Living in a bathroom - Sensory Overload

Some individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder struggle with sensory integration disorder.

The filter that most of us use to bounce off the sights, sounds and smells we don't need, or that aren't important to us, doesn't work the same way for them.

As we take in information, process it through our valuing filter, we decide what is important, what isn't.  I often imagine this filter with a volume dial, it's turned up to the volume we can manage at the time. 

We have a pretty good handle on  how much sensory stimulation goes in.

For example, if you're walking along a street and hear a train in the background it doesn't really matter if you're not waiting for one. If you are, and you're not at the station yet, you start running.

The child crying in the next isle at the supermarket while you're trying to decided between wholemeal with grains or wholemeal without. If it's not your child, doesn't really matter.

To the person with Autism however....it all goes in....all at the same time. 

For them, a supermarket would be something like this..

The child crying, the lights too bright, the sound of the air conditioner, the  checkout, the woman on the intercom asking for a price in aisle 9, the person that brushed you as they walked past, your tag on your clothes rubbing on your neck....everything, all at once...... 


From what my son describes, sights, sounds, smells they all come at him in a wall of information he spends a great deal of time attempting to filter through. 

I know it hurt him more as a younger child. 
I also know he's developed coping strategies as he's grown.
I know it still wears him out.

The impact of this is enormous.

From the food they eat, to the clothes they wear, to where you go.

Our son drank juice...but only the juice in the red juice box....only that one brand. He only ate food with a crunch so his diet consisted of Vegemite toast, crumbed chicken, fish and crumbed potato balls.


Not a vegetable in sight...not a piece of fruit for years. 

The celebration that took place the day he ate an apple was perhaps much larger than it needed to be...but then we had been trying for 12 years to get him to eat a piece of fruit.

It's so much more than a restricted diet though.....

A football game, fireworks display, the bowling alley.....you're general family outing are all problematic.


The following clip explains it beautifully.....

 

I'm a firm believer that if you cater for the  sensory issues, then stress levels are lower and functioning ability higher.
If they can function more effectively , they will be calmer, less likely to operate on a flight or fight instinct 

                                               and they can learn. 

Imagine trying to learn with your system in sensory overload.

Imagine trying to leave the house being bombarded by information.

Some with Autism describe the experience as unbearable, painful.

 

 Read More About Sensory Integration Disorder at this website

Very quickly we decided, our son's sensory integration overload was a priority.

That he needed to be calm to be learning....and to be calm, we needed to keep his sensory load at an acceptable level.

So did it matter that he didn't eat peas? No

Did it matter if his hair needed a cut sometimes? No

At one point were so worried about his nutrition we organised blood tests, and he was absolutely fine. We decided if he can be fine on his limited diet....then we need him to be one thing....CALM

Without the overload and stress he was CALM.

And then we could teach him.