Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Autism Sensory Adjustments For Autistic Adults And Children
118 Plays2 years ago
What home sensory adjustments work for Autistic adults and children? What is Neurodiversity-Affirming parenting? What sensory supports can you use at work or school?
Natashia runs the @iwanttotellyoubooks Instagram account, a take on Autism parenting that focuses on Neurodiversity-affirming, Autistic expert informed parenting. Natashia works on encouraging sensory adjustments in school and at home, highlighting the importance of teaching self-advocacy, a strength-based social model of disability approach, and teaching self-regulation.
Natashia's Insta - https://www.instagram.com/iwanttotellyoubooks/ // My Links - https://linktr.ee/thomashenleyUK
Dbud Noise Cancelling Adjustable Ear Buds - https://dbud.io/thomashenley
Thomas kicks off the episode by thanking his listeners for making the podcast the World's #1 Autism podcast, and a show in the top 2% of all podcasts!
Natashia and Thomas soon get into the differences between her style of content vs some of the overly-personal content from other Autism parents, highlighting the importance of humility and an open mind when entering into the Autistic adult communities online. Natashia sadly conformed to the 'expert advice' from professionals and OTs, seeing negative consequences in her own son... and seeking to shift the perspectives of other Autism parents going through the same experiences.
They start off by addressing the importance of sensory supports and environmental adjustments in home, work, and school environments; the conversation seemed to highlight the importance of sensory adjustments on well-being and productivity for Autistic adults and children. Experts and teachers seem to be highly adverse to accepting sensory accommodations, often touting 'no adjustments in the real world' as a reason not to accommodate... which we all know is entirely possible in adult life.
Everyone has sensory needs, neurotypical or Autistic, and although sensory differences are highly linked to Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) can occur in allistic (non-autistic) individuals. The two list a variety of environmental adjustments anyone can use in the home to make their space less overloading, but also highlight a plethora of sensory support items that both Autistic adults and children can use to mitigate uncontrollable sensory inputs in public:
Therapressure brushes, galaxy projectors, fibre optic lights, water features, chewable jewelry, shades, blue light glasses, earbuds/defenders, acupressure rings, compression clothing, joggers/trainers, soft hoodies/hats, weighted blankets, vibrating massagers, soft blankets, fidget spinners, fidget cubes, fans, white noise machines, wobble cushions, lotions, disco lights, colour changing bulbs, and sensory swings... to name a few!
Thomas talks about his experiences with sensory joy with theme park rides, stimming equipment, and spinning... pointing out the euphoria and relaxation this offers him as an Autistic adult. No episode would conclude without highlighting some adjustments that public spaces and workplaces can make spaces more inclusive to those with sensory differences -
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Guest Natasha
00:00:07
Speaker
Good day, and welcome back to the 4TRT Podcast. With your host, Mr. Thomas Henley, today we are going to be talking about autistic, sensory support and environmental adjustments for autistic children and adults.
00:00:25
Speaker
I'm going to be talking on the adult side of things. My very lovely guest, Natasha, from I Want to Tell You Books on Instagram is going to be talking about the more children side of things. We're going to be looking at adjustments in terms of the workplace.
00:00:44
Speaker
the school, the home. So if you're looking to kind of understand your sensory profile a bit more, maybe put some things in place to help manage your sensory environments, whether it's home, whether it's out and about, this is the episode for you.
00:01:00
Speaker
Before we get started, I just want to point out the fact that yes, my camera angle has changed. I've got quite a few comments about people who have come up to me in person and sort of remarked that they feel like I'm a very small person. I'm not, I'm about six three, which is quite off putting to a lot of people who think I'm kind of small. I think it's because of the angle that I have the webcam at. So now I've got kind of this,
00:01:29
Speaker
webcam tripod setup. I'm hoping that it kind of looks a bit better on YouTube. Yeah, I'm coming out of my
00:01:38
Speaker
couple of weeks long burnout, feeling refreshed after a week of trying not to do as much, perhaps taking a break from the podcast, realized that I didn't put one out last week. So I apologize for that. I tried to notify people both on YouTube and on Instagram. So if you're just listening to the podcast, I realized that you might not have had that update. But anyway, I'm going to introduce our guest on the 40 year podcast today.
Natasha's Work and Neurodiversity Approach
00:02:07
Speaker
Natasha, who is a Instagrammer from I Want to Tell You Books, and they do, they're a neurodiversity affirming mom, mom-parent, of course. They focus on doctors, teachers, and parents, shifting them from a deficit-based model to a more strength-based approach, a neurodiversity approach in the home, which is really, really great, sort of combining those
00:02:36
Speaker
Adult autism advocacy circles with the parenting stuff always really great awesome stuff They focus on things like self-advocacy Self-regulation and lots of other amazing cool stuff. So Natasha, how are you doing today? I am doing great. Thank you so much for having me This is exciting. I've been binging your podcast. Oh, yeah Yeah, I love it
00:03:05
Speaker
What's been your favorite at the moment? I've been listening to all the women and I shared it with my sister who's autistic and ADHD and she is loving it as well. It's so nice to have a focused podcast on the autistic experience. It's fantastic.
00:03:28
Speaker
Yeah, I actually was, I was looking through the rankings of my podcast recently. Um, I don't know if I talked about this in the last episode cause I recorded it like a week or so ago, but I'm pretty sure that this is the world's top autism podcast as far as I know. That's incredible. It's a bit mad. Um, but yeah, that's, I mean, you should be proud of yourself. That's really cool.
00:03:53
Speaker
I'm kind of tentative around it because it's quite hard to gauge that kind of thing because there's like different categories of podcasts and stuff but in terms of like health and wellness section of autism as far as I know that's the the top one and it's in the thing broken into about the top 2% of all podcasts so far so
00:04:15
Speaker
We're doing well. I just wanted to point that out and just say thank you to everyone who is continuingly listening to the podcast and supporting my work. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Thank you.
Becoming a Content Creator and Privacy Challenges
00:04:28
Speaker
Well, do you want to tell us a little bit about sort of how you started your Instagram stuff and why you got into this space?
00:04:41
Speaker
I wasn't looking to be a content creator. It actually was a struggle for quite a while, figuring out my place and what to share, how to share it, and that learning curve. And I think the neurodivergent tendency to want to be
00:05:02
Speaker
perfect at it and not present anything that was less than your best. That was hard for me and I am a private person as well. I didn't want to be sharing my life and certainly not my children's lives on
00:05:20
Speaker
social media for anybody to have their eyes on it. So there's definitely been a learning curve of protecting their privacy and not sharing anything that they wouldn't want to be shared and look back on in 10 years.
Neurodiverse Family Practices
00:05:39
Speaker
That's a whole topic in itself. I think it's definitely something that I've seen about a lot and it seems to be quite a topic, something that kind of drives a pretty hard knife through the connection between the autism parenting and artistic adult worlds.
00:06:01
Speaker
Yeah, and finding a way to educate others without compromising your integrity. That is a hard thing with social media, but it is important to find a platform to promote safe practices. Both my kids are neurodivergent. My son is autistic and my daughter is ADHD.
00:06:31
Speaker
Um, it came down to learning a lot myself and unlearning a lot. And I come from a neurodiverse family. So I was raised, uh, in the time before, um, neurodiversity affirming practices. And I saw the results. I saw how it affected mental health and I refuse to repeat that cycle. So I took it upon myself to, um, learn.
00:07:00
Speaker
from autistic adults and find ways to support my son and respect his needs and then learned about our environment and how it was affecting him. And I saw that there were a lot of parents who
Language and Accessibility in the Autism Community
00:07:20
Speaker
hadn't
00:07:22
Speaker
accessed that volume of information from autistic adults. And so kind of finding a way to bridge the autistic experience into homes where parents are struggling and wanting their autistic children to be respected and supported and finding a way to present the information, um,
00:07:48
Speaker
in a way that would be absorbed by parents. Yeah. Yeah. Cause there's, there's, I think the, the issue with a lot of autism content is it's very, it's very niche down and kind of a bit, um, jargony for a lot of people. You know, you start talking about neurodivergent stims and sensory joy. Like most people would be like, what? Yeah, definitely.
00:08:14
Speaker
really breaking down those definitions, that it is a different language. And I think it's important that we're teaching our children about the language as well. It's, you know, just it's not taboo. Disability disabled is not a bad word. I'm really making it a just a transparent conversation in the home and presenting it to other families so that they can
00:08:42
Speaker
can feel supported as well.
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah. I really, I mean, I said, I said this before, but I really like, you know, the idea of tying communities together because my view is, is that if we can, if we can all sort of band together and come up with like things that each of these groups agree with and things that they can kind of run with and even, even going so, you know, mini school as language use language use can be like,
00:09:16
Speaker
a massive barrier for a lot of parents. Absolutely.
Public Figures and Social Media Challenges
00:09:21
Speaker
A lot of people, even autistic people, trying to get into the autism communities and sort of share their stories and ask questions. I think that when you're within the adult autistic community, specifically on Instagram, the language is very tightly sort of monitored and controlled by a lot of people.
00:09:46
Speaker
which, you know, it's understandable. But I think sometimes it can kind of it can cause people to be kind of isolated from entering those spaces and sort of working with, you know, parents and researchers and organizations and stuff. So I just don't know. I think it's really it's a positive thing to do. I'm just wondering, like,
00:10:10
Speaker
Um, have you had any difficulties like because of that crossover between those two worlds?
Learning from Non-Neurodiversity Affirming Therapies
00:10:18
Speaker
Um, at the beginning I did, I had to, uh, adjust my approach and a lot of it is, um, being humble to the feedback, uh, you're receiving and I started on this journey. Um, and my son is almost 10.
00:10:40
Speaker
And it started off with a lot of medical intervention. He has some physical disabilities in addition to neurological. So a lot of the focus was on that. And we went through a lot of therapies that were not neurodiversity affirming. And I think back to that experience and, you know, even something like occupational therapy, which is a wonderful resource, but thinking back to what he experienced as a toddler,
00:11:10
Speaker
with like exposure therapy. And we now know that that is not a safe practice for autistic people. It doesn't get them used to it. It just makes them mask their pain. So there was a lot of learning and I think that that's what's hard for parents with a newly diagnosed autistic child is
00:11:37
Speaker
so many doctors and therapists are not up to date on research. So many. Most of them, right? Even the specialists, like what does the specialist say? They are so out of date. And so there definitely needs to be some way of presenting this information to parents with
00:11:58
Speaker
newly diagnosed kids, but the doctors maybe are not the gold standard of research. And maybe the feedback that they're giving you or the therapies that they're encouraging you to seek may not be the best resources for that information. And so there is a learning curve for parents of going from that point to
00:12:27
Speaker
listening to autistic adults, and it does take a lot of humility on the parents' part to realize that maybe they were hurting their kids along the way, and how do I undo that trauma? Yeah, and I think there can be, as with anything in life,
00:12:51
Speaker
You know, I never, I'm a person, I never jump to the assumption that someone's doing stuff maliciously or just wanting to, you know, but if they've been through these kind of therapy routes and it's been taught, you know, they've been encouraged to by doctors and medical professionals, I don't like, I see it more as an issue of the system rather than the person. Yes.
00:13:18
Speaker
I don't like immediately jump and say like, oh yeah, this is horrible. Get this, this out there. I don't want, we don't want to talk to you. Shut the conversation down, that kind of thing. Um, and you know, it can go so far as even like people using different types of language or labels that most people that are not
00:13:39
Speaker
not happy with. For me, it's not something that I kind of focus in on too much. It's trying to be open and warm to other people wanting to learn. And I think that's where a lot of people can get
00:13:56
Speaker
They can kind of swing the other way. I mean, there's a specific situation where I was talking to an Instagram sort of public figure person called the Autism Cafe. I mean, she was talking about her experiences being quite heavily bullied by the autistic community. And it's interesting. I mean,
00:14:23
Speaker
She works for Autism Speaks, which is another kind of point of difficulty for a lot of autistic adults. And she's autistic herself, right?
00:14:36
Speaker
Exactly, but I feel like, you know, even though I've taken stances against those kind of organisations and sort of the practices and stuff, I'm still very, you know, open and compassionate and I care about her and I know that
00:14:55
Speaker
it's a very hard line to walk by. I feel like the fire and the controversy and the attacks and the bullying, it does more to shut people down than to actually produce anything productive. And I feel like that's pushed her in a way that's
00:15:19
Speaker
kind of counter to that. And, you know, you see the posts and stuff and you have you have parents and you have a lot of people following her. Yeah, she has a big following. There is always that kind of issue around other autistic adults, but it's a complex thing. I mean, I'm sure we could talk about that for ages and just really happy that. It's similar to like the shift from
00:15:48
Speaker
medical model of disability to the social model of disability. I, you don't know what you don't know. And once you do, you need to do better. So the, you know, I think the general public doesn't realize that there is a difference between medical model and social model. But, um, for me, I was watching my son, um, in
00:16:14
Speaker
being tortured by life. And I had to fix that, not him, fix the environment and fix how he was being treated. And I recognized his responses to people around him. And then I started looking for the patterns of like, why is he in distress? And how,
00:16:40
Speaker
especially when he was non-speaking and he was learning his AAC device, finding ways to communicate with him to figure out how can I support him? Can we have a visitor? Hi, we are just going outside. Okay, put socks on. Have fun.
00:17:09
Speaker
He was letting me know he's going outside with his caregiver. Yeah, yeah.
Sensory Supports in Learning and Work Environments
00:17:18
Speaker
This is why I really appreciate the work that you're doing because I feel like there's a missed opportunity for really having more backing towards improving life quality for autistic people when we have as many people on board with the same thing and the same kind of
00:17:37
Speaker
rhetoric and same kind of language, you know, if it was all connected together and a whole big group, you know, maybe we might be able to sort of fix things and push for things to be a little bit different. Yeah, because parents do want their children to be happy and safe. Yeah, of course. Yeah. And the bottom line of parenting and finding a way for
00:18:02
Speaker
our autistic children to feel safe. How do we do that? And teaching parents how to accommodate. And accommodations are a good thing. And figuring out how to make life accessible. Those are skills that
00:18:25
Speaker
parents have to learn and there's so much unlearning about traditional parenting. Yeah, it's a big mountain to climb.
00:18:36
Speaker
Yes, it says indeed. Well, just to kind of push this through the sort of the questions that we have today, because we're talking today again about sensory supports, environmental adjustments. I suppose the best place to start is why are sensory supports and environmental adjustments important? Why do you think in terms of the child kind of parent side of things?
00:19:05
Speaker
It means that your child can access their community. It means that they are accessing learning opportunities with the spoon theory or using their spoons for the right things. If they are in sensory overload or even approaching sensory overload, we need to be monitoring the environment and making adjustments so that
00:19:31
Speaker
they have a calm nervous system and it means that they are open to connection and they can access communication. It basically just, it makes life possible for them. And it's mental health care.
00:19:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think in terms of the adult side of things, I think you could probably say the same just for different things like in a workplace, if there's a difficult sensory environment like in an open office plan or
00:20:11
Speaker
You're not allowed to listen to music or put earbuds in and stuff while you're working. Or even, you know, shades or something to kind of or reducing the light exposure in an office. All of that stuff kind of adds an element of
00:20:29
Speaker
Well, it is distracting. For one, it's it can cause you a lot of stress and sort of burn out in the long run, especially if you're working like a nine to five in an office. And it doesn't really allow you space to to do the job that you need to do. Yeah, or to do it well. Or to do it well, exactly. I think about that with my daughter's accommodations at school.
00:21:00
Speaker
The accommodations help her to be her most successful. The word perform is not the right word, but to be able to perform at your best and feel good about what you are producing.
00:21:22
Speaker
So I'm hearing a lot of like the wellbeing side of things, but also like the productivity side of things. Cause I know that a lot of schools, you know, they're, they're funding their budgets and stuff. They're all determined on what score they get from like Offstead in the UK or some other kind of regulations.
00:21:45
Speaker
And if you're not giving a child a break to get some pre-acceptive input, they are not going to do the test well. And I mean, it's unfortunate that's what the standard is, but those accommodations, those sensory breaks are so important.
00:22:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a good sort of our element to it because, you know, when we think about sensory supports, we think about removing things, but we don't often think about adding things. Which is just as important. And as you said with movement breaks and, you know, some of the schools that I used to work with, they had these amazing, like,
00:22:33
Speaker
I don't know exactly what to call them, but they're kind of this, it's like a piece of equipment, park equipment outside where you have like a bar that you can hold on and then there's like two swigging arms for like your legs that you can just kind of take them back and forwards to two legs or you can do side to side. Kind of like an elliptical machine.
00:22:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, sort of like that. And all the other teachers used to laugh at me because I used to...
00:23:04
Speaker
go on it as well, like during my breaks and just, just go on it. And that should be at every school. And I feel that way. I just with that particular piece of equipment that you're describing, that's the stability and proprioceptive input, which is so regulating, um, in my daughter's classroom, she and I built a calm down corner. And I put a sheet over a desk to reduce that visual input and put
00:23:31
Speaker
some STEM toys in there, or tools, I should say. She has access to her noise canceling headphones, all those are so important. That's brilliant. The accommodations are sometimes on the parent side of things, I can feel like, does she really need these things? But the truth is she does.
00:24:00
Speaker
in order for her to be regulated. She needs those things. And for my son, he has very strong sensory needs between taking things away and adding the right things back in.
00:24:16
Speaker
It's a science, making sure that his needs are being supported. So important. And I think like a lot of people though, you know, if you were to kind of present that to schools or to parents, they would say like, well, how are they going to cope in the real world when there's noises and there's lights and there's all of this stuff.
00:24:38
Speaker
You do know that you can have sensory supports out and about. Absolutely absolutely.
Self-Advocacy and Respect for Needs
00:24:44
Speaker
I think that's what's so important about promoting these safe practices and teaching parents is because when you have potentially we can have a whole generation of children who grow up with compassion and who care about mental health and
00:25:02
Speaker
who know how to self-advocate for what they need, and they will respect somebody else who needs to access those things. It makes me excited for the long-term payoff of if we can raise a generation of kids who know how to advocate for their needs, it would be a much better culture.
00:25:31
Speaker
Ay up, just popping on to say thank you for listening to this podcast thus far. If you could do me a real solid, please make sure to rate the podcast if you're in a podcasting streaming service and do all that like, subscribe, comment stuff on YouTube. Damn, even send a heart in the comments if you don't feel like typing.
00:25:51
Speaker
Make sure to check out my link tree, which is always down below in the description or head over to my Instagram page at Thomas Henley UK for daily blogs, podcast updates and weekly lives. This podcast is sponsored by my favorite noise canceling noise reducing earbuds that you can adjust the volume on. Really, really great thing. They're called D buds and you can find the affiliate link down in the description of this podcast for a 15 percent off discount.
00:26:20
Speaker
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the rest of the podcast. That's all from me. I think that's a really important thing that you touch on in terms of self-advocacy because it's often sort of due to the nature of autism being autistic and kind of not really fitting in per se and struggling a bit in terms of communication.
00:26:44
Speaker
Um, that can be really, really tough. I mean, it's tough for any, any child or any adult as well. Um, sometimes to advocate for your own needs. Um, when there's this kind of note set of normative rules that you have to apply to. And you know, each time you deviate from that normative role, people kind of point it out and say, get, get back in line and masking for your whole life. And you start to unmask and.
00:27:13
Speaker
That's a whole conversation too. But if you can support kids to where they don't have to mask or you teach them, you know, I know that there's a whole demographic of people who teach their children how to mask when it's necessary. But for me, I think it's,
00:27:42
Speaker
I mean, the bottom line in our home is I want everybody to feel safe with not masking. And if we can move with compassion and feel positive about accommodations, then we're, we're helping each other to have calm nervous systems and be able to be open to connection.
00:28:13
Speaker
And I think as well, it's worth touching on the point that, you know, what do you think people we do have different sensory systems?
Broad Understanding of Sensory Needs
00:28:23
Speaker
Some things are hyper-sensitive, some things are hypo-sensitive, insensitive or oversensitive.
00:28:31
Speaker
And the, but the thing is, is that sensory things affect everybody. Yes. They just affect everybody at different levels. Yeah. And it's, it's quite interesting talking to neurotypicals about things like stimming, because, you know, there's that there's different categories of stimming. You know, I talked to OT and L about sort of, um, the sensory worlds and stimming and stuff. Um, and there's, there's like little stems and there's like those.
00:29:01
Speaker
things that everyone does like rubbing their hands or tapping their hair or having a snack or having a drink. There's so many things that people do in their life, whether they're autistic or not, that are regulating in terms of sensory. It's just when you're autistic, it's a bit different and your sensory needs are kind of, some of them are a lot more, you need a lot more input.
00:29:30
Speaker
And so we get these kind of big stems like rocking and spinning. And the sensory joy or the autistic joy that comes from some stimming as well. That's a really interesting thing that differs from
00:29:47
Speaker
neurotypical people and I was, I was, I was at this presentation, um, in Birmingham and it's called the emotional, uh, dis, dysregulation, um, something, uh, association maybe.
00:30:06
Speaker
And it was kind of, it was funded by the Commonwealth games, which is, it was a really cool opportunity to kind of go and speak. I did like a talk about like Alexa Fime here. And there was this dancer called Kaya who does this, it does like aerial based like movements and stuff. And they brought this hoop, this like structure.
00:30:35
Speaker
My daughter wants to try that. Like a string with like a hoop on. Yeah. That's so cool. After I did my presentation, I was just, I just went to Kai and I was like, you know, can I have a go on this? And she's like, yeah, sure. And then I just sat on it and she was like showing me different techniques and stuff. And then at the end she like spanned me around like multiple times. It was like really, really fast. This will look really funny for
00:31:05
Speaker
No, six foot guide, six foot. Oh, it's amazing. I, I, it's the same with like roller coasters and theme parks and stuff. There is just no comparison to the amount of euphoria that I feel from spinning and like moving and rocking. And it's like, I, I will never forget, um, snorkeling in Maui.
00:31:29
Speaker
and like snorkeling with fish and turtles and coral. And just like, that was the ultimate experience, like sensory experience for me. And I will never forget that. You got like the noise being doubled by the water. It was incredible. You see all the lights and the... Yeah. Wow. There was no getting me out of the water.
Sensory Experiences and Ethical Considerations
00:31:55
Speaker
I saw a turtle for the first time in the wild in Turkey. It was really cool. We thought it was a rock. We're kind of on these like pedal boats. God, they're horrible to use.
00:32:10
Speaker
We're on these pedal boats in this massive lake and stuff. And there was this sort of thing just poking up. And we were like, is that a turtle? Or is that a rock? Because we know that turtles are around here. And it was a turtle. And we basically just followed it around for about an hour. That's awesome. We weren't getting too close and distressing it or anything. Yeah. I think they could play it, too. Or touching it. Yeah. But I was just kind of observing it. It was really cool.
00:32:40
Speaker
Um, I love stuff like that. I like, I mean, we could talk about the, the, the morals and stuff, indications for aquatics, places with like great spaces and nature. Yeah. That's, that's a big part of our life.
00:32:57
Speaker
I love aquariums, but I'm also very aware that they use excessive amounts of volume on a lot of their creatures. So I tend not to go anywhere now. You should look into it. It's a bit insane what they do. My new special interest. Yeah.
00:33:17
Speaker
So we kind of have an idea of why they're important and we know that for a fact, you know, it doesn't matter if the world has other sensory things that are gonna occur. You can always have your sensory aids with you. It's something that I do as an autistic adult.
00:33:40
Speaker
We don't leave the house without the headphones, sunglasses. We actually, I just got my son some new lenses. It's called FL-41 lens. And it's kind of like a rose colored lens and it does eliminate certain wavelengths of light. And his neurologist and ophthalmologist both recommended it and it has alleviated his migraines.
00:34:09
Speaker
Um, he doesn't need pain medication anymore, uh, cause he's wearing them, which is really interesting. Um, so I have some, some, some blue light glasses. I actually got them. Like the computer blue light classes, it's different from that, but the, um, I think it just, it shows the value of.
00:34:35
Speaker
these tools and that it's alleviating pain. And if you can look at a sensory overwhelm as a painful experience that can like help parents to register that our kids aren't just being dramatic or picky. They are genuinely experiencing life in a different way and in distress.
00:35:05
Speaker
So looking for ways to alleviate pain that comes from sensory. We have lots of different ways that we accommodate his needs. When we drive, the heater does not get turned on. The radio doesn't get turned on. We're really conscientious of when we roll the windows down. And I also have taught him scripts
00:35:33
Speaker
for advocating for his needs. He's really sensitive to people talking. I'm sensitive to my own voice. I realize this. Recently I realized it because I have these
00:35:48
Speaker
If I just kind of insert this, I have like this collaboration affiliate thing going with this company called Dbuds. It's DB. Nice. They have these like adjustable noise canceling earbuds that I really like. And I realized from wearing them, like even on like the low setting of like minus 12 decibels, it was like, um,
00:36:12
Speaker
my voice would get louder just naturally to a point where most people would consider it to be like a normal volume. Whereas when I don't have the men, I'm very quiet. I'm very soft spoken. And it's because me speaking like too loud actually causes me distress. Yeah. Like my own voice to me. There are certain voices my son does not deal well with.
00:36:42
Speaker
and just kind of conversations in general. And kind of a side note, it's so important that we're not talking about our kids in front of them.
00:36:51
Speaker
This isn't like sensory based, but conversation topic or anyone, anyone in front of them. We don't talk about people like they are not in the room. That's just a really important thing with my, with my grandma, who she, she has Alzheimer's and always get really frustrated when like, um, like the staff come over to talk about her in front, in front of us. Yeah, it's, it's,
00:37:18
Speaker
just doesn't feel right. You know, that's, that's, that's one of those parenting things that you, that parents need to learn immediately, uh, not years later. Um, they don't, they don't clock that the kids are actually listening in and what they're saying. Like the doctors should know at this point, uh, the therapist, uh, that if we're rehashing all of the crises,
00:37:46
Speaker
since the last appointment and the child is in their listing to all of their, uh, everything. It is, it's not kind. It's, this is not compassionate. This is not affirming. Um, so that's just kind of a, a lesson learned, um, that parents, like we should be telling parents this when the diagnosis comes, not, uh,
00:38:11
Speaker
You know, it even happens in, you know, I was watching that, that show, Love on the Spectrum. And I even saw that, that happened between like the camera crew, the interviewers and the parents of this, this one guy. I can't remember what his name is. It's kind of the big star of the show, but they were talking about him in front, in front of them, in front of them.
00:38:34
Speaker
I was just like, oh my God, they literally just don't think that they have the ability to process what they're saying. Like if they're not looking directly at them and they're doing their own thing that they don't have ears and can't like, you know, so it's. Yeah. And it comes down to the presumed competence. Also, we need to be honoring our kids and honoring autistic people.
00:39:00
Speaker
as whole people, it's so important. I think it's really great that we're talking about these kind of wider things. I'm just wondering if we can kind of focus in on like the sensory aspect of things again. It's great to hear. I think it's some really useful advice that would be helpful to a lot of people.
00:39:30
Speaker
I guess, you know, we've kind of understood why it's important to have these adjustments and these sensory supports, but what supports can an autistic adult, or I'll do the adult part again, or a parent of an autistic child use to reduce sensory things? Like where could they start?
00:39:55
Speaker
Um, my starting place and what I encourage parents to do as well is do a like assessment of
Home Environment Sensory Adjustments
00:40:03
Speaker
your home. What are, where are the sounds coming from? Where are the smells coming from? And for our home, I keep small kitchen appliances in the garage. So the coffee grinder, the blender, those are in the garage. I close the door behind me to use them. Um, I'm really aware of.
00:40:23
Speaker
the cleaners that we use and soaps and detergents, unscented. I close the curtains if there's a lot of like bright sunshine or contrasting. I'll try to close the curtains before my son comes in the room, especially in the morning, going from dark to light, that big contrast. We've replaced fans.
00:40:50
Speaker
It's like our bathroom fan. We replace them. Oh, I hate those. Yeah. It's the ones that connect to the lights when you put the lights on as well. Yes. And even in the community, we keep track of what bathrooms have fans that come on with the light switch. And that kind of goes along with the assessment thing of doing your due diligence. I look for soft materials.
00:41:19
Speaker
So replacing anything that has buttons or zippers or feels scratchy, especially if you have a person who experiences self-injurious behaviors, making sure that you're not pulling in a pillow that has buttons and zippers, that would be dangerous.
00:41:40
Speaker
You can also look at your decor. Maybe you're you have too many colors and it's visually too much input. You can look at if the if your child or
00:41:57
Speaker
the person autistic person has facial awareness challenges. You know, can you put some cushions on the corners so that they're not injuring themselves because their spatial awareness, a lot of it just really is being
00:42:11
Speaker
diligent in assessing the environment. I would agree with you as well. I think the best course of action is to remove things at the source. You want to remove things before adding in things that could help because I feel like
00:42:31
Speaker
That's, you know, if you can remove the sources, the stress is better than having the sources. So having ways to, ways to deal with that stress. You just want to get rid of it fast. So there's, it's just not a stressful environment. Maybe this isn't the time to run the dishwasher, you know, that for my son, it's hard for him to eat if the dishwasher is running. So I'll just put on pause and really like it's not a big deal. Um,
00:43:01
Speaker
And, you know, in terms of adding things back in, we have a swing. And when my kids stop using it, I know it's time to put a different swing attachment up. And for my daughter, I use the their pressure brush or lotion. And
00:43:20
Speaker
Um, we talk a thorough pressure brush. Um, they call it the Wilburger protocol, but we don't follow it exactly. But it's kind of like a little silicone bristles it's, uh, that fold easily. And it gives some good for preceptive input. You just do long strokes, like on the arms, legs, or the back. Uh, and she actually will take it with her to school in her pocket.
00:43:45
Speaker
and just use it on the palms of her hands. Um, and it's to get one of those. It's pretty cool. Um, and it's, it just gives them nice deep pressure. Uh, and it was actually, it was a two different occupational therapists have recommended it, um, a different one for my son and one for my daughter at different times for different purposes.
00:44:12
Speaker
But she really seeks that out and lotion for her as well. If she comes home dysregulated, that's kind of one of the first tools. I'll be like, okay, let's do like a little lotion on your arms and co-regulate. But removing sensory input and then pulling in the right
00:44:38
Speaker
sensory input is so important. We use a lot of cool lights. Um, so the, you know, like the galaxy projector lights that has been really successful in our home. Oh, I love those things. That's been really fun. I pulled this out on the OTA Now podcast. Oh my God. I haven't put my flashy thing on in the background, like usual.
00:45:01
Speaker
Oh, it's not connected. I've got this. I'll put it on in a sec, but I've got this fiber optic light, which I really love. I also had this jellyfish light as well, but I just haven't.
00:45:19
Speaker
I haven't put the batteries in in a while and I need to get on that because it is like, if I'm like working and I'm just like, I need to have a little bit of a break.
ADHD, Sensory Needs, and Strategies
00:45:29
Speaker
I can just sort of stare at the jellyfish, listen to my music. I think that that's really important. Um, I know the focus is autism, but with ADHD and cause they, you know, co-occurring so frequently, uh, adding in that, um,
00:45:47
Speaker
that hit of dopamine with the cool lights or the music to stem to. Sometimes we'll do like a piece of gum or a piece of candy just to get us motivated.
00:46:04
Speaker
you know, the body doubling, there are so many, um, tools. And when you look at it like tools, uh, it helps us to, to cope and, and be the person that we want to be. Like nobody wants to be dysregulated. Um, so if you're looking at sensory input like that, it makes sense.
00:46:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think from the kind of the autistic adult side, I think, you know, a lot of those things could definitely be transferable. You know, whether you're a child or an adult, you can use stuff like that. I recently did a post on oral motor needs.
00:46:48
Speaker
And a lot of people didn't even know what they were and that they had them. And a lot of people like bite their lips and like, you know, grime a tea for, you know, snack a lot. That was a big one for me. I just wasn't getting that, that oral motor stimulation. So, you know, things like chewing things is quite a big thing. Yeah, we have a collection of, of chewy, chew necklaces.
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. A lot of schools from what I've heard, they're not the most accommodating for that. They're like, oh no, that's a child thing. My daughter has heard so many rude comments about her two necklaces so many times. It's terrible. Yeah. And trying to teach her
00:47:42
Speaker
um, how to advocate for why she needs it, but she, no, she's not teething and no, she's not a baby. This is not a baby teething necklace. Like it helps her, um, with sensory input and combat anxiety. Uh, there's the, the advocating is relentless, but that's what it's so important to teach our kids to advocate for themselves. Um,
00:48:09
Speaker
Cause you're not always around them, especially if they go to school, you know, and it's hard, isn't it? It is hard.
00:48:17
Speaker
It's, you know, in terms of like sensory support for adults, I'd say, you know, common things to use would be sunglasses or like what you're saying about those, um, FD, FD 41, FL 41 nearly got it.
Sensory Supports for Adults
00:48:36
Speaker
Um, the things like those can be helpful. I mean, my belief like glasses help.
00:48:40
Speaker
I actually help more with calming me than iStream, but I find those quite helpful. There's also things like headphones, earbuds, ear defenders, the D-bud, earplugs. I use loops, they're probably similar.
00:49:02
Speaker
Yeah. And also things, sensory toys, you know, it could be things like acupressure rings, which I really like that you can just put on your finger. You can keep it in your pocket. They're just things that you can just roll up and down your finger. And it's quite sort of proprioceptive in that sense. There's also compression clothes.
00:49:26
Speaker
which I actually utilized a lot when I was a teenager. Like, you know, you get those compression clothes like sports and stuff. I find that a lot of my anxiety comes in through my legs, like it's the first place that that really starts to become an issue when it when I get anxious or overloaded. So I used to wear compression bottoms like under my my school clothes.
00:49:56
Speaker
that really helped for a lot of people i think sometimes sometimes people like tight clothing sometimes people like loose clothing and i'm definitely on the i like the tight clothing side of things but um i mean it could be just some something simple like
00:50:13
Speaker
opting for wearing some stylish joggers, some trainers that kind of look a bit more formal, even softer hoodies, hats. There could be a lot of things that you could use sort of on a daily basis. Hats and hoodies are one of my staples.
00:50:36
Speaker
Even at home, you know, utilize any flaws that you have to lay on them if you're feeling stressed. Yeah. That's what I do is I come home from a speaking event or a hard day and I'll just lay on the living room floor and chat to my mum about like my day and stuff. And that really helps doing like stretches and things like that. Stretching.
00:51:01
Speaker
A lot of people find weighted blankets or weighted toys, plushies, quite helpful for them. It's not something that I like because I feel a bit restricted. I like to move around a lot. But I've heard that it can be quite helpful for some people. There's this company called Fidget Gem. Fidget Gem. I'm combining company names. Fidget Bomb. I don't know if they're still going on, but I used to chat to their company founder and they do these
00:51:31
Speaker
It's kind of like a sock for your mattress. And it provides the pressure through like the tension of the elastic material rather than the weight of the blanket. And you can sort of move around in it and you can like adjust the tightness of it and stuff. And that has been really helpful for me. I still don't know if they do stuff like that, but it might be worth having a look at that kind of thing. I think the issue was with it is that
00:52:00
Speaker
Yeah. The actual product, it worked really well, but the problem was, um, it kind of looks a bit restrictive and they didn't know whether it would kind of get past health checks and stuff because, you know, it is like, uh, basically you kind of binding yourself to the bed a little bit. Um,
00:52:23
Speaker
But I think those- That could be problematic. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But I see the intention. My husband definitely, he likes the sheets to be super tight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And kind of like a body sock that is used for that proprioceptive input. I can see- Like what Russian children get where they get like swaddled after they get- Yeah. Yeah. I like swaddling for babies. Like that's a common practice. Yeah.
00:52:52
Speaker
from the sensory perspective, like now we can see why do babies love to be swaddled? It's not just the feeling of being in the womb, it's that deep pressure and that need doesn't just vanish because they turn into a toddler. I mean, I'd quite like to go through perhaps some of the things that I use. I mean, just for examples, just things that I have about
00:53:21
Speaker
Fidget cubes, different things that you can push and click and fiddle with if you're feeling like you need to do some for your hands. There's the typical fidget spinners. Of course, I've gone for a very Gothic style skull fidget spinner I got from Thailand.
00:53:40
Speaker
And there's also this, if I can, I find like massage and deep pressure and vibration really helpful. So I have this sort of this foot massager that I have under my desk that I can put my foot on and it just vibrates. And it's got like these rolly things that you can sort of use. Just having that under my desk. Yeah, sure. It kind of resonates throughout the house a little bit, but
00:54:08
Speaker
But if it helps you complete the task, then that's good.
00:54:15
Speaker
or simply having a blanket that I can just kind of put over myself and just, you know, just stuff like that. Little things like that, it kind of, it adds up. And especially for you, you struggle, like focusing and stuff, just having different things that you can do to kind of modify your sensory environment on the daily is quite, it's quite useful. Yeah.
00:54:42
Speaker
And then let's say there's noise cancelling headphones, of course, and music. That's a big one. I think it's important just to note that if you are assessing
00:54:54
Speaker
um, somebody else's sensory needs, like as a parent, um, that it's not going to be the exact same every day. And just recognizing that, um, maybe yesterday they needed to spin, but today they need, uh, to run, like just recognizing that it's not like they talk a lot about sensory diet. And I think that that's something that is important to be added to the conversation is that, um, and maybe their capacity.
00:55:24
Speaker
before it changes day to day, what they could tolerate yesterday is intolerable today. It's just so important to recognize that. Yes, absolutely. The compiling effect of appointments and demands placed upon them, just recognizing that it's not the same every day.
00:55:49
Speaker
I know we've talked a lot. I think we've kind of touched on the third question sort of about terms of like adjustments in the home.
Sensory-Friendly Home Modifications
00:56:01
Speaker
I mean, I could go through some of the things that have been quite useful for me. Dimmer switches.
00:56:11
Speaker
obvious big big one. Just being able to reduce the intensity of lights that you have. That's a really, really important thing. I actually I have this
00:56:24
Speaker
one of those bulbs, those light changing bulbs that you can connect to Alexa. Got it for like 20 quid. Just replace my old bulb. And I can ask Alexa to like put it to like 5%, 10%, 20, 30, 40, you know.
00:56:44
Speaker
And that really helps. But I can also, because it's a color changing one, I can also adjust the light. So sometimes, you know, in the morning, if I want to get up, then I will ask Alexa to turn on the light blue to kind of mimic that that kind of waking cycle thing.
00:57:03
Speaker
And then at nighttime, I'll have it to set to orange, to like really, really dark orange to kind of reduce the blue light. And I find that really helpful and especially paying dividends to the fact that a lot of people struggle with agoraphobia or going outside and tend to be more likely to spend a lot of time isolated indoors.
00:57:30
Speaker
Just having that ability to adjust some light or adjust your environment in little ways throughout the day, it's really good for your mental health. I agree. I could probably say that the same thing could be said for my use of music.
00:57:48
Speaker
any time that I do podcasts, any time that I speak, I'm always listening to music, which is, it's kind of like that, that thing that I can sort of tie into, you know, people talk about having a space to work and having a space to rest. Well, that's how I kind of get around it. And, you know, just my environment, I think, as well, opting for carpets.
00:58:15
Speaker
rather than flaws just because of the coldness on your feet and also the echoes and stuff. That's what I was thinking also.
00:58:28
Speaker
And this is really strange dynamics. I'm not very good at keeping tidy and clean, but I also really hate clutter. So there's also a bit of effort from my part to kind of make sure that things are clean and there's not too much clutter everywhere because it definitely does have an impact on my mental health positively when it's not cluttered negatively when it is.
00:58:56
Speaker
Me too. I think switching out bulbs and appliances that have that electrical hum. Yeah. Clocks, that TikTok. Clocks, a TikTok. Yeah, definitely that's a big one. Can't stand those things.
00:59:16
Speaker
What else? I think another thing that people overlook a lot is heaters and generators. Where is it in the house and is there any noise-reducing material for that? We've actually put up the noise-canceling foam panels, like what they would use in a music studio. We put that on the interior of the door that houses our furnace. Well, there's two doors and we put up on both sides and it did just kind of reduce
00:59:46
Speaker
a bit of the, the sound, it didn't cancel it entirely, but, um, it helped. And, and, uh, cause my son is, you know, keenly aware of the sound. And, um, we talked about the thermostat. I think that transparency about why it's coming on and when to anticipate it teaching the skill of, um, you know, how to.
01:00:14
Speaker
like rationalize why things are the way they are and why this sensory thing is happening. I think as well, definitely because, you know, in a perfect world, we'd be able to control our sensory environment to a T, but it's not always possible. Sometimes you have neighbors, sometimes you have, you know, you're in flats and there's people next to you next door and you can't always control that.
01:00:40
Speaker
I think having things that are quite calming for you, like a desk fan, something that produces light white noise or something, or even just using sensory supports like headphones or earphones to manage environments where you don't have that control.
01:01:03
Speaker
I think it's really important. And especially for me, like the thinking of the stims that I have, wind in my face, you know, every time I go in a car, every time that I can, I'll roll down the window, like stick my head out the window, like have the tongue flapping like Scooby-Doo. That's my daughter.
01:01:26
Speaker
I love that so I pretty much always when I'm trying to relax I'll stick my fan on because it does produce that sort of background noise that I can tolerate and that I like and it also has that like wind element I've heard a lot of people use that for sleep which is it's interesting
01:01:49
Speaker
You have to be careful with that though. Temperature. Temperature of the home and even the cool air warm blanket ratio. It's another thing to be aware of that sensory experience. Yeah, because we're not always aware of stuff like that either. Temperature changes and stuff because
01:02:16
Speaker
The way that I can tell when I'm cold is when I start shivering. Yeah. And the way that I can tell when I'm hot is when I start sweating. Yep. And, uh, finding the middle ground in between that is sometimes quite hard. It's like that interoceptive kind of elements of it. Yeah. And, and the weather again is something we can't control. And the wind, like you were mentioning, or like the raindrops on your skin.
01:02:43
Speaker
the sound of thunder. We now check the weather report every day to help my son anticipate what kind of weather are we going to have today and if thunder and lightning is in the forecast, we take a lot of measures to help him feel comfortable and if that means headphones or
01:03:07
Speaker
making his face extra cozy and sitting close to each other so he can co-regulate, just really not discounting the impact that that sensory has on a person. It's really interesting. Well, I guess like, you know, a natural follow on from sort of monitoring home environments would be
01:03:38
Speaker
You know, in an ideal world or perhaps a world where your managers or people around you might listen to, you know, listen to you about sensory related things. What kind of workplace or public space adjustments do you think would be really helpful? You know, accessing the community,
01:04:07
Speaker
is a human right. And of course, on my side as the parent, I'm keeping note of what places offer sensory accommodations. When my son- Hospitals are the worst. Oh man, hospitals are rough. But even like a movie theater offering a sensory time or a coffee shop, making it family friendly,
01:04:36
Speaker
Grocery stores could offer sensory hours. Playgrounds should be enforcing dogs on leashes. Any community in space could be replacing their light bulbs to take the fluorescent light bulbs out. Last week, I actually called a restaurant. My son was going into a restaurant having lunch and we make sure that we go
01:05:01
Speaker
right when they open for lunchtime, so it's not busy. But I actually called ahead of time to ask to place our order so that it would be ready when we walked in. He wouldn't have to sit and wait. And they told me no. And I was a bit shocked, like such an easy accommodation. They said, no, you can order from your table. And it just kind of makes it clear how much work there is to do still.
01:05:31
Speaker
And, but these are opportunities for businesses to be more inclusive. And it's something that, that I would like to, it's on my like goal list is to figure out how to help the community spaces be more inclusive and accommodating.
01:05:56
Speaker
for disabled people, for autistic people. I actually, I find it very, it's very interesting because a lot of the time when, cause I have sort of some links into that, that the world of doing like sensory adjustments for, um, like I, I did one as part of my part-time job, um, a company called NDTI organization charity. Um,
01:06:25
Speaker
and they have a section of the business which does sensory reviews of like housing spaces for people with disabilities.
Improving Workplace Sensory Conditions
01:06:40
Speaker
They also go into workplaces and do assessments and they
01:06:46
Speaker
You know, they did, they do all these kinds of things. They have like a team of autistic people who go in and basically just check and test and, um, you know, look at, look at all the sensory aspects that could be improved. And, um, and also I was part of a project, um, this, this children's hospital called Alda Hey, Alda Hey hospital, um, in the UK. Um,
01:07:14
Speaker
You know, obviously, the hospital is the place that I think of the most when I think of the really negative side of not managing sensory environments, because the hospital is supposed to be a place that you go to when you need help, when your health is in difficulty.
Hospital Sensory Challenges and Accommodations
01:07:36
Speaker
And a lot of autistic people will actually put off
01:07:40
Speaker
getting help for stuff because they know that they're going to have to go into a hospital. You've got those aspects of the fluorescent lights, the reflective floors, the scented cleaning products, the coffee lounges, the busy waiting rooms with no opportunities. The beeping machines. Other people under stress.
01:08:05
Speaker
Yeah. There's so many aspects to that environment. I mean, not even talking about, you know, getting shots and... Yeah, not even like the heavy stuff. Like, it's heavy. Just being in the presence of a hospital is a lot to deal with, let alone if you are having a medical procedure.
01:08:27
Speaker
And that's, that's a really big issue because if we kind of, if you, if you instill that these hot, these hospitals are a negative place at a young age or even places like the dentist or the haircut, the hairdressers, um, being, being others that can, that can really impact someone's ability to, you know, get their teeth sorted out, excess healthcare, get, get their, their, their haircut and causing trauma.
01:08:55
Speaker
Exactly. So we did a lot of adjustments there. There was a lot of talk about monitoring the contrast, providing sensory safe spaces, and of course, adjusting the lights, offering sensory supports to be used for situations where you can't control the noise due to the amount of people there.
01:09:22
Speaker
Just little things like that, we kind of did some sensory training to make some of the hospital staff more aware of these things and be a bit more proactive in talking to the young people about the changes that they're making and stuff.
01:09:41
Speaker
does little things like that, I think can be can be really, really useful in those public public settings. And quite often, they're not very expensive or they're very cheap. They're just just adjustments. Yeah, you just need someone to go in and be accountable and actually do the the the damn work, which is
01:10:05
Speaker
Often the hardest thing about any workplaces or institutions or organizations, public spaces, is getting someone to actually just go in and do it or just commission someone to do it. It's just so complex. It is complex. And I like how you said it's about being proactive. We don't need to just do a Band-Aid fix. We're not treating the outside external behavior, but we're actually
01:10:35
Speaker
Um, looking at making the environment safe. Well, um, I think that's, that's what I'd think. I mean.
01:10:47
Speaker
I have in my head. It's never going to be a foolproof way to just go up to your managers and say, can you do some sensory improvement work in the office? Can I not work in an open space office? Can I wear my earbuds? Can I listen to music? Can I put sunglasses on?
01:11:08
Speaker
And it's a very complex because I know a lot of people don't disclose that they're autistic. So that's like an added complexity. I'm not really sure about how to kind of fix that aspect of things, but I would definitely point to
01:11:25
Speaker
points you to sending to your manager or sending to an organization, someone that you perhaps trust to sort of help you in that, if you can, if you have someone like that. There's the it's not rocket science report by NDTI. And that's a pretty comprehensive kind of look at the types of issues, sensory issues within the workplace and what can be done.
01:11:51
Speaker
The interesting thing that you'll find is that these sensory adjustments help everybody. At the start, everybody has sensory needs and things that they don't like and it's not necessarily always an autism thing. You can have sensory processing differences and not be autistic.
01:12:10
Speaker
It's, you know, it's very highly tied together, but it's not always the case. And even for people who don't have those processing differences, making those sensory adjustments will impact everybody positively. Yes, improve the work environment.
01:12:29
Speaker
Well, I think we've had sort of a really practical and theoretical sort of discussion about like the different aspects of sensory things. I think there's one thing that I kind of wanted to add in just for people's knowledge before we kind of try to round up and end the podcast.
01:12:54
Speaker
I think it's really important to understand the terms are sensory seeking and sensory avoidant
01:13:03
Speaker
Because these things are even adding into that sensory defensiveness. Because as we know, senses are not so clean cut and like someone's hypersensitive so they hate all light. Not true. They might love certain lights. And they might love certain lights only when they can control that said light.
01:13:30
Speaker
So there's always an aspect of individualization for each thing. It's not so easy as saying, oh, they're hypersensitive to that, hypersensitive to that, and just kind of listing things off. It's very individual to the person.
01:13:45
Speaker
Whilst I hate background noise and people talking, I love listening to heavy metal and rap and just really loud, angry, high energy music. And that's just one of the examples. I hate white lights, but I love bright flashing disco lights and things like that. They're just absolutely, I absolutely love them.
01:14:08
Speaker
So there's the sensory seeking which is obviously seeking out that thing and it doesn't necessarily have to be tied to hyper or hypo sensitivities. You tend to seek out stuff if you're hypo sensitive to it but it's not always the case.
01:14:26
Speaker
stimming tends to be for things that you're hypersensitive to as well. Sensory joy tends to come in with those hypersensitivities. Not always, but that's just kind of a trend that I've noticed. And also sensory avoidant, which I suppose is kind of the most important in terms of reducing sensory distress.
01:14:51
Speaker
And I think the last thing that I said was sensory defensiveness. And that's like what I was saying about control over sensory environments.
Managing Sensory Environments for Comfort
01:15:00
Speaker
If there's an element of control involved by the person, by the child, by the adult,
01:15:06
Speaker
over that sensor environment. Sometimes they can tolerate very, very, very strong sensory input, but as long as they can control it, they're fine with it. The issue is when it's kind of thrust upon you. I always give the example of, you know, I love hugs.
01:15:27
Speaker
But if you come up to me and just give me a hug out of the blue, um, I'm probably going to pull away and just be a bit like, Oh, or you put your hand on my shoulder. I'm like, Oh, okay. Um, autonomy. Yeah. And so having control over it, cause you know, being prepared for things is, is important as well. Um,
01:15:50
Speaker
But yeah, I think that's all I had to say. Have you got anything else that you'd like to sort of add on before we go to song of the day? Sensory seeker and sensory avoider. I think it's important to note that you can be both a seeker on visual input or spicy foods, but also avoidant of background noises and hugs.
01:16:16
Speaker
Like the, you can absolutely be both in recognizing in our kids what they seek and what they avoid and finding ways to honor it.
01:16:28
Speaker
Brilliant. Well, it's been really great talking to you, Natasha. Just wondering, have you remembered about the song of the day or did I forget to ask you about it? I did remember. Nope. You told me about it. Yes. And I did have to kind of think about it. Did I want to do like a song that I like or do I want to do a song that has some depth? And of course I had to go for the depth. And I went for Show Yourself from Frozen 2.
01:16:57
Speaker
by Idina Mendez, that is. But show yourself. Menzel. Okay. And I shared it with my sister when she was going through her autism diagnosis. And I feel like it is such a perfect representation of late diagnosed autistic female, especially learning
01:17:23
Speaker
how to unmask and who am I without the mask. I think that even the video from the movie is really powerful, but I think Frozen 2 in its entirety has a lot of implication for the autistic woman, like diagnosed woman. It's definitely popular with a lot of autistic kids. Yeah.
01:17:54
Speaker
Show yourself was at the beginning of the movie and that's like where she begins to unmask and then or no, no, sorry. The other one. Oh, anyway. Yeah, it's not. I'm going to say it's not my special interest, but it's not my special interest either. But I've seen it because I have a daughter and but the the experience of of being female and learning how to unmask.
01:18:22
Speaker
I think show yourself is a great representation of that. Thank you. Well, I will add that to the 40 Otis song of the day playlist, which is always down in the description. So if you have enjoyed this episode, please make sure to rate it. If you're on Spotify, Apple, Google, all of that stuff. And if you're watching over on YouTube, please make sure to give it a like and a subscribe.
01:18:48
Speaker
comment down below a blue heart or a heart of any kind if you don't feel like writing a long comment because that will do absolute wonders for me getting this podcast out to more people and I would really appreciate it.
01:19:02
Speaker
I'm kind of in the process of setting up my business and I've been talking about it for a while. I realized that it's April now and I said that it would be around April that I get my stuff sorted out and everything. But there's been a lot of changes within my own life in terms of work and my advocacy work.
01:19:24
Speaker
setting up the different aspects of my business so I'm not sure how long that's going to take to really set up. I am also switching from doing a more of a coaching role to a consultancy role and basically all that means is that I won't be coaching people through a process and I will be actually able to
01:19:46
Speaker
talk to people one to one and give my opinions as an autistic adult, which I feel like provides me a lot more ability to speak freely without, you know, having to be careful about what you say and, you know, perhaps having more of an approach of guiding people, you know.
01:20:10
Speaker
I feel like I feel like consultancy probably fits me a lot better. So it's basically going to be the same thing. It's just without all the annoying formalities, forms, things like that. And yeah, if you if you do enjoy the podcast, please head over to my Instagram at Thomas Henley UK. And I'm realizing that this Frozen song is becoming very loud, so I'm just going to turn that down.
01:20:39
Speaker
I'm listening to it now in the background, it's getting a bit too. Last thing, what was I going to say? Instagram. You can find updates about the podcast and the other stuff that I do as well as fully comprehensive blogs every day of the week where you can
01:20:57
Speaker
learn about different aspects of autism, whether you're autistic or not, whether you're a parent or whether you're a autistic adult, always really great stuff to learn from and it's free. So please stay over there, give it a follow, check out my stuff.
01:21:15
Speaker
This podcast is sort of loosely sponsored by Debuds, which I did sort of allude to earlier. If you want to go check out them below, I'll put a link to my affiliate link. I'll get a small commission from that and you get about a 15% discount on them.
01:21:34
Speaker
really love them, really, really encourage anyone to kind of check it out, have a look at them. They've been amazing for me sort of around about at the gym, especially when I'm going to the gym with my dad and I don't have my music on. It's it can be really important for for reducing that background noise. So yeah, Natasha, where can people find you? Where would you like to go? I am mainly on Instagram. It's I want to tell you books and
01:22:04
Speaker
I focus on that platform. Cool, cool. Well, I will put that down in the description as per usual. Last question, Natasha, have you enjoyed your 40 Aughty experience? So much. Thank you for having me. It's a treat for me to be here. Yeah. And you, well, that sounded very abrupt. What am I talking about?
01:22:32
Speaker
I get a bit loopy. I haven't eaten much today. I'm like, my brains, my brains running, running about. Oh, my God.
01:22:44
Speaker
I loved being here. I have such an honor. The guests that you have had on your podcast are people that I admire and I respect so much. And so to be part of that group is very special to me. You're a very good speaker. I will tell you that. You do have a talent for speaking. I get very, very nervous.
01:23:12
Speaker
Well, you did amazing. You did really well. I would definitely encourage you to get more involved in, whether it's like videos or podcasts or more interviews because you've got the knack for it, I would say.
01:23:26
Speaker
Thanks, it terrifies me. Yeah. Well, thank you very much for watching or listening to the 4080 podcast. Really lovely to have you on today, listening to us, chat everything about autism, sensory experiences, sensory support, sensory aids, whatever you want to call them.
01:23:48
Speaker
Um, and more or less making your life a little bit easier and, uh, less sensory overloading and, uh, less anxiety provoking. Uh, I hope that you've been able to take something from this podcast, whether you are a parent or an autistic adult like myself. Um, and yeah, uh, I will see you in another episode of the 40 or two podcast next week. See you later guys.