Luke Beardon, The Autism Centre, Sheffield Hallam University

1
Sensory perceptual issues in autism
Luke Beardon, The Autism Centre, Sheffield Hallam
University 4 December 2007
2
Reasons for investigation and understanding

• Hypothesis It is likely that many individuals
  have differences in sensory
  integration.
• Child has difficulties specific to autism, leads
  to
• poor concept of self
• difficulties in linking cause and effect
• lack of awareness of others reality
• lack of effective communication
• Older individuals have a greater ability to
  communicate appropriately
• better understanding of original difficulties.

3
Reasons for investigation and understanding
(continued)

• Anecdotal evidence from individuals support the
  hypothesis
• Definitive anecdotes give real evidence
• Many autobiographical accounts mention sensory
  difference.

4

• My safe retreat in the world was a brown
  armchair. I would stare into the upholstery. I
  became absorbed in the brown material, in its
  treads, in the minute holes between the threads.
  Then the scratch on my sole would heal a little.
• A real person life on the outside, Gunilla
  Gerland

5
Senses are they real?

• There is a difference between reality and
  perception
• What we think we see is not always interpreted
  accurately.

6
Sensory systems

• Vestibular
• collection of structures within the inner ear
• detects movement
• sensation of movement
• coordinates movement of eyes, head and body
• coordinates two sides of the body
• helps with balance.

7
Vestibular dysfunction

• Hypersensitive to vestibular stimulation
• fear ordinary movement activities, e.g. slides
  and ramps
• Hyposensitive to vestibular stimulation
• enjoys intense stimulation, e.g. spinning,
  jumping and rocking.

8
Vestibular dysfunction (continued)

• Activities which might influence vestibular
  control
• swinging
• rocking
• rolling/unrolling
• roundabouts
• trampoline.

9
Sensory systems

• Proprioceptive
• presents feedback from muscles and joints
• position of body parts in relation to self and
  space
• provides information to joints to assist in
  application of appropriate pressure
• plans movement efficiently.

10
Proprioceptive dysfunction

• Clumsiness
• Tendency to fall
• Lack of awareness of body space
• Odd body posture
• Difficulty with fine motor co-ordination.

11
Synaethesia

• Two-sensory synaethesia
• The stimulation of one modality triggers
  perception in another with no direct stimulation
  of the latter.

12
Two-sensory synaethesia

• Examples
• Chromaesthesia sound triggers colour
• Colour-olfaction smell triggers colour
• Colour-gustation taste triggers colour
• Tactile-gustation taste triggers shapes
• Audiomotor sound triggers body position.

13
Synaethesia

• Multiple sensory synaethesia
• The stimulation of one modality triggers
  another,
• and vice versa. For example, sees colour when
• hearing sounds, and then hears sounds when
• seeing colours.

14
The filter process

• Reality is reality. Therefore, is the same
  irrespective of the individual
• Perceptions clearly differ from one person to the
  next
• Hypothesis the filter process distorts
  sensory
• processing to give different perceptions.

15
S
Filter
C
Neurotypical
16
S
Filter
C
17
S
Filter
C
18
Outcomes of the filtering process

• Hypersensitivity over sensitive to stimulation
• Hyposensitivity under sensitive to sensory
  stimulation.

19
Perceptual inconsistency

• Dependent on
• time
• environment
• physical state
• emotional state
• stress levels.

20
Touch clothing

• Material Colour
• Sleeves Hats
• Tight/loose clothing Trousers/shorts
• Belts Buttons
• Shoes Lack of ability to dress
• appropriate to the weather.

21
Touch people

• Hugs
• Soft touch v firm
• Skin on skin contact
• Brushing past people
• Proximity.

22
Touch food

• Texture
• Dry/brittle
• Shape.

23
Touch objects

• Texture of surfaces
• Shape of object
• Feeling the object with other parts of the body
• Curvature.

24
Touch pain

• Discrepancies between perceptions compared to NT
• Extreme hypersensitivity
• Hair
• Nails
• Teeth.

25
Auditory hypercausis

• Intense hypersensitivity to a specific noise,
  e.g.
• dogs barking
• paper tearing
• vacuum cleaners.

26
Auditory super sensitivity

• Examples
• karaoke
• paper
• hand drier
• planes
• sneezing.

27
Auditory separation of sounds

• Inability to separate sounds
• background noise
• extraneous auditory information
• voices.

28
Auditory the feeling of words

• Words felt as they are being spoken
• positive
• negative
• associated problems.

29
Olfactory

• Smell to recognise
• Be aware of literal interpretation
• Detecting the undetectable
• Overpowering smells.

30
Taste

• Sensitivity of using taste to recognise
• Texture
• Colour
• Can lead to food fads, eating difficulties etc.

31
Visual monotropic

• Seeing in (detailed) isolation, fragmentation,
  distortion
• toy cars
• Spiderman
• hair
• dust.

32

• Luke Beardon
• Senior Lecturer in Autism
• Sheffield Hallam University
• Room 10007, Arundel Building
• Sheffield S1 2NE
• Tel [phone]
• l.beardon_at_shu.ac.uk