Sensing Our Surroundings

To see, touch, hear, and move about are the key elements we have to explore the world around us. Each sense has its own crucial function, and as stated in the last blog, each experience is transmitted to the brain through a course of nerves and synapses. Those who lack or struggle with one sense usually find their others to be strengthened. I am partially deaf, so I find myself relying more my vision, or rather my visual observation skills, to compensate. For autistic children, you will usually find that they too have certain dominant senses which overshadow the others. As they come to rely on these dominant senses to explore their world, they often ignore the weaker ones, which can result in exacerbating their symptoms.

One of the newer arguments (or rather, an older argument that’s finally breaking through) presented by Dr. Michael Goldberg is that autism is caused medically by a virus. The virus often times spreads through the brain linearly, from front to back or from side to side. The front of the brain is comprised of what’s called the Broca’s Area, which is responsible for speech production and can determine whether your child is verbal or not. The back of the brain is the occipital lobe, responsible for visual processing. Either side of the brain is where the temporal lobes are located, and where the Wernicke’s Area is housed, which is responsible for auditory processing: interpreting and understanding language, which also determines speech ability (if you can’t hear it, you can’t replicate it). Thereby, where the virus lands drastically affects the senses and creates a dominance.

I recall in the beginning of my practicum, my supervisor told me she could spend one minute watching a new patient and figure out their dominance. I sat there thinking I hope I can do that one day, as she assured me we’d pick it up soon. Determining your own child’s dominant senses is usually not hard, especially when you spend far more time with them than we clinicians do. Making it simpler, however, is one thing my clinical supervisor hammered into our heads: that it is almost certain that verbal children’s dominant senses are auditory and kinesthetic (movement). Children who are non-verbal are visual and tactile (touch). It is not often that you find a child with dominant olfactory and gustation (smell and taste). But, if you’re unsure of these textbook findings, you can easily gauge your child’s senses by simple observation. If your child spends the majority of their time staring at moving objects or brightly colored flashing lights for prolonged periods of time, tries to rewind or fast-forward videos over and over again while watching the movie or clip, or flicks their fingers in front of their eyes while staring at something, they are visually dominant. If they prefer to touch several things such as soft fabrics, beaded items, or play-doh, they’re tactile. Those who run back and forth, jump, climb, flip about are kinesthetic. Others rewind or fast-forward videos or music to listen to the dialog and memorize the lines in order to script them. These are the auditory sensors.

At times it can be difficult to clinch your child’s dominance. Sometimes you will find that your child is engaging in an activity that can stimulant two senses at once, and only through careful observation can you conclude the purpose the activity is serving. For example, one patient I worked with used to take objects, hold them loosely against the wall with one hand and tap it with the other. We struggled with it; was the tapping tactile, feeling the rapid repeated connection with the object under his fingertips? Was it auditory, listening to the knocking against the wall? Noting that he was non-verbal and that auditory stimulation was not empirically likely, and after observing other behaviors, eventually we determined it was tactile. Another patient had a preference to take a small stack of thinly cut strips of paper and flap them. Many clinicians stated that they believed she flapped the strips as a visual stim, however I had been observing her for months, and noted that while she flapped the strips, she never looked at them. She held them out to the side at an arm’s length and flapped while looking in the opposite direction. It was then I realized that she listened to the sound of the papers. Likewise it may be difficult to determine if your child is visual or auditory when they’re watching videos, but if you watch carefully, most times those with auditory dominance allow their eyes to glaze over, or do not even look at the screen when it’s playing because they’re focused on the sound.

It’s important to realize that your child will probably engage in behaviors satisfying all senses, some auditory/kinesthetic children still like to watch videos and will stare at them. Some visual/tactile children will pace and flap their arms. But you will undoubtedly notice certain behaviors happening far more frequently than others, and the dominance will shine through.

Knowing your child’s dominant senses can be helpful in many respects, especially in teaching them new things behaviorally and academically. Utilizing their strongest senses will increase communication and provide a reward system to keep them motivated. If I had a patient who was auditory and kinesthetic, I would sometimes make up songs for various lessons, like the vowels or nouns, and then provide frequent small breaks where the patient could get up and move and run around as a reward. Other times I focused on one dominance. For example, a child who is predominantly kinesthetic may need movement in order to focus. One tactic I frequently employed in the clinic was running. If I needed a patient to spell a word for me, I would ask, wait for the correct response, and then we would run. Sometimes the game evolved into hide and seek, where I would duck into other offices, let the patient find me, then I would request the spelling word again and continue the game. Other times we incorporated a ball that we could run and kick. The movement kept them focused, the reward was the game.

Bear in mind, though, my previous blog: satiating a dominant sense for a child usually triggers stims. You must be mindful of the senses you’re working with and the rewards you’re providing. For a child who was auditory, singing a made up song to teach a new concept was beneficial, but we soon learned showing educational music videos on YouTube increased stims and scripting. A child who is visually dominant may work for the reward of watching a video, but the video may increase hand flapping or even cause a seizure. Sometimes you may provide a reward, but after receiving it, the child will stim so much on it that they will refuse to relinquish it to return to work. When working with your child, carefully observe them, note their reactions, are they focusing or stimming, will rewards keep them motivated or interfere?

While it’s helpful to incorporate the dominating senses to work with your child, do not fully neglect the weaker senses. Your child’s brain can be trained to strengthen the senses that need work, and usually, these senses can help them explore the world more, rather than focusing on a narrow field of interest or reverting back into their own solitude. For a visual/tactile child who usually perseverates on videos, you can strengthen their kinesthetic senses by increasing their bodily movement. The movement will awaken nerves and synapses not frequently utilized, which forces the brain to become more aware. Additionally, since movement is not a sense they usually seek out independently, you will have to move them, which forces them to become aware of your presence in the environment and keeps them from withdrawing. Likewise, taking a child who is auditory/kinesthetic and having them work on a visual computer program (one with no audio output) like a type of puzzle can strengthen their visual senses. In the beginning, exploring these new senses will not be easy or fun. Experiencing a new sense at a higher level of intensity can be distressing given that you are pulling your child out of their comfort zone. Or, the child may not find it as satisfying as their typical activities, so there may be limited motivation to continue the task. Begin these sensory exercises slowly and for smaller time periods, and then increase the frequency and duration gradually.

These senses are tiny windows into your child, some are wide open, others are tightly shut, but when you can seep in through the open ones and pry loose the closed ones, you may interact with your child and reach them in ways you never knew possible.