By Venita Litvack, MA, CCC-SLP, and Kimberly Tice, MS, CCC-SLP
Consider this: You’re driving in traffic, it starts raining, and you can barely see in front of you. Your music is blasting so your turn it down to focus on driving. Your brain can only process so much sensory input at a time. In this scenario, your visual and auditory sensory systems are overloaded, so you eliminate one (auditory) to focus on the other.
This is what it’s like for someone with autism who has difficulty processing sensory information—even in everyday environments. Imagine how that can be amplified for someone who does not know why it is happening or how to communicate how he or she is feeling. This can often lead to anxiety and an undesirable response.
Venita Litvack, MA, CCC-SLP, has significant experience providing services to individuals with autism spectrum disorders in a variety of settings as an Applied Behavioral Analysis assistant and speech-language pathologist. She also co-authored the Lou Knows What to Do social book series.
Kimberly Tice, MS, CCC-SLP, is a certified speech and language pathologist and teacher. Her career has focused on providing intervention in the areas of language, learning, literacy, and feeding to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. She also co-authored the Lou Knows What to Do social book series.
