![]() ![]() These “sensory gating” difficulties affect sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. But if you have a sensory integration issue, “your brain can’t regulate all the different input coming at it,” she said. It focuses attention on a limited set of stimuli and moves redundant inputs into the background. ![]() ![]() The brain acts somewhat like a coffee filter, Kong says. “This is what it means to have sensory sensitivity or dysregulation,” as Kong explains during her public talks. She likes to illustrate the point with a YouTube video: “It’s not just children it can be a 30-year-old veteran with PTSD who may experience the same issue with sudden loud noises as a 5-year-old with autism at an NBA game.” Kong prefers the term “come-apart,” rather than meltdown, she said. These sensitivities can quickly lead to sensory overload in noisy, active environments such as restaurants, playgrounds, stores and sporting events. Individuals with ADHD, Down syndrome, PTSD, cerebral palsy, fetal alcohol syndrome and several other conditions often experience sensory integration problems as well. “And we’re realizing that it goes beyond autism,” she added. The root causes of meltdowns are the sensory processing difficulties in the brains of people with ASD, Kong says. When bystanders see someone acting out, they tend to think, or say, something like “control your child!” or “control yourself!” It may not look like it, but that’s exactly what’s happening, Kong says: a “stim” - referring to stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech - can be the brain’s way of trying to tune out sensory overload and regain control of a chaotic situation. Michele Kong with Abram (left) and Juda (right) Image courtesy Michele Kong Public meltdowns often convince parents to stay home. And that’s exactly where many parents of children with autism spectrum disorders find themselves, because anywhere from 80 to 100 percent of people with an autism diagnosis experience meltdowns. Kong is a pediatrician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Children’s Hospital and a founder of KultureCity, a nonprofit that works to “create acceptance and inclusion for all individuals with unique abilities,” according to its mission statement. Or no predictable reason, anyway.Īfter Michele Kong’s son Abram was diagnosed with autism at age 4, “we realized very quickly that trivial inputs such as bright lights or a crying baby or a barking dog could result in a verbal outburst or a meltdown,” she said. Now imagine what it would be like if your child could spark into an uncontrollable meltdown at any time, often for no discernible reason. But here’s the thing: Most parents have a clear idea of what triggered the behavior (a Snickers bar, for example, or Fingerlings). The looks you get when your child is acting out in public - causing a scene over candy at the grocery store or wailing over a toy in the mall. ![]()
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