Helpful Information about Sensory and Autism
In this day and age in
the public education system all children have the right to free and appropriate
education, and all of their educational needs have to be met by the schools
that they attend. Many children’s needs
that effect their education are not getting met within many schools, when it
comes to sensory processing disorders. Sensory processing disorders can affect
the way a child learns and if the child learns at all. According to some of the
research 1 in 20 children have a sensory processing disorder (Ahn, Miller, Milberger, McIntosh, 2004) and in one study it
suggests that up to 1 in 6 children have a sensory issue that can affect some part
of their daily life (Ben-Sasson, Carter, Briggs-Gowen, 2009).
When do teachers and school professionals start to look at all the needs that
can make a difference with how a child can perform in all area of their life
not just in school and stop looking at how much a child can memorize for a
state test.
School based OT services can look
very different across different school districts, depending on how the OT at
each school feels about what their job looks like. There are the “old school” OTs that feel if a
child can write with a good finger grip then that student does not needs OT
services, and on the other hand there are the OTs that look at the larger
picture and include how a child self regulates as a deciding factor in the need
for services. Looking at the sensory
needs of children is not a new idea in education but in recent years, how to
address these needs have come to the for front of educational world. With the inclusion of many students with ASD
which have a higher than average rate of sensory processing disorders within
their population. Many people have
looked at this population more in depth over the years “Greenspan
and Wieder (1997) estimated that 39% of children with ASD are under reactive to
sensation, 20% are hypersensitive, and 36% show a mixed pattern of
hypersensitivity and hypo-sensitivity”. (Case-Smith & Arbesman, 2008)
with this type of information every teacher and school professional should take
a more in-depth look at what types of things can be done within a classroom as positive
behavior supports that can be done to help in the area of sensory processing
disorders. The children that have sensory processing disorders need to receive
the correct services to help them gain a meaningful education just as a student
that is blind gets braille to read. If the
goal of education is to teach all children then at some point every ones has to
look at sensory processing disorder as an issues that can affect a child’s
education.
Many things can be done to help
these students that have a sensory processing disorder within a classroom
setting, that a teacher can put in place with little or no effort. To start teachers and administration staff
need to become more informed of what a sensory processing disorder looks like
and what kinds of things they can do in the classroom before labeling a student
as a behavior problem. Allowing a
student to stand instead of sitting at their desk, using a large ball to sit
on, giving a student an area to sit with little visual distractions these are a
few things that a classroom teacher can do to support a students with a sensory
processing disorder within the classroom.
Many students that have a sensory
processing disorder are labeled with a behavior problem in which can affect
their education. Without the correct
services through the school system these students can fall through the cracks
of the educational system, and they do not get a chance of accessing the same
education as their peers. All students have the right to access education and
the sooner the education system starts to address the sensory needs of students
with sensory processing disorders the sooner all students will be more
successful in their education and in life its self.
Books that can help.
References
1) Case-Smith, J., & Arbesman, M. (2008).
Evidence-based review of interventions for autism used. The American Journal
of Occupational, 64(4), 416-429.
2) The
american occupational therapy association. (2012).
Retrieved from http://www.aota.org/Consumers/consumers/Youth/Schools.aspx
3) Sensory processing disorder
foundation. (2012,
march 04). Retrieved from http://www.sinetwork.org/about-sensory-processing-disorder.html
