At any given moment in time there is sensory stimuli going into our brains. When a dog goes by us as we walk down the side walk we get visual, auditory, olfactory, and possibly vestibular stimuli as we orient where we are compared to the dog and if we need to stay calm or prepare for a battle. This is also known as the flight or fight response.
A neurotypical individual will quickly process and filter out unimportant information (e.g. a cat walking by, the hum of the air conditioner or computer, etc.) and won't pay attention to it. An individual on the spectrum however may be overwhelmed by something a neurotypical would simply brush off and be unable to function because of it, especially if it is a new situation or input to process.
Each individual takes in information differently both NTs and those with ASD. This is sometimes referred to as your learning style ("I'm a visual learner"etc). I have noticed both in myself and in my work with those on the spectrum that if we are overstimulated by anything in our environment and our system is on a heightened state there is a response or feedback. This brings me back to my soundboard analogy. When a microphone level (sensory intake) is too high (overstimulation) there is feedback (responses) and the speakers (persons body) react (behaviors) accordingly, i.e. squeal.
The more that I've learned, read, and interacted with others on the spectrum the more I have learned about myself and what I need to do to adapt to my environment and function successfully. For example my sensory soundboard would look something like this.
I put the stimuli that I find myself reacting more frequently as the higher levels because I'm more sensitive to them and notice changes about them first. The stimuli I pay less attention to I put at the lower levels because I am more likely to ignore those when taking in my environment. When I was younger I was more sensitive to specific sounds and would have outbursts when those sounds were present. I would be getting ready for school with my sister and she would be chewing too loudly so I would scream at her "STOP CHEWING." I've developed more ways to deal with hearing adverse sounds however if there is an unpleasant sound in my environment and I have the opportunity to escape I do so promptly. I also have noticed that I have a very keen sense of smell and have some negative reactions to smells that I do not like. I ABSOLUTELY HATE BANANAS, everything about them but especially the smell. I can not be in the same room as someone who is eating a banana, or has put a banana peel in the trash can. I get very overloaded by the smell and have not been able to find a way to adapt to this, I'm not sure if I ever would because I've been that way for as long as I can remember.
It is important for individuals, both NT and ASD, to become less reactive to certain stimuli and develop ways to cope when they are over stimulated. Music therapy can be used to introduce an individual to new sensory stimuli in a non-threatening environment. Exposure and practice with various sorts of sensory stimuli can help organize the brain and prepare it for higher level learning and let information get past the brainstem into higher cortices to develop language, cognitive, motor, and emotional processing skills. While I never had formal music therapy services growing up I know that being involved with music helped me overcome several sensory deficits that I had growing up. I am very excited to be able to use the musical skills that helped me improve so much to help others who are still struggling in their daily lives.
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