Abstract
Parents, teachers, and people who themselves experience sensory and movement differences have consistently reported disturbances of sensation and movement associated with autism. Our review of the literature has revealed both historical and recent references to and research about sensory and movement difference characteristics and symptoms for individuals with autism. What is notably infrequent in this literature, however, is research that highlights the perspective of the individual with autism. If we wish to truly understand the experience of sensory and movement differences for individuals with autism, we must explore their experiences and perspectives. This study presents a qualitative analysis of more than 40 h in-depth inquiry into the lives of five individuals with the autism label. Data were sorted into six categories: perception, action, posture, emotion, communication, and cognition. The insights into sensory and movement differences and autism offered by these individuals was illuminating. We found that the data strongly supported the presence of disruption of organization and regulation of sensory and movement differences in the lived experience of these participants with autism. The present data suggests that in autism this disruption of organization and regulation is amplified in terms of quantity, quality, intensity, and may affect everyday life. These data contribute to a more expansive view of autism that incorporates the possibility that autism is a disorder that affects motor planning, behavior, communication, the sensory motor system, and the dynamic interaction of all of these.
Highlights
The history of autism reflects the prevailing understandings and misunderstandings about human development and communication that characterized professional writings in psychology, psychiatry, and special education over the past 60 years
MATERIALS AND METHODS A qualitative research design was utilized in this study to gather data aimed at describing the experience of sensory and movement differences in individuals with autism
I might avoid hitting a car only to hit another one. We started this project with the conceptual model of sensory and movement differences and a conviction that it is important to listen to people with autism
Summary
The history of autism reflects the prevailing understandings and misunderstandings about human development and communication that characterized professional writings in psychology, psychiatry, and special education over the past 60 years. The abilities of the person with autism can be reliably and validly determined through our psychological and behavioral assessments (e.g., DSM-IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association, 2000) This view draws on a dualistic tradition in psychology and psychiatry that separates mind and body (seeRogers, 1990; Damasio, 1994). A series of papers by Donnellan, Leary, and Hill spells out in detail the effect this dichotomy has had on our understanding of autism (Hill and Leary, 1993; Donnellan and Leary, 1995; Leary and Hill, 1996; Leary and Donnellan, 2012) They posit that assuming mind can be studied separately from body ignores the importance of felt experience on the development of social interaction, communication, and behavior. Even in the more recent research that studies the body (motor differences) and autism, there is little understanding of the potential affect of these differences on social, communication, and behavioral functioning (see Leary and Donnellan, 20121)
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