Sensory Implications for Teaching ASD Students

1. SENSORY IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ASD STUDENTS

2. 7 basic sensory stems within nervous system Sound Movement Touch Body Position Smell Vision Taste Characteristics of the Sensory System

3. Tactile Vestibular Proprioceptive Visual Auditory Touch - Skin Balance – Inner Ear Body Awareness – Muscles and Joints Sight – Retina of Eye Hearing- Inner Ear Location of Systems

4. Gustatory Offactory Taste – Chemical Receptors in tongue Chemical Receptors in tongue. Location of Sensory Systems

5. Dunn’s Model for Sensory Processing • Model characterizes patterns of responding • Based on: • 1, neurological thresholds- continuum runs from low to high thresholds • 2. Self regulation strategies – a behavioral continuum runs from passive to active strategies

6. Neurological Threshold • Represents amount of input nervous system requires before responding. • High threshold = takes considerable input • Low threshold = takes very little input

7. Self Regulation • Represents range of strategies used in responding to: task and environmental demands. • Passive strategies – lets things happen • Active strategies – generates responses to control input

8. Intersections of Continuums • Creates 4 basic patterns of sensory processing: • Low registration • Sensation Seeking • Sensory Sensitivity • Sensation Avoiding

9. Low Registration • Uninterested • Self absorbed • Sometimes dull affect

10. Sensation Seeking • Very Active • Continuously engaging and excitable • Pleasure from Sensory experiences • Generate sensory experiences for themselves. • These students need to move and pace while others are seated

11. Sensory Sensitivity • Distractible • Notice and comment on sensory events • Low threshold enables them to have hyper awareness of what is around them. • Have passive strategies – allow things to happen rather than move themselves away. • Sound and sight sensitive

12. Sensation Avoiding • Rule bound • Ritual driven and appear uncooperative • Engage in behaviors that limit sensory input • Engage in active self-regulatory strategies to understand and organize the sensory input. • This sensory input is often threatening

13. Combinations • Children do not have a single sensory processing pattern • Rather have several patterns in their repertoires • Sensation avoider for auditory stimuli but have moderate responses for other sensory system input.

14. Sensory Processing Concerns • Present in: • Autism • OCD • ADHD • Tourette-Syndrome • Schizophrenia

15. Implications for School • School environments include sensory information that is familiar but different in intensity and duration.

16. Difficulties Elementary Classroom furniture – need for movement visually stimulating environments- distracting Cafeteria – smell

17. Difficulties Middle and High School • Multiple passing periods • Myriad hallways • Lockers opening and closing • Different numbers of teachers • Different teaching styles and expectations • Cooperative learning activities -

18. Strategies • 5 strategies • Priming • Working Independently • Visual Supports • Home Base • Social Stories

19. Priming • Priming – preview activity – presents materials and task process in advance of instruction (predictability) • Decreases anxiety and subsequent behavioral responses to anxiety

20. Working Independently • Initial instruction of strategy • Plenty of practice • Adjust if necessary • Complete a task without assistance or reliance from anyone to initiate, persist, and terminate

21. Visual Supports • Supports which are a concrete representation • Reduce ambiguity • Help anticipate • Organize physical space • Help with transition • Help to understand expectations • Can convey directions

22. Home Base • Access to a place apart from routine environment • A positive atmosphere not punishment or escape from tasks • May have to have more than one across contexts • Allows person to: • Plan – Regroup – Recover

23. Social Stories • Short stories from child’s perspective\ • Describe social situations • Include relevant social cues • Very visually descriptive • Less directive • Help address – fears, obsessions, anxiety

24. Summary • ASD kids have complex needs • Necessitate creativity to recognize reasons and think of solutions • Use their strengths • Recognize their weaknesses • Resist giving up