this knowledge then with Proprioception (movement and feeling in the muscles and joints ) and the Vestibular system (input from the middle ear) and you may begin to understand your child's needs a bit more. Your child may exhibit clumsiness because the synapses between middle ear and brain aren't in sync (think about yourself on a roller coaster or spinning around in circles and becoming dizzy). You may tend to see your child tripping for no apparent reason. You may notice that they have a difficult time realizing when there's a very small hurdle that they must step over and they always tend to miss it no matter how many times it's been encountered (think about a home where there's a small partition coming out of the floor to separate one room from another or a slight drop from one room into another room). The synapses between muscles and joints and the brain may not be in sync either and you may notice that your child always seems to enjoy thrill-seeking, jumping from one couch to another, from the couch onto the floor. They may find enjoyment when you whisk them high into the air, the higher you seem to go, the better. When your child jumps from the couch with a big thud onto the floor, for example, upon landing, their joints (mainly in the knees and ankles in this instance) are colliding and this helps them to feel more grounded.

*Please also note that not every child who has a Sensory Dysfunction absolutely also has an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Many children (not all) who happen to be on the Spectrum, though, also tend to have some degree of Sensory Dysfunction.

Armed with this knowledge, you may begin to better understand your child's needs. And they are needing these stimuli. So, as long as they are safe, continue to hand them opportunities such as jumping and whisking them into the air. The more grounded your child feels, the more you may get from them in the areas of attention, eye contact, and emotion. My therapy sessions with my children on the Spectrum who exhibited Sensory Dysfunction always began with some sensory stimulation techniques such as these. At times, the more stimulation they were given, the more eye contact I'd get and even if their attention was fleeting, it enabled me to work on other important skills that I otherwise would not have had the opportunity to work on. Please note that your child may become overstimulated, but they will probably show you that they are feeling as such by lack of eye contact and possible vocalizations of annoyance (perhaps a grunt) as well as wriggling their bodies away from you. This is their way of telling you that they need a bit of a break.

Understanding these sensory needs can better enable you to help your child in giving their bodies what they crave. And if you're anything like me, when you get one of those rare smiles directed toward you when you help them meet these needs, it speaks for itself.