If sensory issues can be present without autism..

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Does that not discredit the idea that sensory issues are the underlying cause of all autistic problems?

Sensory Processing Disorder is a growing concern and is only recently being recognized as something that can be standalone (though it apparently usually isn't).

Surely, the neurological differences that cause the sensory problems are the same in autism as they are in standalone SPD or other diagnoses.

I don't know whether SPD can exist as a stand alone disorder. Certainly the label exists. Sometimes experts are right. Not always. But they are saying it exists.

However many people who are not autistic can have sensory issues. Especially as young children and worse for adults under stress. Don't think that contradicts the idea sensory issues are cause of autism any more than that everyone has communication problems sometimes would if problem communicating were thought causal.

I don't believe autistic people are completely different. Matter of intensity. Maybe brains start out different but there is so much overlap IMO that almost any SINGLE experience of a NT person or person with ASD can be understood in isolation IMO by the other with a bit of effort.

SPD can exist alone, yes. There are quite a few reasons why someone might have those difficulties, including transient ones like migraines and pregnancy.

I wouldn't say that sensory processing is the foundational issue in autism; I would say that information processing, including sensory information processing, is the fundamental difference. Because most autistic people's sensory systems are affected by this atypical information processing, most people have sensory issues--but a few have very mild ones, or none at all, though they're in the extreme minority.

Anyway, it's not like autism is a single-gene disorder with a single known cause. Autism happens for many different reasons--kind of like there are many reasons why a person might grow to be quite tall. For some people, sensory information processing might not be a big issue at all because it's their frontal lobe (executive function, decision-making) or language areas that are affected most of all. I'm pretty sure autism is a whole-brain issue, but who's to say all of the brain has to be affected equally? I doubt that's the case.

In isolation I think all symptoms of autism can be found in the general population. There are typically developing children with complex motor stereotypies, although they are a small minority and they have a high comorbidity rate with other disorders.

I think autism is just a constellation of abnormal neural connections that cause those symptoms to a severe degree. People usually favour the intense world theory because they don't like the theory of mind one. Even though I think theory of mind is applicable to me.

More and more the justification for autism as a standalone diagnosis gets weaker and weaker. I do think all psychiatric disorders are over-diagnosed, and many people self-ascribe traits. This probably amplifies the idea that these symptoms are more common than they actually are.

However it's clear they are found in the general population and are not unique to autism.

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Last edited by Acedia on 05 Jun 2014, 7:24 am, edited 2 times in total.

Is the difference to NTs that they are able to develop better compensation strategies?

When I go shopping, I am overwhelmed by the large amount of different products (of the same ingredient, e.g.) and feel myself lost between the shelfs.
Situation is getting worse when advertisement and loud music is playing in addition to that. I struggle to concentrate on the products I wanted to buy.
Shopping will likely be difficult for many customers (I know several people without autism who dislike shopping in such an environment) but still they'll do it without developing so strong escape thoughts that they forget about buying the important things and just want to go out of there.

Callista you're right. It's more information processing.

What I didn't say well is it really bothered me when my child was diagnosed with SPD to explain global difficulties with communication and social issues that were having an increasingly negative effect as she got older. I think the label can be misused and it was a relief when she was diagnosed with AS because school staff could relate to that. But the OT couldn't figure out what to do for a supposedly SPD child who did not relate socially and that made teaching staff angry because they were confused.

I think I am believing SPD should not be used when there are severe social and conversational/communicative issues as part of a quest not to overdiagnosis ASDs. It's confusing and risks getting people angry with children and parents which is unhelpful. There is a lot of risk of that if SPD as a SEVERE disorder is emphasized.

What is meant by information processing?

How you body and mind process and interrupt the information brought in by you sensory system


I'm not very great at explaining this. Here is an example

Sensory issue loud noises bother me a lot and are often painful

Sensory processing issue


I can hea the tiniest sounds like my shoes on the pavement the click clack of my dog as she walks on cement the jingling of keys as I walk down a busy side walk with cars going but but someone could be 10 ft away from me screaming my name and I can't hear them at all!


My brain can't process them calling my name but small things I am hearing. Often background sounds will blend together for me because there is just so much information comming in my Brian can't seperate or process it all. Does that make sense?

Sensory differences are quite common in autism; of course, it is possible that so-called NT's could experience something akin to "sensory overload." However, it is not an all-pervasive sort of thing within NT's as it is, at times within people with autism.

As always, one must look at individual case studies, in conjunction with peer-reviewed research studies, in order to arrive at some sort of "truth."

I believe what "causes" autism varies within individuals. Sometimes, it's the sensory issues; sometimes, it might be face blindness (as the theory goes, one is inspired, as an infant, to socialize more with a well-defined, unique-looking face--rather than a vague one). Other times, it might be environmental (especially with selective mutism).

It all goes back to the "nature vs nurture" thing. I believe both nature and nurture play their roles, the degree of both depending upon the individual person.

I, myself, do not distinguish faces all that well; I tend to recognize people in context. There are times when I don't recognize a person in plain clothes who was uniformed previously. Changing hairstyles also throw me off.

Yeah, SPD can be standalone. There are two possible interpretations.

One is that autism is not caused by sensory processing problems, but either causes or commonly occurs with sensory processing issues.

Another possibility is that standalone SPD involves different kinds of sensory issues that SPD with autism. For example, maybe SPD with autism involves sensory issues that directly interfere with social interaction, such as hypersensitivity to eye contact or to the sight of moving things or the auditory qualities of human speech.

We know that deafness and/or blindness, if present from birth, can cause a certain degree of autistic traits. In the case of deafness, this is mostly secondary to language delay (receptive language delays cause ToM delays, which may persist even if the language delay recovers). In the case of blindness, the inability to see facial expressions can lead to autistic characteristics in some blind children. In addition, sensory deprivation in infancy (often seen in orphanage-raised children) can cause autistic traits, though these tend to fade if their sensory environment becomes more normal (eg if adopted).

So at least some kinds of sensory issues could cause autistic traits. And if those sensory issues faded (which they sometimes do) it could explain the sudden improvement seen in some autistic kids. I doubt this accounts for all autism, and in many people I suspect sensory issues are only part of the picture, but it's possible some people might be autistic solely due to sensory problems.

Meanwhile, non-autistic SPD kids typically have sensory issues that don't affect social interaction, or only minimally (eg trouble with being touched). For one thing, non-autistic SPD seems much more likely to involve sensory-seeking, while autism/SPD is pretty much always predominantly sensory avoiding. Even sonsory-avoiding non-autistic SPD kids generally avoid sensations that are not crucial for social interaction, like being tactile defensive or not handling loud noises well or whatever. I haven't really heard of non-autistic SPD kids avoiding eye contact, or covering their ears when people talk at normal volume, or avoiding looking at people, which are all things that I've heard of autistic people doing due to sensory issues.

Except with those with SPD it is that sort of all pervasive thing it is with those with autism; in fact I'd say on average from those I've talked to, those with SPD deal with more sensory overload than the autistic people.

I'm curious what other conditions can cause sensory problems besides autism or SPD. I have too many other symptoms to have standalone SPD.

I thought it was common for people with ADHD to have some sensory problems, mostly auditory. However Dr. Barkley has stated very definitely that sensory issues are not part of ADHD.

ADHD and SPD have very high comorbidity rates. (More people with SPD have ADHD than those with SPD have autism even; though I think more people who have autism have SPD than those who have ADHD have SPD)

So having ADHD+SPD wouldn't be suprising.

Interesting, I didn't know that.

I was just checking Karla's page on FB and she posted this article about SPD.

http://health.heraldtribune.com/2014/04 ... rder-real/

Wouldn't sensory problems (especially of a visual nature) underlie dyslexia? Within dyslexia. at times, there seems to be considerable distortion and reversal of letters caused by something neurological.

I remember Uta Frith saying in one of her lectures that dyslexia is more of an auditory problem than a visual one, something to do with mixing up the sounds of words (which translates into spelling and writing problems).

I'm wondering what other physical conditions can cause sensory problems, besides migraines...brain infection? tumor? Could seizures be mistaken as sensory overload?