There are five senses that you will be familiar with:

• Vision
• Sound
• Smell
• Taste
• Touch

There are also three more that we are less aware of:

• Vestibular (movement and balance)
• Proprioception (body awareness)
• Interoception (how our body feels inside)

Autistic children and autistic adults often present different responses to sensory stimuli such as light, loud sounds, soft touch etc.

Every autistic individual will respond or react in a very individual way to this stimuli. Some will be hypersensitive (over responsive) whilst others may be hyposensitive (under responsive). Another group will be ‘sensory seekers’. And of course, each individual can be any of these depending on the stimuli or how they are ‘feeling’ at a particular time. The more common experiences are; a sensitivity to sounds, which can be painful, an intolerance of touch or high pain thresholds.

If these sensory behaviours are not understood, then they may impact on the ability of the autistic child or adult to concentrate, manage or cope with many everyday situations and may even be seen as challenging behaviour.