THE SENSORY PROCESSING AND INTEGRATION IN ASD: IMPACT ON EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES

"Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) depict a large class of conditions that manifest in a variety of displays and particularities. The number and type of symptoms can differ drastically from one person to another and array from mild to severe. Symptoms fall into a range of categories; dysfunctions in perceptual and sensory processing are present with impact in communication, in neurological functioning outcomes and in various functional behavior limitations (Pfeiffer et al., 2005). In school settings and in everyday life the sensory processing and integration of the stimuli may impact the acquisition of new information and sometime, in particular situation the educational process itself. Sensory information and atypical behavioral responses are common to people with this diagnostic, with over 96% of children with ASD having hyper or hyposensitivity in several areas. Particular processing of sensory stimuli can cause aggressive and self-harming behavior, especially for those who are non-verbal and cannot communicate their difficulties in an adequate and functional manner. Among the most affected senses are the proximal senses, such as taste, smell, and touch, but new studies report that disruption of auditory and visual processing pathways is becoming more common (Marco, E J et al, 2011). Due to these particular hypersensitivities daily activities are disturbed. This is a factor that limits the participation of these individuals in certain events and activities, and in school itself. Most preschoolers had difficulty with sensory processing, which was associated with behavioral changes such as irritability, lethargy, or hyperactivity. In thisresearch we evaluated the sensory processing difficultieslayered by age and interaction plans: tactile, vestibular, proprioception, auditory, olfactive, taste and visual. The participants (N= 43) report data for themself (N=9), for babies(N=5), for kindergarten age (N=15) and for school age (N=14). Preliminary data indicate for tactile sensory processing the M= 1.9, for auditory sensory processing the M= 2.49, for vestibular sensory processing the M= 2.1, for proprioception sensory processing the M= 1.72, for visual sensory processing the M= 2.07, for taste sensory processing the M= 1.74, for olfactive sensory processing the M= 1.97. The most reported disturbance on sensory processing was on the auditory, vestibular and visual part. The affected sensory processing area interferes with the educational process that is based mainly on auditory, visual and vestibular. These preliminary results are in concordance with others reports from literature and could explain the hypersensitivity for auditory and visual stimulus and the odd behaviors displayed by ASD persons, like tiptoes walking. Further research and analysis will be developed in order to tailor these aspects of sensory processing in ADS, with impact on education and everyday living."