Our BTEC Level 3 Performing Arts students took part in a series of teacher led workshops, practically exploring some of the sensory symptoms that can occur as a result of having Autism.
This enabled the students to fully appreciate some of the restrictions and day to day difficulties that someone may experience on the Autistic spectrum.
AUTISM AND THE SENSES
Many autistic children suffer with sensory problems as part of their autism spectrum disorder. These sensory problems can be divided into two main groups:-
Hyposensitivity – When a child is “under-sensitive” to stimuli and has trouble processing information through their senses.
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| Hyposensitivity can cause extreme isolation in a child as well as disruptive behaviour such as pulling out hair or causing harm to themselves to try and 'feel' through their 'senses'. |
Hypersensitivity – When a child’s sensory awareness is too acute.
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| Hypersensitivity to sound is called Hyper-hearing |
sight
sound
touch
taste
smell
balance ('vestibular')
body awareness ('proprioception').
People with an ASD can be over- or under-sensitive in any or all of these areas. You may hear this referred to as being 'hypersensitive' or 'hypo sensitive'.
Hypersensitivity
Hypersensitivity is very common in autism spectrum disorders and can be the basis or cause of many “problem” behaviors that autistic children exhibit. Let’s look at how hypersensitivity can affect autistic children:-
Hypersensitive hearing or “hyperhearing” – This is when every little noise sounds amplified and it can be very scary and uncomfortable for the child concerned. Children who suffer with hypersensitive hearing will find noisy public places hard to handle and will hate thunderstorms, surround sound systems in cinemas and will also tend to be light sleepers because sounds disturb them and wake them up. Sudden sounds will terrify them and they may make their own repetitive sounds, like humming, to try and block out the sounds around them. It is also often characterised by a child covering their ears frequently.
WORKSHOP 1
STUDENT EXPLORATION INTO HYPER-HEARING
The students took part in the following exercise:
Activity: Heavy Metal music was played in the background whilst partner A (Autistic actor) is having a conversation with partner B through improvisation. Autistic partner only concentrates on the different sounds of the music to show the distractions caused by intricate sounds (Similar to everyday situations for someone experiencing Hyper-Hearing on the Autistic spectrum).
In the comment box below the students have commented on their experiences of this exercise and what they learnt about someone experiencing Hyper-Hearing on the Autistic spectrum.
CLASSROOM EXTENSION
In the comment box below the students have commented on their experiences of this exercise and what they learnt about someone experiencing Hyper-Hearing on the Autistic spectrum.
CLASSROOM EXTENSION
Try this out in class, here is some Heavy Metal music which you can use, make sure the music is played at full volume. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNk9_bUKYx0
This workshop was really helpful!! I played partner B and was just trying to have a conversation with my daughter(Partner A) about dinner. It was really difficult to get her attention and, as the music went on, I noticed that she was becoming very anxious and was looking around a lot and playing with her hair. Her legs were tapping and she was stimming a lot and I felt really bad for her. I wanted to reach out and touch her to comfort her but I was worried it would make her worse. It really was a very good exercise and it made you empathise with people who suffer from it.
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