Sensory Issues

One of the challenges we've faced with our son's autism is intense fear -- fear of change, fear of heights, fear of movement through space.....long before he was verbal. It's something about the way his brain interprets messages about his surroundings. His sights, sounds, touch, tastes and smells all come in at the same intensity -- nothing is relegated to background noise. Couple that with an overactive fight or flight system, and everything comes into his brain as frightening. His body is constantly sending his brain signals of Danger, Danger, Danger, Danger... Notice how it's harder to pay attention to this because of the enlarged words over there? We've endeavored to help him get past this and help him to ignore those danger messages. (Still hard to pay attention, isn't it?) Little by little, we stretch his boundaries. I guess you could say we take him through little trials that challenge him to grow.

Incremental Steps - Going to p.e. in the gymnasium was once an overwhelming experience. First, we got him to sit by us in the bleachers while the other students ran around and made lots of noise that echoed off the walls. We stayed with him the whole time and showed him that he could indeed get through it. Once he was okay with that, we had him go down onto the floor and do the stretches with the other children. Once again... we were still there where he could see us. Next step..... he had to participate more and more in p.e. We stayed there and watched him for encouragement. Then, we would come for a while, and then get in places where he couldn't see us. Yet, we were still there. Now, he looks forward to p.e. class and is upset if he misses it.

I mention this, because it is an effective way on a smaller scale to deal with any minor problems you might encounter when exposing him to new sensory challenges. Getting him to touch, feel, experience it in small, sequential steps is very effective.