Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism: Different Sensory Experiences, Different Perceptual Worlds

Rating:
Summary: Eye opener
Review: For the first time I started to see 'into' the world of autism after reading Olga Bogdashina's book 'Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome'.
The book gives a very clear picture of the different ways people with ASD perceive the world. I now look at the children I work with in a different light - I am beginning to understand why certain things cause them such distress. The book is an eye-opener!

Rating:
Summary: At last, sensory issues in autism are being addressed
Review: This book was excellent. It focuses on sensory peculiarities as being the likely cause of outward autistic behavior. Instead of focusing on general problems (Triad of Impairments) and common behavior of individuals on the spectrum, this book looks at how an individual's sensory experiences can CAUSE a lot of the behavior associated with autism. It may also offer an explanation for why autism is very much an individual experience - why no two people's experiences of the condition are the same.

Olga Bogdashina provides an in depth but easy to read explanation of hyper and hyposensitivities of the senses, and of how some individuals can only use one sensory channel at a time making it difficult to interpret the environment. Many examples have been provided by individual's with autism and the emphasis is very much on needing to understand the cause of a certain behavior BEFORE trying to 'normalize' or adjust that behavior. Olga suggests that much of the behavior displayed by autistic individual's is necessary in spite of 'normal' people's views that such behavior must be stopped or corrected.
Whilst similar theories were identified around thirty years ago, Olga's own research brings together current findings and beliefs about autism and sensory functioning.
The book also includes a sensory questionnaire and chart which helps identify an individual's 'personal' sensory profile.
Well worth buying if you are researching this area or if you are a parent trying to understand unusual behavior such as why your autistic child likes switching lights on and off or only wears certain clothes or any number of other behaviors which are not given an adequate explanation by the 'Triad of Impairments' model.