AUTISM

Sensory Integration Issues and Autism

Sensory Integration Issues and Autism

Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss a case study related to autism and sensory integration issues. The case is about an 11 year old boy Jamie. The case discusses the condition of Jennie, and the decision of therapists for Jennie. The paper makes discussion on the different concepts of autism and sensory integration issues.

Case Study

The case study is about an 11 year old boy Jamie. Jamie is a victim of autism and sensory integrative issues. In order to deal with the problems of Jamie, the interventions of soft play room have been selected. The soft play rooms are very good interventions for the patients of autism and sensory integrative issues. The model chosen for the intervention of children is C-MOP model.

Discussion

The therapists have made the decision use the model of occupational therapy to deal with the case of Jamie. I believe that it is a very good decision to deal with the children of autism and sensory integration issues.

Children who have sensory processing disorders have considerations to be out-of-sync because performing common tasks and responding to everyday events are challenging for them. According to OCantu (2002) "the inability to function smoothly is not because the child will not, but because the child cannot"(p. 10). When looking at children with sensory processing disorders, they have referred to as sensational children.

This is because their sensory abilities seem to be impaired (Paasche, 2004, p. 78). They do not receive the same information through their senses as other children. Currently sensory processing has classification as a complex neurological disorder that can be detected in the early years. It is caused by the brain's inability, to integrate information received by the basic sensory systems: tactile (touch), visual (sight), auditory (hearing), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and vestibular (ability to move parts of the body in coordination), and proprioceptive (coordination) (Paasche, Gorrill, & Strom, 2004).

One of every 166 children born today could be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Health and Human Services (HHS), Center for Disease Control (CDC) 2006). Growing bodies of evidence show sensory integration issues may be at the root of many of the symptoms children with ASD exhibit. Sensory integration is defined as the ability to feel, understand, and organize sensory information from the body and environment. The issues surrounding sensory integration got reflection in both hypersensitive and hypo sensitive reactions by children with ASD to the vestibular, proprioception, visual, audio, tactile, and olfactory senses (Paasche, 2004, p. 78).

Sensory difficulties have universal acknowledgment as being a characteristic of children with ASD, but are often overlooked (Schreibman, 2005, p. 61). Sensory integration is the child's ability to feel, understand, and organize sensory information from his body and his environment (Cheatum, 2000, p. 23). Sensory impairments can be directly correlated with difficulties in communication and behaviour for children with ASD (Foley, 2006, p. 175).

Autism is a disability that impedes the brain to absorb information and how to address them and lead to problems for the ...