The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Understanding ASD requires focusing on patterns. The behaviors frequently exhibited by individuals with ASD most frequently reflect the root causes of the disorder. This presentation examines behaviors and forms interconnections between sensory issues (e.g., sound sensitivity, tactile avoidance, peripheral vision) and global disorders (e.g., communication, language) and biomedical concerns (e.g., allergies, nutrition, the immune system), and teaches some deceptively simplistic but powerful activities from the internationally acclaimed HANDLE paradigm that can help ameliorate the ASD challenges discussed. Autism is an extremely complex neurological disorder, with myriad combinations and degrees of irregularities. It is essential to find patterns, to detect the systemic nature of the challenges each person with autism experience.
Information is processed in loops. Understanding these loops helps us see the broader effects irregularities have throughout the system. In our body-brain-spirit and its reaction to the environment, nothing stands alone.
For example: how might toe-walking, sleep disturbances, eating problems and humming be related?
·         Sleep may be disturbed if one cannot trust his inner ear and brain to keep track of body-in-space sensations so he feels insecure and wakes up in the morning exhausted. 
·         Difficulty tolerating the sound of chewing might lead to digestive problems and difficulties absorbing nutrients.
·         Toe-walking, protecting reflexology points that correspond to digestive organs, might reflect digestive problems, constipation, diarrhea. 
·         Making "white noise" helps block out the sounds that hurt one’s ears and also create vibrations to clear the sinuses and improve breathing.
The permutations and combinations of influences are endless.  With a discerning eye, feeling heart, and analytical mind, one can begin to find connections and interrelatedness.  This requires combining many perspectives: western medicine, eastern philosophies of healing, accepted neuroscientific principles, and extensive experience with autism.
This session will view processing difficulties from just such a broad perspective, rooted in neurodevelopment, and it will consider the total load an individual might carry. Participants will learn the importance of environmental elements such as synthetic materials, nutritional factors such as essential fatty acids, gentle detoxification coordinated with sensory regulation to reduce anxiety since anxiety creates neurotoxicity. In addition to learning about the interactive nature of many symptoms related to ASD, participants will get practical advise about reducing those aspects of the total load that require regulation.
Participants will also learn how the autistic experience arises largely from the brain’s need to make order out of chaos, and how sensory system overload and shut-down interfere with the ability to get all the information needed to create a coherent perception of the world as others experience it.  The challenge with transitions, the obsessive need for things to be organized just-so, and other symptoms frequently associated with autistic behaviors stem from this need for consistency in one’s world-view. The mismatch between a person’s own reality based on partial information and the real world with its many surprises can cause response patterns of fright, leading to autonomic nervous system sympathetic division response. This fright/flight/fight reaction reduces the ability to produce neurotransmitters and enzymes and hormones needed to support the immune system since these resources are called to alleviate felt threats to survival rather than long-term wellness.
The presenter will incorporate recent research on the brain and nervous systems as she discusses areas determined as under-developed in ASD (e.g., the fusiform face area, and mirror neurons) and activities that would have helped to develop those areas from earliest infancy. Weaving this information together with sensory processing underlying the behaviors of avoidance or obsession will demonstrate the role the body and its senses have in molding the actual structure of the brain. 
Since nervous systems, especially weak parts in them, find overwhelming stimulation stressful, and stressed systems shut down, participants will learn to recognize subtle signs of stress, particularly helpful for supporting individuals with compromised verbal communication skills.
The presenter will help the group see root causes and interactive aspects of many behaviors commonly observed in ASD, and to feel the power of various senses as they integrate most common functions of daily living. Participants will leave with enhanced appreciation for sensory processing in general and how it relates holistically to the autistic experience. They will also glean practical tips to gently enhance weak systems and to protect vulnerable systems.  The experience may be life-changing for parents and professionals alike.

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