experience is more likely to register in their minds as a learned skill. This may have drawbacks, however, as some autistic children are extremely hypersensitive to touch; meaning they tend to be overly responsive to sensation. In these cases, forcing them to engage in a tactile experience could ultimately cause them to shut down, leading to greater difficulties in communication. “That’s the main thing with children with autism… there are no recipes. You need to be creative, and you need to really try to learn and understand… which sensory channel will work better for them,” advised Dr. Couture. So, while intruding into an autistic child’s routine is an uncertain venture accompanied by stress and anxiety, the potential benefits often outweigh the risks. Surely, children with autism can improve their motor skills via the appropriate programs given adequate instruction and time. However, the context in which a particular task is taught often dictates how it is learned by these children; and this new knowledge often does not extend into other domains. For instance, a cabinet may be used to teach an autistic child how to open and close a door, but the child would associate this newly learned action with cabinets only, and not other fixtures that utilize doors. Thus, in order for an autistic child to gain mastery of a particular skill, Dr. Couture recommends that it should be practiced in every single context that may be useful to them. This level of specificity obviously involves very time-intensive care that must be met with patience and understanding on the caregivers’ end. It also begs questions concerning the universality of teaching tools and how they are applied in various environments. Learning Environments A sub-topic of my conversation with Dr. Couture focused specifically on the format of learning environments for children affected by autism. Something that she emphasized was the importance of various outlets for sensory stimulation to match the range of personality types associated with autism. She continued by sharing that autistic people typically display characteristics of being either sensory seeking or sensory avoidant2. Sensory seeking behavior is common in hyposensitive people—those who are under-responsive to sensation. Persons with this condition tend to seek intense sensory experiences, like climbing on objects, due to decreased responses to pain and stimulation. Contrarily, sensory avoidant behavior relates to hypersensitivity, as discussed earlier. As a result, these children require much more gentle approaches, and therefore the proper equipment to match. In cases of sensory seeking behavior, an environment may never seem interesting enough to interact with as these children bore easily due to their hyposensitive conditions. Vigorous stimulation is therefore needed for the child to acclimate to the environment. Some techniques that are often helpful
Closing the Gamut: Perspectives on Improving Motor Function in Children with Autism
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