These experiences may include being too sensitive, less sensitive or have difficulty interpreting a sense (Agnosia). These sensory experiences are based on real experiences, but may feel or sound different, or have difficulty interpreting an experience.
Many people with autism have problems dealing with many stimuli. The difficulty is dealing with more than one event or concept with a very narrow focus of attention. Normally, people have a 'wider' awareness of their environment whereas one with autism is more focused and concentrated into smaller details, like looking through a small keyhole (ADD/ADHD). Normal attention looks at and sees a picture. Autistic attention looks at and studies the dots that make up the picture, whether or not there is any regard to their being connected to each other.
People with Autism have some unusual reactions to stimuli, especially when hyperactivity is involved. Major emergencies may be taken in stride whereas one may become upset with 'surprises,' even minor ones as losing a piece of paper or batteries in a radio going bad. Shifting attention usually involves a pause or time of delay.
A person with autism takes events one at a time; they also have difficulty with automatic selection when prioritizing stimuli. This means that when the neurologically typical hear their own name, they can prioritize and respond immediately. A person with autism takes each stimuli at a time (a bird chirping, a florescent light hum, distant whispers, machine noises, wind or air systems, light flickering, movement of people, video movement, smells in the air, how their clothes feel against them, movements of their own arms and feet while walking, should I continue?) and process each stimula as equal importance. Others can dismiss most, if not all, of this stimuli as nonessential. This others may often take for granted. As events continue, item by item, confusion and sensory overload often results; a person with autism has great difficulty 'juggling' these events all the time, one at a time.
At times, the person may appear to be deaf and fail to respond to words or other sounds (as when interest is hyperfocused). The person with autism may have trouble making out what is said to them since they have problems processing sound. Other times, that same person may feel distressed by an everyday noise like a vacuum cleaner, a blender, or a soft 60-cycle hum from a florescent light. Even the buzzing of a fly can cause a person with autism to cover their ears. One might consider the 'dripping water torture' as one example of painful stimule. A person with autism may find a gentle touch very uncomfortable, a tickle can be painful, when a firm grasp would not be a problem.
Vision can be affected as well. Some people with autism are Prosopagnostic and may have problems recognizing people. Recognitions is often slow when faces tend to be analyzed rather than recognized. Some people with autism will find that bright light hurts their eyes or flickering of a florescent light will interupt their attention and cause them distress. Some may experience a form of abstract vision when shadows and shapes cause an unwanted memory recall or mental process of similarities. Abstract faces or objects can be artisticly seen in pretty wall patterns or wood grain patterns. Other patterns as with mathmatic numbers can seemingly pop out to them in a bold way. As in reading, words and letters may appear flipped to the side, mirror imaged, etc. This often causes confusion with such letters as 'b', 'q' and 'p' and numbers 6 and 9 (see Dyslexia).
The person may show insensitivity to pain or fail to respond to cold, heat or injury; just the opposite, they may over-react to these stimuli (Tactile Defensive). A common effect of heightened senses is that some autistic people are vulnerable to sensory overload with continuous, low-level bombardment (such as social conversations at parties, traffic noise, air system noise, radio played low, bumping in crowds, water currents or flow on the body as with showers or baths, etc.) that would not bother, or maybe entertain, others. This may also stem from too much stimulation from emotional or social events. When overloaded or overstimulated, a person with autism may have trouble concentrating, feel tired, confused, or maybe feel pain. Overload can also lead to hyperactive behavior, 'nervous' tics, tantrums, brooding, or emotional outbursts. The autistic person may also stop functioning all together, and lose normal functioning. Curiously, no two people with autism have the same exact pattern of sensory problems.
With Autism Spectrum Differences (ASD) being neurological, the person may appear awkward and clumsy. Misjudgements of pressure when holding things may cause an item such as a drinking glass to fall out of the hand. Tourettes is also another color of the ASD rainbow with speech patterns and involuntary movements or 'tics'. Many have discovered how ASD coordination and sensory often compare with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Copyright, Maestro Media / Julien, 2001
