Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism: Different Sensory Experiences - Different Perceptual Worlds

"This is a great book. There are so many books on the market where experts presume to know better than autistic people themselves and disregard autistic peoples own accounts of what it feels like to be autistic, but this one breaks that mould. It is not only packed with factual information about how the brain and the senses work, it explores the autistic experience with an open and enquiring mind, while still tying all this in with conventional explanations of autism and results from existing studies. This book has a great potential to be useful, not just to parents and autistic people themselves who are looking for information and understanding, but to educators and service providers, whom it could inspire and advise. Interesting and accessible, I sat down today and read it the whole way through."
~ Written on 2006-01-27

"This book was excellent.It focuses on sensory peculuarities as being the likely cause of outward autistic behaviour. Instead of focusing on general problems (Triad of Impairments)and common behaviour of individuals on the spectrum, this book looks at how an individual's sensory experiences can CAUSE a lot of the behaviour associated with autism. It may also offer an explanation for why autism is very much an individual experience - why no two people's experiences of the condition are the same.

Olga Bogdashina provides an in depth but easy to read explanation of hyper and hyposensitivities of the senses, and of how some individuals can only use one sensory channel at a time making it difficult to interpret the environment. Many examples have been provided by individuals with autism and the emphasis is very much on needing to understand the cause of a certain behaviour BEFORE trying to 'normalise' or adjust that behaviour. Olga suggests that much of the behaviour displayed by autistic individuals is necessary in spite of 'normal' people's views that such behaviour must be stopped or corrected.
Whilst similar theories were identified around thirty years ago, Olga's own research brings together current findings and beliefs about autism and sensory functioning.
The book also includes a sensory questionnaire and chart which helps identify an individual's 'personal' sensory profile.
Well worth buying if you are researching this area or if you are a parent trying to understand unusual behaviour such as why your autistic child likes switching lights on and off or only wears certain clothes or any number of other behaviours which are not given an adequate explanation by the 'Triad of Impairments' model."
~ Written on 2004-03-28

"This book was excellent.It focuses on sensory peculuarities as being the likely cause of outward autistic behaviour. Instead of focusing on general problems (Triad of Impairments)and common behaviour of individuals on the spectrum, this book looks at how an individual's sensory experiences can CAUSE a lot of the behaviour associated with autism. It may also offer an explanation for why autism is very much an individual experience - why no two people's experiences of the condition are the same.

Olga Bogdashina provides an in depth but easy to read explanation of hyper and hyposensitivities of the senses, and of how some individuals can only use one sensory channel at a time making it difficult to interpret the environment. Many examples have been provided by individual's with autism and the emphasis is very much on needing to understand the cause of a certain behaviour BEFORE trying to 'normalise' or adjust that behaviour. Olga suggests that much of the behaviour displayed by autistic individual's is necessary in spite of 'normal' people's views that such behaviour must be stopped or corrected.
Whilst similar theories were identified around thirty years ago, Olga's own research brings together current findings and beliefs about autism and sensory functioning.
The book also includes a sensory questionnaire and chart which helps identify an individual's 'personal' sensory profile.
Well worth buying if you are researching this area or if you are a parent trying to understand unusual behaviour such as why your autistic child likes switching lights on and off or only wears certain clothes or any number of other behaviours which are not given an adequate explanation by the 'Triad of Impairments' model."
~ Written on 2004-03-28