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ASD-S2: Demonstrates the ability to adapt, modify, or structure the environment based on an understanding of which auditory, visual or other sensory stimuli may be distracting, offensive, reinforcing, or calming for the individual student under the direction of licensed staff.

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1bR

1cR

Tactile and Auditory Defensiveness

A picture of a mother hugging her sad daughter on her shoulder. Sensitivities to sounds, sights, and smells are common with individuals with ASD and greatly increase individuals’ difficulties in being able to function in a standard classroom. For these students, school environments can be overwhelming. That is why it is so crucial to fully understand these sensitivities and be able to structure environments to assist the students with ASD to adapt and succeed. As you go through this lesson, think about situations when you may have experienced over sensitivity to tactile and auditory input.

Tactile Defensiveness

People who are oversensitive and overreact to certain types of touch experience what is called tactile defensiveness.

The sense of touch depends on sensory receptors in the skin that register light touch (breezes, tickles, loose clothing on skin, or the slickness of finger-paint) and deep-pressure touch (hugs, massage, or impact pressure on the skin). Surprisingly, light touch is generally more aversive than deep-pressure touch, especially in an individual with sensory defensiveness.

When an individual experiences tactile defensiveness, light touch might be felt like bugs crawling on the skin or having a bad sunburn all over. Any touch can feel painful, and certain clothing is uncomfortable to wear.

When normal touch input is experienced as noxious or irritating, behaviors that are commonly observed include:

Dislike of certain clothing.
Tendency to remove clothing at inappropriate times.
Desire to keep skin completely covered or protected.
Resistance to pulling up sleeves during messy projects or for washing hands.
Resistance to pulling pants down for toileting.
Agitation when sleeves or clothing get wet.
Avoidance of or trouble when standing in line (i.e., being bumped equals a painful experience).
Avoidance of touching messy materials or textures, such as finger-paints, glue, soft soap, or food.

Sometimes the tactile sensory system is under-responsive to touch input, and therefore minor input doesn’t give the individual’s body enough information to formulate a response. When this happens, the individual appears not to notice when he is touched or hurt or he touches everything and everyone to try to get his sensory system enough tactile input to feel safe and explore the environment. Examples might be touching your face, putting hands in water, touching and feeling objects, etc.

Auditory Defensiveness

The individual experiencing auditory defensiveness hears sounds that others are likely to tune out, such as humming of lights, whirring of a fan, buzzing of automobile traffic or airplanes, and other, often subtle noises around him or her. For an individual with moderate to severe auditory defensiveness, these subtle sounds can be very disturbing, and the person reacts thusly. A soft squeak might sound like someone scratching fingernails across a chalkboard, or a distant airplane might seem a loud roar. The individual’s sensitivity to noise might be comparable to having a severe headache, making it far more difficult to tolerate noises that wouldn’t typically cause strong reactions.

For a person suffering the pain and stress of a headache, loud voices, toys banging, and the TV volume are much more irritating and harder to tolerate. As a result, most people’s responses or behavior changes. Individuals with auditory defensiveness often exhibit certain behaviors when they perceive noise levels to be unbearable.

Possible behaviors exhibited by individuals with auditory defensiveness include:

Covering their ears at seemingly inappropriate times.
Resisting or refusing to attend assemblies, lunch, or large group activities.
Losing control during music or gym time.
Making noises to themselves, or vocal self-stimulation, to cover up the sounds they perceive as irritating.
Crying or having tantrums.
Striking out at other individuals who are perceived as too loud or who are making repeated noises (e.g., tapping, humming, tongue-clicking, etc.).

In contrast, other individuals who are processing sound poorly may not be getting enough stimulation to register their surroundings, so they seek out more sound by putting their ears close to sound sources to get more input or turning toward every noise that occurs. Either way, when individuals experience auditory processing problems, it is far more difficult to tune into pertinent sounds, such as people speaking to them.

Information in this lesson is used with permission from:

Ayers, A. L. (1979). Sensory integration and the child. Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services.

Wilbarger, P., & Wilbarger, J. L. (1991). Sensory defensiveness in children aged 2-12: An intervention guide for parents and other caretakers. Santa Barbara, CA: Avanti Educational Programs.