Once you have addressed your child’s physical needs, it’s time to consider sensory and emotional regulation. Your child’s sensory experiences are probably very different from your own. She is likely easily overwhelmed by information coming in through some senses, perhaps upset by loud noises, and isn’t getting enough input from the senses responsible for self-awareness and regulation.
In school you learned about five senses: taste, smell, sound, sight, and touch. Two more senses are important to understand your child: the vestibular sense, which controls balance, and proprioception, or the sense of one’s body in space. In many people with autism, some of the information from these senses is too much, too little, or distorted, leading to feelings of terror, pain, or disengagement.
To overcome the confusion, your child needs help stabilizing his senses. Author Judy Endow, an adult with autism, recommends sensory breaks—moments during the day when your child can fill sensory needs.
What type of sensory break does your child need?
Observe your child and see what they gravitate to when they do repetitive behaviors. That might give you some clues to what sensory activities help them regroup. Depending on your child’s needs and strengths, a sensory break might include:
- spinning
- rocking
- doing push-ups against the wall
- rubbing something with texture
- wearing a weighted vest or blanket
- listening to music
- sucking through a straw
- chewing something crunchy
- taking a visual break in a quiet environment
- using an assistive technology
Exercise is also a great way to calm the nervous system and to teach physical self-control. Team sports that require advanced skill and social interactions probably aren’t a good idea, but depending on your child’s age, skills, and fears, going to the gym or the pool, rolling a ball across the floor, or heading out for a family walk or run can help reduce stress and feed sensory needs.
According to one study the benefit of proprioceptive information lasts for about two hours, so your child might need a sensory break like this approximately every two hours. Some children need to get stabilized much more frequently. Of course every child is different and their needs are likely to change daily. Judy talks about her need to get sensory information proactively—before there’s a problem—and reactively, if there’s something in the moment that’s causing her stress.
One goal of therapy is for your child to develop enough self-awareness to know when they need to stabilize, self-regulate, and take a sensory break—and to know how to do these things. Then, regardless of their issues, they will manage better in the world.
Adapted with permission from The Autism Revolution by Martha Herbert, M.D., Ph.D., with Karen Weintraub. Reprinted by arrangement with Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
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