Excessive blinking, eye watering Struggles to locate individuals Enjoys flashing lights and when change in ambient lighting in classroom or playground colours conditions Struggles to differentiate Wears peaked caps, sunglasses PECS pictures Keeps hood up indoors or insists on keeping their hair long over their face AUDITORY / HEARING Extremely agitated by background Not responding to Shouting noise instructions, name Banging objects to make a Sensitive to lawnmowers, Slow response to novel noise hairdryers, vacuum cleaners environmental sounds Putting music up very loud Difficult coping in assembly, PE, Poor auditory discrimination lunch halls even in low levels of Covers ears background noise Creates own to overshadow background noise Challenging behaviour in order to leave noisy environments OLFACTORY / SMELL Doesn’t like having teeth brushed Does not notice soiling Smelling bodies, shoes, Picky eater specific flavour Slow to respond to strong clothes inappropriately – preferences, restricted diet smells such as cleaning Using too much scented body Preference for foods or uses chemicals, smoke products ketchup as a flavour masker Gagging at strong smells GUSTATORY / TASTE like having teeth brushed Not able to differentiate Mouthing and biting eater specific flavour different flavours Puts unusual things in mouth – preferences, restricted diet Not aware of potentially Likes strong flavours and Preference for bland foods or harmful things in mouth eg smells uses ketchup as a flavour masker not sensitive to chemical Makes peculiar mouth flavours, bitter flavours movements
Excessive blinking, eye watering when change in ambient lighting conditions Wears peaked caps, sunglasses Keeps hood up indoors or insists on keeping their hair long over their face Struggles to locate individuals in classroom or playground Struggles to differentiate PECS pictures Enjoys flashing lights and colours AUDITORY / HEARING Extremely agitated by background noise Sensitive to lawnmowers, hairdryers, vacuum cleaners Difficult coping in assembly, PE, lunch halls Covers ears Creates own to overshadow background noise Challenging behaviour in order to leave noisy environments Not responding to instructions, name Slow response to novel environmental sounds Poor auditory discrimination even in low levels of background noise Shouting Banging objects to make a noise Putting music up very loud OLFACTORY / SMELL Doesn’t like having teeth brushed Picky eater – specific flavour preferences, restricted diet Preference for foods or uses ketchup as a flavour masker Gagging at strong smells Does not notice soiling Slow to respond to strong smells such as cleaning chemicals, smoke Smelling bodies, shoes, clothes inappropriately Using too much scented body products GUSTATORY / TASTE like having teeth brushed eater – specific flavour preferences, restricted diet Preference for bland foods or uses ketchup as a flavour masker Not able to differentiate different flavours Not aware of potentially harmful things in mouth eg not sensitive to chemical flavours, bitter flavours Mouthing and biting Puts unusual things in mouth Likes strong flavours and smells Makes peculiar mouth movements