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EARLY SENSORY DEVELOPMENT by Valerie Dejean
Early gross and fine motor development is consistent with expected early developmental milestones. Difficulties may appear with more complex motor behavior such as climbing a jungle gym or nesting cubes. Use of utensils may present a problem and manipulative such as buttons and zippers may prove impossible. There are however children who present with advanced motor skills. These are the children who climb everywhere without apparent judgment (though they never get hurt). They are also the children who figure out the VCR or the computer at age two. As it is often the case in Autism/PDD, certain areas of development may excel while others lag way behind (such as language).The children may present with over or under sensitivity within their tactile system. Some children are so sensitive to light touch that routine self-care becomes an overwhelming proposition. They fight having their hair cut or washed as though it caused them significant pain, yet the same child may fall down, scrape a knee and get up without skipping a beat. For this child the band aid is worse than the cut. Children may also be under reactive (sometimes in the same child), and crave certain types of touch that provide deep firm pressure. Often the children hate "yucky" textures and want their hands cleaned immediately after touching the finger paints.
Children may also present with over and under reactivity to vestibular input. Some children may crave lots of intense spinning, jumping or running back and forth. Other children may fear movement clinging to their parents whenever their balance is challenged. They may fear elevators and escalators. Both extremes indicate some inadequacy in vestibular processing. It suggests that the child isn't receiving the proper sensory input from this important sensory system, that is necessary for optimal adaptive behavioral responses.
Over and under reactivity can also been seen in the visual system. To much visual stimulation may be overwhelming to the child. They may also be fascinated with certain visual stimuli such as watching spinning objects or vertical/horizontal lines. They may run their eyes along the tables edge or move their heads back and forth in front of the venetian blinds. Some children may have a fascination with visual constants which always stay the same, such as letters and numbers. They may have very advanced visual memories such as learning a complex puzzle after only seeing them once. They may relay on a stronger visual system for a weaker auditory one.
The auditory system may present with the same mixed reactivity. Commonly one of the first things a parent reports is, "their child tunes them out when they call his name right behind him, yet comes running when his favorite video is playing three floors below". Though it is hard to believe, this selectivity of response is not really under the child's control. Another common symptom is sound sensitivity. Certain machine sounds such as the vacuum cleaner or the blender may send the child in a rage, covering his ears. Another child may crave these sounds and place his ear to the vacuum cleaner. Some children may not be able to go to any noisy environments. Birthday parties where loud balloons go off are frightening experiences.
Sensitivities such as those described above may be present in normal children. It is the degree and the severity of the sensitivities that are observed in the Autistic/PDD child. Families of Autistic/PDD children often describe a hellish restricted existence built around avoiding the things that set off their child's sensitivities. They cannot go to restaurants or visit the relatives. Their other children can't have their friends over. Visits to the dentist or to the hairdresser are mortifying as other people look at them as if to say "why can you control your child?" A trip to the supermarket can be just as ugly if something sets off a temper tantrum. Loving a child with such sensitivities can often be a confusing maze, as they often don't respond to normal displays of affection because it simply doesn't feel good to their bodies. It takes a lot of understanding to relate to a child with such a sensitive nature, yet if a channel of engagement is not found, they will continue to withdraw.
