Occupational Therapy for Autism
Occupational therapists (OTs) works with all ages of people to help engage clients into their daily activities and to develop their skills knowledge as well as to promote their self esteem. OTs work with each patient to assess their needs and determine the best path to develop, modify, adapt, or regain skills that are challenging because of their limitations.
Pediatric Occupational Therapist helps children and adolescents learn and develop different skills that they need to successfully function in the world as adults. For example, gross motor practices to improve balance and coordination walking, Stairs steps, football play through kicking while maintaining body balance; Fine motor skills which leads children to improve writing, feeding, dressing and other daily tasks. As an highly experienced and expert Occupational Therapist, Arun Sir works on both Sensory based as well as tasks based approach which really gets improvement for those Children having Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), ADHD, and other Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Down Syndrome.
*OT works for Sensory Processing Systems
Children on the autism spectrum often present with sensory modulation difficulties or sensitivities, meaning they can have challenges processing sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, body position, and balance. This impacts a child’s ability to perform routine activities, such as brushing teeth, engaging with family at dinnertime, or participating in recess at school.
“Children and adults with autism, as well as those with other developmental disabilities, may have a dysfunctional sensory system – referred to as sensory integration disorders in ASD. Sometimes one or more senses are either over- or under-reactive to stimulation. Such sensory problems may be the underlying reason for such behaviors as rocking, spinning, and hand-flapping. Although the receptors for the senses are located in the peripheral nervous system (which includes everything but the brain and spinal cord), it is believed that the problem stems from neurological dysfunction in the central nervous system–the brain. As described by individuals with autism, sensory integration techniques, such as pressure-touch can facilitate attention and awareness, and reduce overall arousal. Temple Grandin, in her descriptive book, Emergence: Labeled Autistic, relates the distress and relief of her sensory experiences.”
Sensory Integration
Sensory integration is an innate neurobiological process and refers to the integration and interpretation of sensory stimulation from the environment by the brain. In contrast, sensory integrative dysfunction is a disorder in which sensory input is not integrated or organized appropriately in the brain and may produce varying degrees of problems in development, information processing, and behavior.
Sensory integration focuses primarily on three basic senses–tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive. Their interconnections start forming before birth and continue to develop as the person matures and interacts with his/her environment. The three senses are not only interconnected but are also connected with other systems in the brain. Although these three sensory systems are less familiar than vision and audition, they are critical to our basic survival. The inter-relationship among these three senses is complex. Basically, they allow us to experience, interpret, and respond to different stimuli in our environment. The three sensory systems will be discussed below.
Tactile System
The tactile system includes nerves under the skin’s surface that send information to the brain. This information includes light touch, pain, temperature, and pressure. These play an important role in perceiving the environment as well as protective reactions for survival.
Dysfunction in the tactile system can be seen when an individual:
withdraws from being touched refuses to eat certain ‘textured’ foods refuses to wear certain types of clothing complains about having one’s hair or face washed avoids getting one’s hands dirty (i.e., glue, sand, mud, finger-paint) uses one’s fingertips rather than whole hands to manipulate objects A dysfunctional tactile system may lead to a misperception of touch and/or pain (hyper- or hypo-sensitive ) and may lead to self-imposed isolation, general irritability, distractibility, and hyperactivity.
Vestibular System
The vestibular system refers to structures within the inner ear (the semi-circular canals) that detect movement and changes in the position of the head. For example, the vestibular system tells you when your head is upright or tilted (even with your eyes closed).
Dysfunction within vestibular system represents two ways
1. Hypersensitivity Some children may be hypersensitive to vestibular stimulation and have fearful reactions to ordinary movement activities (e.g., swings, slides, ramps, inclines). They may also have trouble learning to climb or descend stairs or hills; As a result, they seem fearful in space. In general, these children appear clumsy.
Vestibular System
The vestibular system refers to structures within the inner ear (the semi-circular canals) that detect movement and changes in the position of the head. For example, the vestibular system tells you when your head is upright or tilted (even with your eyes closed).
Dysfunction within vestibular system represents two ways
1. Hypersensitivity Some children may be hypersensitive to vestibular stimulation and have fearful reactions to ordinary movement activities (e.g., swings, slides, ramps, inclines). They may also have trouble learning to climb or descend stairs or hills; As a result, they seem fearful in space. In general, these children appear clumsy.
A lot of interactional and behavioural issues stem from the fact that children with autism are unable to process sensory information like, children with normal brain development.
By providing controlled and structured sensory experiences, sensory integration therapy aims to help children with autism develop more effective sensory processing skills. Over time, the therapy can improve their ability to: regulate their responses to sensory input enhance their attention and focus reduce sensory sensitivities promote overall self-regulation With children and their families, therapists take a holistic approach that prioritises functional, developmentally-appropriate methods. By taking into account sensory, motor (both gross and fine), social and cognitive components of performance, the therapist can create programs that fit into the family’s daily routine and emphasise play as the child’s main activity.