The parent of an autistic child, his family and friends, have an uneasy task ahead: to know and understand the child. The child, who may have reduced verbal abilities, may not be able to interact socially and may have problems which an ordinary person does not understand.
We are providing you a kind of a “blind map” of the child, which points out the most significant differences from ordinary children and will help you get at least a little orientated in the internal world of a small autistic child.
Intelligence
It was not long ago when autism was considered to be a disorder combined with mental retardation. That was especially because there were not any methods which would allow for studying the internal world of autistic people and the fundamentals of individual disorders. The bigger the diagnostic and methodology advances, the better the picture of autistic people. However, it is important to realize that the criteria, which we use to examine the intelligence quotient in ordinary people, do not apply to people with autism: people with autism do some IQ tests better that ordinary people, other tests they do worse.
Thanks to better diagnostics we have already known today that autism occurs in the entire IQ scale.
Better ability to evaluate nonverbal intelligence in children with reduced speech abilities and missing social motivation bears fruit: the percentage of autistic people with average and higher IQ is rising.
Emotions
Senses
The autism spectrum disorders often affect also the child’s senses. The intensity of sensory perception is the first level, and it may be very different from an ordinary person. Hyposensitivity (little sensitivity) and hypersensitivity (oversensitivity) are the typical manifestations of autism in the area of senses.
Senses exceeding to cognitive abilities are another level. Autistic people may think in pictures, in music, in movements or touches. It can happen that the autistic child will hear colours or formulate their thoughts in pictures and not in words.
When working with an autistic person it is therefore necessary to use as many ways of thinking as possible in various combinations and to apply also those ones which ordinary people cannot even imagine.
The brain processes all information which we receive through senses, it sorts them out and provides understanding of the information. Based on a stimulus we react through thoughts, feelings, behaviour (reaction) or combination hereof.
Senses of a person with autism
Eyesight
Hyposensitive (little sensitive):
- Objects are dark or they lose some of their properties.
- Blurred central vision and clear peripheral vision
- Enlarged object in the centre, blurred peripheral vision
- Poor spatial vision, it can cause problems with throwing and catching, clumsiness
HELP: Use of visual aid tools
Hypersensitive (too sensitive):
- Distorted vision, objects and bright lights skip
- They can see images in parts one after another
- They focus on a detail more easily than on a whole
HELP: To reduce bright light, to use sunglasses, curtains, blinds, to create a work area with high walls to block disturbing effects
Hearing
Hyposensitive (little sensitive):
- They can hear sounds only in one ear
- They may not distinguish specific sounds
- They like overcrowded, noisy places or banging with doors and things
HELP: Use of visual aid tools to support verbal information
Hypersensitive (too sensitive):
- Noise may be intensified and sounds become distorted and intertwined
- Sound sensitive, they can hear also a distant conversation
- Inability to filter sounds away, which can result in a problem with concentration
HELP: To prevent from the access of noise from the exterior, to prepare the autistic person for a noisy place before leaving, the use of safety headphones, utilisation of music.
Touch
Hyposensitive (little sensitive):
- They hold, grasp others tight, they need to do it before they feel the pressure of another person
- High pain threshold
- They can hurt themselves
HELP: To use a heavy blanket, to look for toys which offer resistance when pushed
Hypersensitive (too sensitive):
- They perceive touch as painful and unpleasant, it may affect their relationships with others
- They do not like to have anything on hands and feet, the most preferably they are barefoot and without gloves
- They have problems with brushing and washing hair as they have a very sensitive head
- They like only particular kinds of clothes or materials
HELP: To notify the person before you are going to touch them, to approach to them only from the front, to avoid quick and unforeseeable contacts, including hugging, to make them familiar with new materials step by step, to allow them to participate in the activity so as it is more pleasant to them.
Taste
Hyposensitive (little sensitive):
- They like very hot spicy food
- They eat everything – soil, grass, plasticine. This diagnosis is called pica.
HELP: To watch out not to allow them to consume something which may be harmful to them.
Hypersensitive (too sensitive):
- They perceive smells and taste as really significant and strong, they have a limited choice of food
- They mind also some textures of food, they only like smooth food (mashed potatoes, ice-cream)
HELP: If they have sufficiently diverse food, it is not necessary to solve it. If they do not, try to serve food with proper texture.
Smell
Hyposensitive (little sensitive):
- they do not smell good or bad smells, they do not mind extreme bad smell either
HELP: To use products with strong smell as a reward and to distract from unpleasant perceptions with strong bad smell (e.g. excrements).
Hypersensitive (too sensitive):
- they smell good or bad smells really intensely, they can have problems with going to the toilette
- they do not like strong smells, they mind perfumes and strong odour of cosmetic products
HELP: To use non-aromatic detergents or shampoo, to avoid using perfumes, to create a suitable environment without too much smell.
Vestibular balance
Hyposensitive (little sensitive):
- They need to rock, swing or turn to catch some sensory perception.
HELP: To support the activities which help vestibular system development, e.g. rocking on a rocking horse, on a swing, or turning on a merry-go-round. To train catching a ball and slow walking on stairs and curbs.
Hypersensitive (too sensitive):
- They cannot control their movement well, they cannot stop quickly
- They feel sick when travelling by a means of transport
- They cannot do activities, in which they must be turned head down and feet up
HELP: To divide the activities into partial ones, easier achievable step by step, to use stimuli such as a finish line, etc.
Perception of own body (proprioception)
Hyposensitive (little sensitive):
- They break personal space in communication, they cannot determine the distance
- They get orientated in space and overcome barriers badly
- They hit people
HELP: To arrange the furniture around the room and to facilitate the orientation, to put colour tape on the ground to mark border lines, to use the “rule of the length of an arm” to assess personal space. That means, always to stand in the distance of an arm from others.
Hypersensitive (too sensitive):
- They have problems with a fine motor skill, with handling small things such as buttons, laces
- They turn the entire body to look at something
HELP: To do exercises for fine motor skill development, e.g. tying boards (they can be bought online).
Examples of problem solving
Problem: Choosiness in food
Possible causes:
sensitivity to tastes or texture, inability to feel food around mouth.
Possible solutions:
to change the texture of food, e.g. to cook mashes. To make familiar with various materials around the mouth step by step, such as flannel, tooth brush and different kinds of food. To support the activities which done by mouth – whistling, a bubble blower
Problem: Effort to chew unsuitable objects
Possible causes:
it is pleasant, pacifying, it brings the feeling of satisfaction
Possible solutions:
to offer safe things for chewing: latex-free tubes, straws or solid sweets (cooled in a refrigerator)
Problem: Dabbling and smearing of excrements
Possible causes:
they may like the texture of excrements or have insensitive smell
Possible solutions:
to try to make familiar and work with the materials such as jelly, corn flour with water, to make familiar with substances with alternative strong smell
Problem: Rejection of wearing a certain kind of clothes
Possible causes:
they do not like the material or pressure of clothes on the skin
Possible solutions:
choose the most comfortable clothes, turn the clothing inside out so that they will not feel the seam on the body, remove all tags
Problem : Difficulties to fall asleep
Possible causes:
they may have problems to calm down their senses, in particular the sight and hearing
Possible solutions:
to use dark curtains or blinds and heavy blankets, to listen to music to filter out external sounds
Problem : Difficulties to concentrate in the classroom
Possible causes:
a lot of disturbing elements: noise (talking, the bell, shifting chairs on the floor) or visual perception (people, pictures on the wall), or touch perceptions (they feel it unpleasant to hold a pencil because it is solid/cold/…)
Possible solutions:
locating further from the door and window, to create an individual screened working area, to find a writing tool which will be pleasant