sensory processing Archives — THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM

A blond white woman. She is sitting at a table and signing an open book.

April and Accommodations: Our Sensory Needs Are Real!

April 14, 2022 • By Sally J. Pla

I need regular doses of solitude to recover from sensory onslaught. This doesn’t mean I am anti-social. I’m deeply social, but I do need a fair amount of downtime.

Photo from the perspective of someone standing at a train station. To the left is a small transit shelter structure with six vertically stacked square translucent windows on the inner portion, and an array of larger translucent windows framed with bright red crosspieces. There is a curved roof overhang visible at the top of the structure. A sidewalk runs directly ahead, patterned with the shadows of trees and architectural features. To the right are tracks, a road with vehicles on it, and a line of green trees, in that order. The sky is dotted with a stylized pattern of detailed leaves, and the image overall is high contrast to emphasize details and edges. Photo © Anne Corwin

Please Stop Playing “Gotcha” With Autistic Accommodations

January 18, 2022 • By Anne Corwin

Pro tip: it’s fine to want to understand your autistic friends’ sensory and accommodations issues, etc., but please don’t frame it as a “Gotcha.”

Wouldn’t You Want to Know If Your Autistic Child Was Being Harmed?

August 10, 2021 • By Autistic Science Person

I truly do not know why some parents don’t want to listen to autistic adults. There is so much good autism information for parents from autistic adults, and so much of it is freely available, and yet the parents choose not to know.

Illustration of the character Tom Sawyer talking another boy into painting the fence that Tom is supposed to paint.

When Adaptation Looks Like Laziness

July 9, 2020 • By Emily Paige Ballou

For instance, autistic inertia means that it’s harder for autistic people than it is for other people to stop, start, and change activities.

High color contrast photo of a light burst, seen from through a car windshield from the perspective of a rear seat.

What Is Sensory Processing Like For Autistic People?

October 28, 2019 • By Reid Caplan

Autistic people process our senses differently, and that’s okay! Autism makes us who we are, and sensory processing is an important part of being autistic. People should try and understand autism and how it makes us different, instead of trying to change us.

The “Out-of-Sync” Child Grows Up: An Autistic Perspective

October 3, 2016 • By Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Sara M. Acevedo [image: Book cover of The Out-of-Sync Child Grows Up: Title in teal text, on background photo of five older kids running across a field, from behind.] The Out-of-Sync Child Grows Up is the newest book from Carol Stock Kranowitz in her “Out-of-Sync” Child series. Subtitled “Coping With Sensory Processing Disorder in the

Everything Is Always Shifting and Inconsistent: Autism, Language, and Listening

April 7, 2016 • By M. Kelter

“It’s hard a lot of the time to know what I’m supposed to be paying attention to, what’s relevant to that particular conversation. I have to sift through all of the data and consciously keep track of what matters, and what doesn’t.”

Disobedience or Disability? An Essay on Sensory Processing

November 28, 2012 • By Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Tony and Mary Brandenburg theebrandenburgs.blogspot.com Taking a shower feels like needles stabbing my head! The sound of that fan is making my ears hurt. I feel like I’m suffocating when you hug me. Image source: TVTropes.com Maurice Sendak, who wrote and illustrated Where the Wild Things Are, was amazingly astute in his observation of children

Graphic with the title "Karla's Emotion Picture (FYI)" Vertical rectangle divided into five horizontal bars. To the left is an upward facing arrow labeled, "intensity" The bottom bar is white and labeled "Unaware". Text to its right reads, "When I was younger I was 100% unaware of any sort of emotion in me and would be shocked when I was in a meltdown all of a sudden. It still happens sometimes today though I try to actively practice awareness of my physical and emotional selves in order to survive." The next bar up is green and labeled "Happy or Sad". Text to its right reads, "Everything is just fine. I am a mostly happy being and sometimes sad. Neither of these emotions are bad to my current awareness nor cause me distress that I know of". Between the green bar and the next bar up is a dotted line labeled "Emotional Regulation Line" Next bar up is yellow and labeled "Some Fear/Anger". Text to its right reads, "I will feel 'off' here but most of the time I cannot articulate what that means and often cannot tie it to any one thing". Next bar up is red and labeled "Bigger Fear/Anger". Text to its right reads, "Here I know FOR SURE that if I do not take corrective action that I will have a Meltdown. Again I sometimes am not sure why this is happening. Mostly I just need to be left alone here." The top bar is black and labeled "Meltdown". Text to its right reads, "A meltdown to me is an intense mixture of fear and anger and other emotions that confuse me. Sometimes I laugh due to the confusion when nothing about it is 'funny'."

Autistic Grief Is Not Like Neurotypical Grief

August 1, 2012 • By Karla Fisher

There really are no good articles on how to help an autistic person process grief. It is with this hole in mind that I create this article.