Sensory Processing Issues in Autism
This blog post was written by Kindred co-founder Nolan Shaffer.
Autism is widely accepted as a disorder that includes sensory processing issues. In the presuming competence community, many people use the language of a “sensory difference” rather than a “disorder.” Sensory processing issues impact every aspect of our lives. How we interpret our experiences and how we respond to this information is reliant upon what our sensory system is informing our brains. Our everyday experiences are understood from gaining information through our sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Not only does the sensory system affect our learning, it also informs our motor outputs how to respond to what our senses are processing.
Imagine you are camping and you are sitting around a fire. Your senses inform you exactly how close you should sit to the flames. If you are too close to the fire, your flesh will burn. If you sit too far from the fire, you remain cold and do not benefit from its heat. Now, imagine that your sight and touch are impaired. You may get too close to the fire and because you cannot feel the heat or see how close you are to the fire, you will burn yourself. You may finally realize that you are being burnt through the smell of burning flesh. When you get too close to a fire or touch a hot stove your reflexes should kick in and you move in response to the stimulus.
The Sensory Motor Feedback Loop
This phenomenon is called the sensory motor feedback loop. Our senses give feedback to our motor system and we move in response to that stimulus. If there are sensory processing issues within the nervous system, that’s a big deal! Movement will be impaired and a disconnection between the brain and body is the result. The spelling community calls this the brain-body disconnect.
When someone has low arousal in their sensory system, the individual may have difficulty feeling their body in space. Movement may look like difficulty with initiation, low muscle tone, or posture issues. Someone with high arousal may have impulsivity, high dysregulation, difficulty sleeping and discomfort in addition to many other side effects.
How Sensory Processing Issues Impact Communication
Communication requires motor control. Speaking is an extremely difficult fine motor act that requires the lips, tongue and vocal cords to move in perfect harmony. The senses involved in speech are touch and hearing. The mouth and vocal cords work together in response to hearing one’s voice. The sense of touch would involve feeling your mouth, tongue and lips work together.
The fact that many individuals on the spectrum struggle with significant sensory processing issues or differences leads us within the presuming competence community to resist assessing intelligence based upon one's ability to move intentionally.
