In a recent book I read, the boy who loved windows, author and mother Patricia Stacey has some great insight into sensory integration issues. With a dedication only a mother can give, Patricia was able to turn around the direction her son Walker was heading, giving hope to those facing autism. I'll share a couple quotes.
Pg 35: "Imagine your sensory world scrambled and unregulated, your auditory intake an incessant rock station--- or worse, mere static--- blasting in your ears. Imagine your kitchen light as bright as a searchlight, boring into your corneas every time you turn it on. Imagine yourself in clothes so irritating that they seem lined with metal scraping brushes. Imaging walking past a woman wearing a spritz of Chanel No. 5 that leaves you disoriented and dizzy. This can be the works of sensory integration dysfunction."
Expressed that way makes me feel sorry for our Brad who at 4 would curl up in a ball and cover his ears during gym class, at 8 could be coaxed into wearing soft clothes only, and for years ate so few mostly carbohydrate foods.
Pg 85:
"If we close our eyes, do we know where our hands lie or move? Our toes? Some individuals don't. I have often wondered what a profound proprioceptive deficit feels like -- a kind of swimming, a floating world, where the self evade itself, like water through a sieve."
"Within the proprioceptive sense there exists a sense of one's relationship to moving bodies-- the particular sense of one body's relationship to another body in space. Thus, the proprioceptive sense determines, in some sense, the negotiation of relationships as well. Arlene explained that Walker was spending so much time trying to figure our where he was-- a sense that come to us through the joints and muscles--- that he couldn't quite know where we were."
This could very likely be the explanation for Brad's lack of interest in relating to his peers as a child. His brain was too full simply taking care of his own relationship to the world in time and space, how could he focus on others?! IM helped him define his own body with in time and space. Immediately, he began being able to connect with others! Pre IM he labels his life as social-less. Post IM his social life began.
"Sensory described what came into the organism. Motor described what came out. They were the alpha and omega of the nervous system, and nearly every letter in between.Quite simply, taken together, they represent most of what the brain did." pg 214
We have sensory processing issues at times, too. "When the average person is ill, the brain and sensory system, absorbed with healing itself and managing pain, has difficulty tolerating 'normal' amounts of stimulation. The body and neurological system are already overloaded by the illness and like a computer given too much information to process too quickly, need to shut down some systems. This is why people who are extremely nauseated, for instance, can't stand to be touched. When we're sick, we often experience bright lights as painful. Sensory integration and sensory processing problems distort perceptions." Pg 247 of Patricia Stacey's book, the boy who loved windows.
Page 216 has an amazing description of the body in time and space, too long to post. Our public library has this book and you can order books online with your library card. Check it out.
