
Rogers and Sally Ozonoff, reviewed 75 research papers published on the subject since 1960.

After all, no one single type of sensory problem is "consistently associated with ASD." 11Ī decade ago, two prominent autism researchers, Sally J. Generally speaking, researchers have had trouble being much more specific. 5-9 Among children who took part in the Simons Simplex Collection autism research project, about 68 percent had unusual sensory interests and 65 percent were sensitive to noise. Studies say from 30 percent to more than 90 percent of people with autism either ignore or overreact to ordinary sights, sounds, smells or other sensations. Chief among them: What causes sound sensitivity in autism and what treatments work? How does this affect someone's ability to engage in everyday life? What Do We Know? Kanner described this phenomenon, but scientists still have many questions about it. Richard, Barbara and Virginia would be described as hypo(under)-responsive, because they barely acknowledged many sounds. Today she would be called hyper(over)-responsive to noise. In fact, that's what Elaine did when she heard the rumble of the vacuum cleaner.

It's the image of a child with his hands covering his ears, blocking out noise. 4 These senses include sight, touch, smell, movement and taste, but for many people, the stereotypical image of autism involves the sense of hearing.
AUDITORY SENSITIVITY IN TEENAGERS MANUAL
Today, under- or over- reacting to one’s own senses is a symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the American psychiatric diagnostic manual published in 2013. Kanner, an American psychiatrist, created a new diagnosis for these children, some of whom had been assumed to have intellectual disability.Īmong other things, most of the children he studied shared an unusual relationship to sound – either ignoring or fearing it. These were autism’s first children, 2 described in the landmark 1943 article by Leo Kanner that gave a name and description to a disorder that now affects 1 in 68 American children. Richard, Barbara and Virginia, on the other hand, ignored sound to the point that others wondered if they were deaf.

Interactive Autism Network at Kennedy Krieger Last Revised: May 19, 2016ĭonald was "perfectly petrified of the vacuum cleaner." So was Elaine, who would not venture near the closet where her family’s vacuum was stored.
