Sensory Issues for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder by Diarmuid Heffernan

Author:Diarmuid Heffernan [Heffernan, Diarmuid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784502126
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2016-02-20T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Private Spaces and the Home

The home is generally encapsulated in a permanent physical structure. However, within the boundaries of this physical structure are fluid experiences and meanings of its inner spaces. For example, families come and go through the house and different family members may occupy the house in different ways at different times.

Despite the fact that homes have become ‘complex spaces of everyday life’ (Crooks 2010, p.45) this primal conception of home remains valid in many ways in contemporary times. It is still seen by many as a space of shelter and safety. For many of those on the AS it provides shelter from a society that may be confusing, intolerant or lacking understanding. Home represents an opportunity to escape from public expectations and the pressure to behave ‘normally’. Its physical contours encapsulate an emotional world which is more familiar, with rules that are more easily understood. For a number of the interviewees home represents a place of safety, comfort and protection.

For many people with ASD the control of their environment is a way of minimising potential difficulties, stresses and anxieties. If the space is one in which they control who enters, the sensory inputs, and how the space is physically laid out, then the space becomes much less fraught for them. The adherence to routine and ritual is a core feature of ASD for many (Dubin 2009). The control over a space allows for the person with autism to have a routine that suits their needs. Control over a space may also serve as a counterpoint to the anxieties felt in situations where the rules, expectations and behaviours of and by others is unclear and confusing. The home serves as the primary example of a space that people on the AS may control.

There are several aspects of a given space that may make it bearable or unbearable for many people with autism. These may include, for example, new people that the person with AS may not have met before, or possibly loud noises or pungent smells which may create sensory difficulties (Holliday Willey 1999).

For many with autism, then, it is important that they feel a sense of control over the environment or situation that they find themselves in. Interviewee B articulates this view: ‘I am most comfortable in situations where I am in control of the environment because nothing is going to happen that is going to be unpredictable to me’. For many with ASD, the place that they would most be in control of is their home.

The sense of being comfortable is linked to his sense of being in charge, where he is self-directing and where he does not have to negotiate the potential complexities of interactive relationships. The spaces he often feels most uncomfortable in by contrast are those which contain people he is not familiar with:

I would relate it [feeling uncomfortable] to the knowledge of the people…for instance if I was out with someone I didn’t know I would feel uncomfortable, if I was

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