Autism Consulting Service   

Last Saturday I attended the annual Autism Conference in Pasadena. On that day I had the unique experience in participating in a Super Sensory Session.  I thought I had a pretty good understanding of autism, but I was humbled by the experience. I want to share this with each of you. 

The session was held in a small conference room with 20 participants. Mostly were parents of autistic children, some were special education teachers and others were therapists who service the autism community. 
After initial introductions the participants were asked to change into "special shirts made of burlap" in place of their own. They were the scratchy Real McCoy. When we returned to the room after changing,  we were assaulted by the smell of pine sol, incense and scented candles burning. We too our seat, three to a table facing the front.

On all sides of the room were placed boom boxes playing different things from music to loud talking. No two boom boxes were playing the same thing and each one was turned up quite loud. We were told to sit up straight with our feet on the floor. No fidgeting or twiddling was permitted. Next a bright light was shone on each of our faces with the instructor behind the light. We were asked to imitate her facial expressions through the glare of the light even though it was impossible to see them. 

We were told were would be watching a video and that we would be tested on it at its conclusion. The video was then turned on. When we could not hear it, I asked to have the sound turned up. Remember that the boom boxes were still on. The video was turned up to the maximum volume but we could still not here the voice of the person sitting in the chair reading the story.     There was a whit noise over the sound of the video so you could not ever make out the words  that were being spoken, The video was visually boring in that the person sat in the chair reading a story (that you could not hear) and there was no other movement except for a cat that would walk into the picture a couple of times. The video played for about 10 minutes which seemed a very long time since I couldn't move around and the and the incense was blowing right into my face.
At the conclusion of the video we were given thorny branches and pots of paint. A white page was handed to us that was the test of the video. The questions we written in tiny very light yellow letters. We were told to write our names using the branches and the paint and answer on the test. I couldn't read the questions at all and I found myself doodling and trying to paint pictures. At the conclusion at this part of the session we were asked to go back and change back into our regular clothes. 
When we came back into the room the noise and smells were gone. The chairs were set up in a circle and we were given water to drink. We each discussed our feelings about the session. It was very interesting that each person had their own unique response to the sensory overload. Some people withdrew and got inside their own head. Others focused on the pattern the incense was making in the swirling smoke. Some wanted to run out and escape. Most stated that since they couldn't tune in they were bored and doing other things to occupy their attention. I felt like I couldn't solve any of the problems. I couldn't listen harder. I couldn't focus better to see the questions on the test page. I couldn't write any better using the branch. It was a very helpless feeling. I had no emotion about other people and I felt inadequate and stupid. 

We all came away from the experience in awe of our children who daily live in this autistic experience and manage to do as well as they do. It is important that as advocates for the kids we must constantly remind others of the sensory overload they are experiencing.  Teachers are urged to remove. extraneous non educational material from the walls. Parents are requested to limit the chaos in the child's environment. . We are all asked to turn down the volume.  This not only benefits the autistic person but also other other children. It is no wonder  that the autistic is described as being aloof and withdrawn. If you were bombarded with unnecessary noise and irreverent information constantly, how do you think you would react? You can't really know until you have been in that place. 

Thanks for listening. 
Jane DuBovy