Understanding Super Sensory Sensitivities in Autistic Children

About this course

Sensory super sensitivities are a key area to explore when planning and delivering the inclusion of a child or young person. Sometimes an autistic child may behave in a ways that are hard to understand.

Often this is linked to super sensory sensitivities. A person who struggles to deal with everyday sensory information can experience sensory, or information overload. Too much can cause stress, anxiety, and even physical pain. This can result in withdrawal, shut down, challenging behaviour or a meltdown.

'The human brain receives all of the information that we know about the world and each other through our sensory system. There is no other way for this information to be gathered. People on the autism spectrum describe their experience in this world as that of being overwhelmed by the sensory stimulation they receive from the environments they are forced to deal with. Touch is like a tidal wave, sounds are too loud, language distorted, vision fragmented, focusing on each piece separately rather than the whole, odors often sickening and tastes unbearable. These descriptions have now been validated through research on the specific construction of the brain'.

- Gail Gillingham