Gyaan Budhwaar-Priya's session

We start a new series of talks by special moms who share their knowledge and their life learnings on various aspects. Priya Sasi lead the first two wednesdays with her wonderful understanding of how a behavior could be due to a sensorial reason and what one can do in such circumstances.

We had an audience of moms absorbing the information and discussing their views.

Following is the article on this topic written by Priya for those who missed being present or want to learn more.

Handling behaviors  - Differentiating between problem behavior and sensory behavior

Behavior is the most common word used in the world of children with special needs.  Anything the child does can be a behavior or simply a verb in English language, is a behaviour. These behaviors gain more importance when it badly affects the child's learning.  As a mother of child with behaviors, I would rather define behavior as a difficulty faced by the child wherein a parent or therapist can help the child to deal with the same. Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders depict two types of behavior, sensory  and problem  . It becomes very important to differentiate between these two, to appropriately intervene.

Sensory Behavior : Unlike the neurotypical brain, an autistic brain receives and processes input from seven senses namely visual , auditory, olfactory, tactile, taste, vestibular(movement) and proprioception(balance).  Many times these inputs are being registered as, ‘ insufficient’ or ‘excess’  resulting in  behaviors of seeking and avoiding.

A child who pokes his eyes is getting  insufficient visual input and trying to compensate by poking eyes. On the other hand a child who is covering eyes even from a dim light is getting visual input as excess and hence is trying to avoid it.

A child may scream or bang his head hearing normal sounds in the environment as common as mixie or a cooker whistle because child receives this auditory input as excess and unbearable.  My son used to respond with a loud laughter for a sudden starting sound of a two wheeler or an auto . Though we think these behaviours are bizarre, many times its associated with the senses .

A child who registers smell with more sensitivity can have a tough time to get toilet trained and a child who registers smell with less sensitivity may indulge in inappropriate social behaviours such as continuously touching their private parts and smelling it.

A child who registers tactile input with less sensitivity may avoid wearing slippers and satisfy his need for feeling different textures with a bare foot. A child may avoid messy foods to avoid that sensation . My son has craves for the oily  fumes which comes over dosa, but learnt to make dosa very easily because of this craving.

Most of children who feel their vestibular input less will be constantly is on the move or spin or rock to get vestibular sense compensated. Some children may also be dull as they feel their vestibular input as excess.

Flapping is the most common behavior seen for a proprioceptive input.

A child can also get the same from a sense of balance and hence most children like skating and learn it faster than other skills.

So a sensory behavior will always be connected to seeking or avoiding a particular sensory input while a problem behavior will in no way be connected to satisfy a sensory need .

 Once a behavior is identified as a problem or sensory, it can be tackled by the appropriate method.  Sensory behaviors are addressed by occupational therapists as sensory integration technique and problem behaviors are tackled by behavior modification technique by the special educator.

Solving  the mystery of a behavior may be initially bit tough but if we have a sound knowledge about sensory issues, it becomes easier as days pass by and it requires a careful, continuous and efficient observation of child . Over these years I have intuitively learnt to use their sensory need as a teaching tool and I find it as the most efficient teaching tool for a sensory smart child.

Priya- mom to Pranav.