Sensory sensitivities and autism

Did you know that we have 8 sensory systems?

• Our visual system sends messages to our brain about things that we can see.
  
  

• Our auditory system sends messages to our brain about things we can hear.
  
  

• Our olfactory system sends messages to our brain about things we can smell.
  
  

• Our tactile system sends messages to our brain about things we can touch, and things that touch us - all over our skin.
  
  

• Our gustatory system sends messages to our brain about things that we taste.
  
  

• Our proprioceptive system sends messages to our brain about what our muscles and joints are doing - how we are moving our body.
  
  

• Our vestibular system sends messages to our brain telling us how we’re moving – up, down, left, right etc.
  
  

• Our interoceptive system sends messages to our brain telling us what's going on inside our body – are we hungry or thirsty, do we need the toilet, which emotion are we feeling?

All eight sensory systems are sending information to our brain all the time. For most people, our brain filters out information that isn't needed, to focus on what is needed. For example, think about your feet. Are you wearing socks, or do you have bare feet? Do you have shoes on or slippers? Are your feet touching the floor or not? All these messages are going to our brain all the time, but our brain filters them out because we don't need to concentrate on our feet at this moment.

For some people, particularly those who are autistic, their sensory filtering system works differently. Their brain is likely to be trying to process most or all of the sensory sensations they're experiencing simultaneously. This can lead to sensory overload, when there is too much information coming in and it feels overwhelming. Places where there is lots of incoming sensory information will be particularly difficult to be in for any length of time, or at all. For example, going to the supermarket, being on a crowded bus, waiting in the playground before school - these can all be sensorily extremely overwhelming. If you experience sensory overwhelm, then you are very likely to want to avoid places that trigger this. So, this may be the reason why your child does not want to go to busy, noisy, crowded places.

For many autistic people, it is not just the amount of information coming in that's overwhelming, it's the strength of that information that can feel overpowering, too. Autistic people tend to have super sensitive senses, so noises feel louder, clothes may feel itchier, tastes feel stronger, and someone else brushing past them can be experienced as if they're being shoved. This is often referred to as being ‘hypersensitive’ to sensory information and can explain why your autistic child may really hate hand dryers, or have certain clothes that they won't want to wear, why they may gag on certain food textures or tastes, or might really feel uncomfortable if people get too close to them.

It's really helpful, when we identify sensory triggers, to we see if there are ways that these triggers can be removed or reduced from a child's environment, so that the world is a more pleasant place for them to be in.

Many autistic people are both sensory avoiders and sensory seekers. This means that as well as there being environments or sensations that they may avoid, there will also be sensations that they seek because they are comforting and soothing - things that make them feel better. These are sometimes referred to as ‘regulators’. Examples might be: favourite sounds to listen to or make, favourite smells, favourite textures of materials or toys. It can be helpful to have these regulators close by, as they can be used as a way to feel calmer and more regulated if the rest of the world starts to feel sensorily overwhelming, and the sensory triggers causing this overwhelmed can't be removed or reduced.

Finally, some autistic people can be ‘hyposensitive’ in some of their senses, which means they need more information to process what's going on around them. For neurotypical people, this is a bit like having a dead arm, you need to shake your arm to get enough sensation in to feel what your arm is doing. For an autistic person, they may need to smell things, touch things, push against things to get enough sensory information into their systems to make sense of what they are interacting with.

Sadie Gillett is a thought leader in neurodivergence, with a focus on autism. She has 25 years’ experience working with autistic young people, their families, and their schools.