Is the way the brain receives, organises and responds to sensory input in order to behave in a meaningful and consistent manner.

For individuals on the autism spectrum, the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes through the senses . In addition to the usual 5, this also refers to the vestibular sense (balance and movement) the proprioception (body awareness) and the interception (sensations within the body). Autistic individuals can be either under sensitive to their environment (hyposensitive) and be sensory seekers or over sensitive (hypersensitive) and become sensory avoiders.

It can often be described as having a “traffic jam in the brain” as the autistic brain can take longer to process information.

This can be presented by:

• Intolerance or particular enjoyment of loud noises/ bright lights/ strong or particular smells

• Being particular about clothing – choosing to wear the same clothes as they feel more comfortable, avoiding clothing with labels, needing shoes/hair/ clothing to be very tight, not wanting to wear a coat even in very cold weather. 
• Actively seeking or avoiding touch –constantly running hands along railings, chewing objects, pushing against things, not liking being pushed against when in a crowd, tapping a pencil.
• Actively seeking movement- rocking, swinging, spinning.
• Being particular about food- colours, combinations, textures, smells. Often sensory seekers will prefer to eat hard, crunchy food.
• Poor interoceptive development- not knowing when they are hungry, cold, hot, needing to go to the toilet.
• Poor proprioceptive development- struggling to manage their body in relation to other objects around them so may sit awkwardly on a chair, bump into things , have poor balance, struggle to use a knife and fork.
• Struggling to process information- autistic girls often get lost trying to follow instructions and may become hung up on particular steps / pieces of information. In the classroom this can look like disinterest, but in reality, the girls are drowning in unprocessed information