Sensory Integration Education

Anna Mundy, Occupational Therapist, reviews her experience of attending the Sensory Health in Autism Virtual Summit:

I very much appreciated the Summit’s attempts to be neurodivergent affirming. I think it achieved this with varying degrees of success, largely reflecting what I hope is a period of transition, in which efforts to embrace neurodiversity wrestle with professional ‘muscle memory’ and the systems in which we work, which continue to adopt a deficit, medical model of disability. 

Caroline Braun’s talk ‘Neurodivergent-Affirming Feeding Therapy within the Context of Responsive Feeding’ stood out to me on both a professional and personal level. Having had an incredibly restricted diet as a child myself and having refused point blank for most of my life to eat the vast majority of foods, I have always grimaced at the thought of working with children to improve their food intake. It was, therefore, music to my ears to hear Caroline explaining, with first-hand experience, that feeding differences often persist throughout the lifespan of autistic people, causing minimal-to-no adverse health impacts.

The importance of allowing children autonomy over their food intake, due to the potentially negative impact of pressure and coercion, resonated with me, as did the need to address parental anxiety to improve children’s sense of safety when eating. I appreciated that blame was not placed on parents but on social and cultural pressures and expectations. I was so impressed, I immediately took the Responsive Feeding PRO online training and wished I had done so years ago. The approach seems to align well with DIRFloortime, of which I’m a huge enthusiast. 

Another talk that will stay with me for years was Morénike Giwa Onaiwu’s ‘The “IM” in Stim’. It saddens me that in 2022 I still have to advocate for autistic children’s right to stim. Parents often ask what they can do to stop their children behaving in ways that may attract negative attention from others, such as strange looks and bullying. I often find myself explaining that lots of people stim for different reasons, before giving a relatable example, such as swinging a leg or chewing a pen to aid concentration. I often explain that some children need to stim after getting home from school to regulate after having been bombarded with social, sensory and cognitive demands throughout the day. However, I do not place enough emphasis on stimming for pure enjoyment, akin to that gained from painting or playing music. I was delighted by Morénike’s description of her own stims, particularly her reciting of a scene from Jerri Maguire. Her call to “Identify different ways that individuals of all neurotypes can engage in stimming for its own sake as a reflection of internal motivation and as an active pursuit of joy” is a challenge I have very much taken to heart. 

Likewise, Amy Grant’s in-depth description of the efforts she makes to set up her office environment for success will stay with me, from encouraging parents to bring comfort items, to normalising fidget tools use, to refraining from breaking trust by using coercion, hand-over-hand and trickery. 

- Anna Mundy, OT

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Anneka Bond, Occupational Therapist, reviews her experience of attending the Sensory Health in Autism Virtual Summit:

First, I would like to thank you SIE for the competition and the STAR institute for running the Sensory Health in Autism event and all of the guest speakers. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have learnt a lot which I hope will add to my practice.

The summit was very informative. I found particularly interesting hearing from both practitioners and the general population about their experiences and how these can have impacted their activities of daily living

I found the Day One talks on sensory integration and anxiety in autism very interesting and, in parts, it added to my knowledge from when previously working with adult autistic clients. I also learnt a lot more around various behavioural responses which may be observed. The talk regarding feeding in autism and responsive feeding as an intervention was particularly insightful - and learning that providing rewards is not a good for children because this pattern can extend into adulthood.

Learning about Gestalt language piqued my interest around language development (how we as humans develop language). Learning about how children/adults with autism develop language and what are good strategies to support them in developing their language was helpful. It also helped me to think about younger family members at present who are developing their language and how I may support them or those with learning difficulties. It was also good to discover that when overwhelmed or finding it difficult to regulate themselves, people with autism may revert to how they learnt language from then they where at a younger age.

The talk on the use of music therapy for people with autism was fascinating. I learnt about the role of music therapists in working with children/adults with autism in teaching self-regulation exercises.

I found the discussion on stimming behaviours and the explanation of why being aware of our sensory needs is vital. I took away from this talk that we should be person-centred, and we should be supporting people how to regulate and find safe spaces to be able to complete their stim behaviour. This has also made me think in relation to previous clients that I have worked with in various settings and potential future clients I may encounter on acute inpatient wards.

In summary, the topics discussed have broaden my outlook, knowledge and understanding surrounding sensory integration and its use by various disciplines. The research currently going on around the world adds further to our current understanding and implementation of interventions. This has provided me with more insight of sensory health and its impact in all areas of daily living, not just for myself as a practitioner and a neurodivergent individual, but also for previous, current and future clients that I work with. It has provided me with more of a focus to hopefully improve the lives and experiences of those I work with whom have autism.

- Anneka Bond, OT

SensorNet is very much looking forward to the next event: the Annual STAR Sensory Symposium in October 2022.