DAY 1: integration successful or not!

Just try to have a conversation in a subway, when it is rush hour and your partner is on the other side of the track.

Try to focus on what you read when it seems there is a firework coming out of your book. Try to register some new informations when there is lots of them at once. Well this is what happens with certain children with ASD that have sensory issues. 

Our senses helps us integrate different informations at the same time. You can put on a sweater because the temperature has changed and still hold a conversation. You can watch a movie and knit at the same time or listen to music and clean the house.

But what if when at school,  you cannot  filter and you are receiving every visual or verbal informations at the same time.  That is what happens to some of our students on the spectrum because of sensory issues. Their filter does not do the job properly so it becomes overloaded with accurate and inaccurate informations. 

Part of our job is to help them integrate the stimuli one bit at the time. May be your 25 posters are too much, maybe it is enough with 3 or 4. Give them 5 minutes warning before the school bell and before the fire drill exercice. 

Some children will overreacte, some will just stare in space. You can avoid these difficult moment by preventing it.

If they are lucky, you have  an O.T. report and recommendations. In any case, talk to the parents about it.