Children with autism are typically referred for occupational therapy services to address sensory integration deficits that interfere with the brain's interpretation of stimuli. These deficits may impact attention, motor skills and academic learning. Occupational therapists provide therapeutic activities to increase strength, muscle tone and coordination. In addition, they may help children with organizational strategies and social skills training as the academic and social demands increase during the middle and high school years.
Creating a "Sensory Diet"
Children with autism often have brains that don't interpret sensory stimuli such as sound, touch or movement in a normal way. They may interpret a pat on the shoulder as threatening, walking on grass as painful or movement on a swing as terrifying. An occupational therapist (OT) designs what is called a "sensory diet" that provides the type of stimulation that helps a child's brain to become organized in order to perform functional skills such as climbing a ladder, tolerating the touch of paint or balancing to stand on one leg. The sensory diet usually includes activities with rotary movement such as on a merry-go-round, vertical movement such as jumping on a trampoline, deep pressure such as rolling across a carpet or crashing into a "pillow mountain," and squeeze toys and hand activities such as play dough that provide resistance to the hands.
Promoting Motor Skills
Children with autism often appear clumsy because they are not paying attention to where they are walking, have decreased muscle tone that makes them look and feel floppy and have decreased coordination to use both sides of the body together. Typical OT activities designed to promote strength, muscle tone and coordinating both sides of the body together include: using the hands to propel a scooter board down a ramp, climbing over an obstacle course or crawling through a cloth tunnel. Children with autism often prefer to use only one hand during manipulation tasks and/or do not develop a hand preference. Occupational therapists help children to develop these skills with activities that require stabilizing with one hand while developing skills in the other, activities such as cutting paper, coloring inside a stencil or mixing ingredients in a bowl.
Promoting Organization Skills
As children with autism enter the middle school years they are suddenly asked to multi-task, taking several different courses, in different rooms and with different teachers. These students are often overwhelmed with the organizational demands and develop anxiety and/or behavioral problems. OTs may help these students with organizational strategies such as keeping an extra set of school books at home as well as school in case they are forgotten, providing homework checklists to be reviewed at the end of the day, assistance with breaking down long term projects or maintaining different color-coded folders for each subject.
Promoting Social Skills
Various school professionals including OTs, work with students to develop social skills through group activities, one-to-one role playing or reading social stories together, followed by a discussion on how the characters handled various social situations. OTs can help students with autism learn how to maintain a relaxed posture that makes others feel more comfortable around them and how to read body language. Sensory integration activities may help students better tolerate touch so that they aren't threatened by a friendly high-five. In addition, OTs work with students to help them recognize and develop their special interests, such as martial arts, coin collecting or designing computer games, and then share them with others by joining clubs or classes.
References
- "Building Bridges through Sensory Integration;" Ellen Yack, Paula Aquilla and Shirley Sutton; 2004.
- "Asperger Syndrome and Adolescence;" Teresa Bolick; 2001.
- "Asperger's syndrome and Anxiety;" Nick Dubin; 2009.
