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All Are Welcome: Creating an Inclusive Festival
Almost 11 years ago, I founded an organization, Autism Personal Coach, that provides coaching to autistic adults and teens to improve the quality of our lives. Within the first year of our existence, I realized that the lack of community was a glaring and alarming need for many of our clients. That...
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Sensory Processing Differences and Autism
In 2013, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) included for the first time sensory reactivity within the diagnostic criteria for autism. The DSM-5 describes three categories of sensory differences: Sensory hyperreacitivty is an...
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Sensory Scanning for Self-Advocacy
Many individuals with autism, like myself, have challenges with the sensory world. Sometimes these challenges are difficult for us to identify, and quite often it’s even harder for those around us to see or understand them. Our senses provide our brains with information about the environment,...
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A Practical Guide for Parents of Children with Sensory Processing Difficulties
Having a child diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) necessitates parents to make a host of lifestyle and emotional adjustments. Many of these adjustments are in response to behavioral challenges exhibited by their children due to difficulty appropriately processing sensory information....
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Sensory Processing Difficulties – Dressing For Success
Many Children with Aspergers experience sensory processing difficulties or sensory processing disorder (SPD). Sensory Processing is the neurological processing and interpretation of sensation within one’s own body and from the environment. In short, it is the brain’s organization and...
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Addressing Sensory Processing Differences in Children with ASD
There is a growing body of literature describing unusual sensory processing patterns in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. A proliferation of writing from individuals with ASD such as Temple Grandin, Donna Williams and others have noted sensory processing impairments as one of the key...
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Four Faces of Overstimulation
The word “overstimulation” is not listed in standard collegiate dictionaries. In the lives of people with Asperger Syndrome, however, this little-recognized form of stress reigns supreme. The ideas in this article are drawn from my own experiences – both living with Asperger’s and...
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The Neurobiology of Sensory-Perceptual Symptoms in Autism
A significant proportion of people with Autistic Disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders exhibit sensory symptoms, which can include over-responsiveness, under-responsiveness, and paradoxical responses to environmental stimuli. Indeed, autobiographical accounts by people with autism...
