Around 9 in 10 autistic people process sensory information differently. For some, it can cause challenges in everyday life.

A person can be over-sensitive, under-sensitive or both. Someone can experience sensory differences with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, balance or body awareness. Sensory experiences can change how someone feels physically, where they can go and how they interact with others.

Hypersensitivity

If someone is hypersensitive, they may experience a very strong reaction to sensory information in their environment. Their senses can feel overloaded and that can cause anxiety, stress and real physical pain. Sensory overload can lead to distressed behaviour, meltdowns or a need to escape.

Ways to manage hypersensitivity:

• Wearing noise-cancelling headphones.
• Dimming the lights.
• Varied food options to match food preferences.
• Wearing sunglasses.
• Walled workspaces for easier control over the environment.

Ways to help someone with hypersensitivity:

• Check your environment - What may be causing someone sensory difficulty? Can you change it to make things more comfortable?
• Change your environment - Is there something that you know brings comfort to the person you’re with? What can you bring to make the environment more positive?
• Plan for your environment - Let the person know in advance what the sensory environment will be like. Let them know that they can bring along anything that they may need to make their environment more comfortable.

Hyposensitivity

If someone is hyposensitive, they may experience weak sensory information. People who have a low sensitivity to sensory information may be less sensitive to pain and may be less able to control balance or physical coordination as they are less aware of their body’s position. People who are hyposensitive may be more susceptible to physical injury, and they may have difficulty sensing or paying attention to their environment.

Ways to manage hyposensitivity:

• Movement, such as pacing, stimming rocking.
• Weighted blankets.
• Varied food options that include intense flavours and different textures.
• Spaces that are arranged to reduce the likelihood of bumping into hard surfaces.
• Sensory stimulating toys.

Professional support

Occupational therapy

An occupational therapist can help you to understand your own sensory profile. They can help you to understand how you can positively use your senses and how you can, to some extent, adapt the environment to your specific needs.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

You may have had particularly negative experiences with some types of sensory information or in some environments. A cognitive behavioural therapist may be able to help you reduce the feelings of anxiety about these experiences and to develop strategies to deal with them.

Peer support

Sharing your experiences with others may help you to feel less anxious. It may be a way to learn new practical strategies to help you negotiate the sensory environment from people who have experienced something similar.

Where can research take us next?

Research around autism and sensory differences has largely focused on early sensory development and what the senses may tell us about the origins of autism. More recent research has focused on practically understanding how the senses may impact mental health and how environments can be adapted to better fit sensory needs.

Our research

Research gives us better tactics for managing sensory challenges, whether someone is feeling overwhelmed or under-stimulated. It is also teaching us the sorts of environments that can support autistic people to thrive.

To know more about sensory differences, we:

• Co-funded a study with MQ looking at how sensory reactivity may be linked to anxiety in young children.
• Created a space for autistic people to share information about good and bad sensory environments. Through our Citizen Science project, community members will be able to share positive and negative experiences of their physical environment, so the community can build a virtual understanding of how an environment might fit their sensory needs.
• Are partnering on a research project training businesses about making public spaces more sensory-inclusive.

The more we learn about the small changes that can make life more comfortable for autistic people, the more opportunities employers, educators and businesses have to create a world that fully embraces autistic people.