Engage My Brain

The following are ways that movement difference may manifest in individuals with an autism spectrum disorder. Individuals may experience one or more symptoms that can impact their lives greatly.

Starting or Initiating:

In any situation, we can be asked to start or initiate many actions, thoughts, memories or speech. Sometimes this may prove challenging. Have you ever needed extra time to recall information you “should” know easily, such as a name or phone number? Is your memory a bit slower?

This may be considered an initiation difficulty. Initiation is one of the many challenges frequently discussed for those with autism. Consider the starting/initiation challenges that may occur during the day in a classroom, on the job, or at home. These individuals may have trouble moving place to place, or getting out of a seat, car or pool. They may have trouble answering a question when called upon because they may freeze or not be able to think and speak. Initiating a greeting, starting a conversation, and then being able to begin to leave the conversation once it is completed can be hard. Retrieving information on a topic during a conversation, a classroom discussion, or at a work site may take time. Responding with an “appropriate” emotion such as sadness at a funeral instead of “inappropriate” laughter may be a reflection of this difficulty. Remembering where a specific room is located, someone's name, where something is located, how to do an activity, when to go someplace in particular, or what they are to do are issues for many. The individual may not be able to begin the thought process needed for a specific activity on command; again freezing and seeming as if he or she is not responsive or knows what to do.

 

“Onfrontational naming” - a term coined by Donnellan and Leary. This is when someone is asked to label, describe, or simply speak on command. Most people may experience some freezing, slow memory recall, or inability to speak in those instances. Others may become withdrawn, frustrated, or even get angry when confronted.

 

When Meg was pouring out her thoughts about why typing was so important to her and couldn't answer Dan Harrison's impromptu question about what she had for breakfast that morning.

Stopping:

Sometimes, even for us, once we start something it is hard to stop. Have you ever done this? Have you arrived at work one day only to have that last song you heard stuck in your head all day, or thoughts of your upcoming vacation or illness of a loved one take hold of your mind? These difficulties may also be true for individuals who are experiencing movement differences. Some examples could include not being able to stop the impulse to stand up repeatedly, ask repetitive questions, sing or talk out loud, have sudden outbursts, constantly touch objects, wonder what will happen next, daydream about a pleasant or unpleasant memory or activity, shut out sensory input such as a scratchy tag in clothing, or even to engage in self injurious behaviors. All may be a result of the central nervous system’s inability to regulate body responses.

Executing:

Executing has to do with rhythm, timing, speed, and accuracy. Think of dancing with a partner, and then suddenly stepping on your partner’s toes! What happens to all the wonderful execution of the dance steps? It may vanish only to return after moments of puzzlement or may never quite come back. Much of our day involves accuracy, timing, or rhythm. Writing on the line, eating with a fork, moving down a hallway, taking turns in conversation, tying a shoelace, brushing teeth, combing hair, coloring, building blocks, inserting letters into envelopes, typing on a computer, riding a bike, playing ball, giving a class presentation or sharing all involve accuracy, timing, and rhythm. If execution skills are skewed, the resulting actions can be altered just enough to create noticeable differences.

Continuing:

Many adults experience the strange phenomena of talking about a particular subject only to have their thoughts mysteriously disappear suddenly for no reason. Being able to continue a thought or concept may be challenging at times. Continuing a specific movement, even as simple as walking down the hall, may be complicated. Continuing or maintaining a seated posture, being quiet, staying on task, remaining on a conversation topic, doing all the math problems, reading the entire chapter in a book, staying with a group, finishing a meal, or playing a game are all aspects which may prove challenging due to movement differences.

Combining:

Everyone experiences difficulties combining actions on some level regularly, whether it is watching and listening; listening and doing; listening, looking and talking; or any other combination of sensations that might occur. We are constantly receiving input via our sensory system, and are at times bombarded. Most of us are able to filter out those sensations that are not needed or might bother us such as a scratchy tag in our clothes or excess noises. Sometimes it is too much to have all of that input coming in at once and we have to shut something out. For example, when driving in heavy traffic on unfamiliar roads in a snow storm while looking for a particular address and listening to the radio, we would probably turn the radio down or off. Why? Simply stated, there is too much “information” and there is the need to filter some out. That is the typical state for individuals with autism.

Switching:

Transitions happen throughout the day; internally as well as externally. Transitions may be moving from place to place, from activity to activity, or from person to person. They may also involve a shift in thinking, action, perception, or even from one emotional state to another. Transitions are constantly happening, and there are constant internal shifts that are unconscious. For individuals with an autism spectrum disorder, those shifts may only be accomplished with a great deal of effort and conscious thought. Some individuals with an autism spectrum disorder have stated that their minds and bodies do not agree thus making life quite challenging.

When Meg was typing at the Lurie Center and Marie came in and whispered to me and then Lisa that she wanted us to do message passing. Why was she whispering? Why didn't she include Meaghan, let her know what was going on? All of a sudden Lisa jumped up, told Brian and Michele to leave the room, left the room and returned with a pack of picture cards. I'm sure Meg was baffled. But Lisa, who has always been very calm and has always been wonderful about taking Meaghan into consideration and explaining everything to her, just told me to select a card and she would leave the room.

 

Now, what you don't know, is that Meaghan is very sensitive to message passing, because she feels it is discriminatory against people with autism. She had done it with us, but we had always respected her wishes and let her do it how she wanted, revealing things to Lisa through her typing that she couldn't have known. Things about our family life, her NuPath life etc.  She also had done it with bagged items. But she had never had it forced upon her without any explanation.

​

So, when Lisa returned to the room and asked Meaghan what picture she picked, Meaghan typed the thing that was uppermost on her mind. "Question." She wanted to know what the h___ was going on. But, Lisa was so frazzled that she didn't pick up on this. She asked Meg again what was on the card, and this time Meg typed."Raisins." (The picture on the card was grapes).  I asked her why she typed raisins. She responded that that is what she thinks of when she thinks of grapes. But I think that with the sudden number of switches that were forced on her, not only in thinking, action and persons, AND from one emotional state to another, it was remarkable that she could keep her mind on track at all.

​

​

​

​