Sensory awareness

Last night I went to a seminar on sensory awareness and how it affects people on the autistic spectrum. Ironically one of my memories of the night will be the constant whirring of the projector and the stark lighting highlighting to me my own sensory issues! It was a good night (if long - from 5:00-9:30 at night!) and once again helped me to understand S so much more as he perfectly fit into most of the classic categories for sensory perception difficulties. It was suggested we imagined sitting in a room on a broken stool, at a wobbly table, with the radio untuned on in the background with shoes on that are a size too small wearing a scratchy shirt whilst having the after taste of sardines mixed with coffee in our mouths. That, it was suggested is the bombardment on the senses it can be akin to when you are on the spectrum. Whilst folks not on the spectrum can intuitively block out senses people with ASD struggle to do this. Eye contact can be physically painful as can be slight touch or sounds. The same day however can result in a need for deep touch which only hours earlier could have tipped the balance. It really was interesting but also reassuring that we are doing the right things with S. The biggest thing I will take from the evening is that if I can help it at all there is no way S will be returning to school! Circumstances may change for us at some point and finances don't flow but really having heard most of the sensory challenges that face a child on the spectrum an overwhelming number of them were school related! It was such a relief to hear of all the things we have eliminated for S in an already tricky world! It's given me the encouragement I needed at a good time to persevere and to plod on! On that note we are having a bit of an impromptu inservice day. I need to get planning ahead as the day to day approach is not really working and leads to too much "dead" time.