Although up to 90% of people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder have sensory processing difficulties, Sensory Processing Disorder is a separate condition recognized in up to 16% of the general population. Keep reading to learn about sensory processing disorder vs autism.
As we mentioned, not all individuals with ASD will have sensory challenges, but many of them will. Most people with ASD will experience differences in the way they experience sensory input at least from time to time while some people with ASD will have extreme difficulty with certain sensory experiences.
Autistic people may experience sensory differences. If you are autistic, you may be over-sensitive or under-sensitive to specific sights, sounds, smells or textures. This can be a positive thing, but can also cause distress or discomfort.
Sometimes an autistic person may behave in a way that you wouldn't immediately link to sensory differences. A person who finds it difficult to process everyday sensory information can experience sensory overload, or information overload.
Neurodivergent people are more likely to have sensory difficulties. But anyone, neurodivergent and neurotypical people alike, can have difficulties with their sensory system.
You absolutely are neurodivergent if you have been diagnosed with a developmental or learning disorder, such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, or Tourette's syndrome. You may decide to consider yourself neurodivergent if you have no diagnosis but think, behave, or interact in ways that are outside the norm.
Although older autistic individuals may also experience meltdowns, not all autistic people have them.
Furthermore, participants' preferred soft and comfortable textures, like satin; previous research also reporting that autistic individuals enjoy touching soft and smooth textures (Cascio et al., 2012).
Due to sensory sensitivities, someone with autism might: display unusual sensory seeking behaviour such as sniffing objects or staring intently at moving objects. display unusual sensory avoidance behaviours including evasion of everyday sounds and textures such as hair dryers, clothing tags, vacuum cleaners and sand.
posturing – holding hands or fingers out at an angle or arching the back while sitting. visual stimulation – looking at something sideways, watching an object spin or fluttering fingers near the eyes. repetitive behaviour like opening and closing doors or flicking switches.
In children and teenagers with high-functioning autism, this can present as a limited social circle, difficulty completing group work, or problems sharing toys and materials. Many people with ASD have sensory difficulties. Certain tastes, noises, smells, or feelings can be intolerable.
Main signs of autism
finding it hard to understand what others are thinking or feeling. getting very anxious about social situations. finding it hard to make friends or preferring to be on your own. seeming blunt, rude or not interested in others without meaning to.
Masking is a word used to describe something seen in many children with ASD – when they learn, practice, and perform certain behaviours and suppress others in order to be more like the people around them.
Up to 90 percent of people with autism are either overly sensitive to sound, sight, taste, smell or touch, or barely notice them at all.
A person diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome may be sensitive to certain sensory experiences. This might include noise, touch, smell, or visual stimuli. It might include certain materials, such as modeling clay, chalk, sand, and water.
While many children with autism feel averse to hugging, some children with autism like to be hugged. Some children can swing the opposite way and want so many hugs that they feel hug deprived when they aren't getting enough.
Considering this evidence for autistic people's different experience of touch, it is no wonder that autistic children may avoid touch or only engage in touch under certain conditions. It has been reported that autistic children engage in cuddles less than non-autistic peers (Baranek, 1999).
Many people do not recognize the signs of autism until adulthood. And, even then, it's often mistaken for ADHD or another comorbidity.
Meltdowns are overwhelming emotions and quite common in Level 1 Autistic kids. They can be caused by anything from a very minor incident to something more traumatic. They last until the kid is either completely exhausted, or he gains control of his emotions, which is not easy for him to do.
Hyperlexia is advanced and unexpected reading skills and abilities in children way beyond their chronological age. It is a fairly recently named condition (1967) although earlier descriptions of precocious reading do exist.
Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be difficult because there is no medical test, like a blood test, to diagnose the disorder. Doctors look at the child's developmental history and behavior to make a diagnosis. ASD can sometimes be detected at 18 months of age or younger.
The vast majority of neurodivergent adults are self-diagnosed in the first instance: in other words, we figure things out for ourselves, do the research and then go looking for a professional to confirm it.