Customer Reviews

Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome: Different Sensory Experiences, Different Perceptual Worlds

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4 star:		(1)
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This book was excellent. It focuses on sensory peculiarities as being the likely cause of outward autistic behavior. Instead of focusing on general problems (Triad of Impairments) and common behavior of individuals on the spectrum, this book looks at how an individual's sensory experiences can CAUSE a lot of the behavior associated with autism. It may also offer an explanation for why autism is very much an individual experience - why no two people's experiences of the condition are the same.

Olga Bogdashina provides an in depth but easy to read explanation of hyper and hyposensitivities of the senses, and of how some individuals can only use one sensory channel at a time making it difficult to interpret the environment. Many examples have been provided by individual's with autism and the emphasis is very much on needing to understand the cause of a certain behavior BEFORE trying to 'normalize' or adjust that behavior. Olga suggests that much of the behavior displayed by autistic individual's is necessary in spite of 'normal' people's views that such behavior must be stopped or corrected.
Whilst similar theories were identified around thirty years ago, Olga's own research brings together current findings and beliefs about autism and sensory functioning.
The book also includes a sensory questionnaire and chart which helps identify an individual's 'personal' sensory profile.
Well worth buying if you are researching this area or if you are a parent trying to understand unusual behavior such as why your autistic child likes switching lights on and off or only wears certain clothes or any number of other behaviors which are not given an adequate explanation by the 'Triad of Impairments' model.

For the first time I started to see 'into' the world of autism after reading Olga Bogdashina's book 'Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome'.
The book gives a very clear picture of the different ways people with ASD perceive the world. I now look at the children I work with in a different light - I am beginning to understand why certain things cause them such distress. The book is an eye-opener!

I read this book from start to finish in one sitting.

I found it to be a very compelling, insightful and readable book. Instead of focusing on external behaviors, it looks at autism from the inside experience. It has been a step in the de-mystification of autism (for me).

This is a great book. There are so many books on the market where experts presume to know better than autistic people themselves and disregard autistic peoples own accounts of what it feels like to be autistic, but this one breaks that mould. It is not only packed with factual information about how the brain and the senses work, it explores the autistic experience with an open and enquiring mind, while still tying all this in with conventional explanations of autism and results from existing studies. This book has a great potential to be useful, not just to parents and autistic people themselves who are looking for information and understanding, but to educators and service providers, whom it could inspire and advise. Interesting and accessible, I sat down today and read it the whole way through.

a MUST read for those who work/live with people with autism/Asperger syndrome

I found reading this text a breath of fresh air, it has provided a greater insight through the lens of people with ASD. The examples of situations that individuals face and how they account for the behaviour allows any person to appreciate the complexity and struggles a person living with ASD faces on a daily basis. The sensory Profile is a great tool, highly recommend this to Case managers working with ASD clients any other professionals wanting to understand how the world is "seen" through the eyes of a perso living with Autism. It would be helpful for parents yo understand how their child is feeling at the time of a particular event and how best to work with the child to help them navigate the non autistic world

If you have an autistic child/person in your life, this book might help you make some sense of things.