Sensory Overload

Many children with autism spectrum disorder experience sensory overload even during routine transit trips or shopping. Sensory overload is an unpleasant and even painful condition.

Why does sensory overload occur?

It happens as a reaction to excessive stimulation of the body’s sensory systems. Sensory overload and ASD symptoms are similar in some ways, but they have individual traits. Reactions to overload are different: some become hysterical, some lose consciousness and basic reflexes, while others instantly fall asleep in any situation.

Sensory overload: signs common to many children with ASD:

1. Total fixation on any subject
2. Crying, excessive irritability
3. Increased sensitivity to touches
4. Difficulty in speech functions
5. Temporary intellectual retardation
6. Answers to questions are too long and inaccurate
7. Stereotypical actions, such as biting lips, swinging from right to left, moving arms and legs
8. Attempts to leave an uncomfortable environment or situation
9. Need to twist something in hands
10. Inability to distinguish sounds
11. Dissociative condition, when a person internally feels that the body is completely detached from everything around
12. Inability to establish eye contact, destabilization of vision, great tension on the organs of sight.

Advice for eliminating sensory overload:

1. Figure out what irritates your autistic child
2. Compose a list of triggers and possible ways to neutralize them
3. Follow a clear daily schedule
4. Alternate intellectual and stressful loads with periods of rest
5. Avoid overload situations
6. Put noise-canceling headphones or earplugs on your child during a walk
7. Don’t include in the diet some foods that a child does not like
8. Explain to those around the child that they should not be touched or provoked, and establish appropriate rules of communication
9. Limit the use of clothing made of firm and scratchy fabrics as much as possible if the child does not tolerate them
10. Offer toys for self-stimulation if you see the approach of overload
11. Listen to your child’s opinion about things that can play a calming role in a particular situation
12. Try to take the child to a safe and quiet place without irritants.

It is not enough to know about the sensory overload of autistic children and methods to overcome it. Parents can help their child more radically by sending them for a therapeutic procedure, which is much more effective compared to the psychological techniques described above.

The Mardaleishvili Medical Centre is one of the few in the world where doctors use one of the best correctional techniques to treat children with autism.

Many parents know about the treatment of childhood autism with stem cells. Those who have undergone it claim that it really works and significantly improves the condition of children with ASD. There are two positive aspects: the fight against the disease’s cause, which lies in the abnormal brain structure, and the fight against the symptoms of the pathology, including periodic sensory overload. Stem cell treatment for childhood autism spectrum disorder is effective, safe, and free of side effects.

Correction of childhood autism is right for you—find out online about all the features of the procedure for your child!