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A child who screams at the hairdryer, will only wear one pair of trousers, chews everything, spins for minutes, or refuses every food except three is not being difficult. They are living in a body that processes sensory information differently, and their behaviour is a rational response to that experience. Sensory differences affect the large majority of autistic children and many children with ADHD or developmental delay. This guide explains the main patterns, how to recognise them in your child, and the strategies occupational skills specialists use — most of which you can start at home.
What sensory processing means
The brain receives a constant stream of information from eight senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, balance (vestibular), body position (proprioception) and internal signals such as hunger and pain (interoception). Typically the brain filters this stream automatically, turning down what is irrelevant and turning up what matters.
In many autistic children that filter works differently. Some inputs come through far too strongly (over-responsiveness): a clothing label feels like sandpaper, a vacuum cleaner is painful, fluorescent light flickers visibly. Others come through too weakly (under-responsiveness): the child does not notice being called, does not feel a bump, or needs to move constantly to feel where their body is. Most children are a mixture — over-responsive in some senses and under-responsive in others — and the pattern can change with tiredness, hunger and stress.
Signs of over-responsiveness
- Hearing: covers ears, panics at hand-dryers, blenders, sirens, singing or crowded rooms; notices sounds nobody else hears.
- Touch: hates labels, seams, socks, haircuts, nail cutting, tooth brushing, messy hands; pulls away from hugs or light touch, but may accept firm pressure.
- Taste and smell: extremely selective eating, gagging at textures or smells, refusing mixed foods, strong reactions to perfumes and cleaning products.
- Sight: distress in bright or flickering light, avoids busy visual environments, prefers dim rooms.
- Movement: fear of swings, slides, being lifted, stairs or escalators; car sickness; avoids having feet off the ground.
Signs of under-responsiveness and sensory seeking
- Constant movement: spinning, jumping, crashing into furniture, climbing, running in circles.
- Seeking pressure: squeezing into tight spaces, wanting heavy blankets, enjoying rough play, biting or chewing objects, clothes and hands.
- Not noticing: slow to respond to name, does not react to pain, cold or heat, misses cues that a nappy is wet or that they are hungry.
- Visual seeking: staring at spinning objects, lights and fans, watching things from the corner of the eye, lining up toys to look along them.
- Sound seeking: making loud repetitive noises, turning volume up, banging objects.
Seeking behaviours are the child's own attempt to give their nervous system the input it needs to feel organised. They are not misbehaviour and they are usually reduced not by stopping them but by providing the input in a planned way.
How sensory differences drive meltdowns and selective eating
A meltdown is different from a tantrum. A tantrum is a strategy that stops when the child gets what they want. A meltdown is a nervous system that has been overwhelmed and cannot recover on its own; giving the child what they wanted does not end it. Most meltdowns in young autistic children follow an accumulation of sensory input — a noisy supermarket, scratchy clothes, hunger and a change of routine on the same afternoon — and the last trigger is only the final straw.
Selective eating follows the same logic. Foods are refused for texture, smell, temperature, colour or the way they mix on the plate, not for taste alone. Forcing food tends to entrench the refusal. Progress comes from reducing the sensory load around meals, offering the same foods repeatedly without pressure, and building tolerance in small steps. Where digestive discomfort is also present, EICADD's digestive system protocol addresses it as part of the intervention plan, because a child who is in discomfort after eating will avoid eating.
Strategies that help at home
- Keep a sensory diary for two weeks: note what happened before each meltdown or refusal. Patterns usually appear within days.
- Reduce what you can: cut labels, buy seamless socks, use unscented products, warn before loud appliances, offer ear defenders in noisy places, lower lighting.
- Provide input on a schedule: for a seeking child, plan bursts of heavy work every couple of hours — pushing a loaded box, animal walks, jumping on a mattress, carrying shopping, a weighted lap pad at the table.
- Use deep pressure for calming: firm hugs, rolling the child in a blanket, a heavy blanket at night. Light touch tends to alarm; firm pressure tends to settle.
- Build a calm corner: a small tent or space with dim light, a few preferred objects and no demands, where the child can go before they reach overload.
- Introduce new sensations gradually and playfully, never by force: a new food on the plate but not required to be eaten, a haircut in three short visits, tooth brushing with a vibrating brush first on the hand.
- Protect routine and prepare for change with pictures or a simple visual schedule; predictability lowers the baseline load.
- Watch sleep and hunger. Both dramatically lower a child's threshold for overload.
What occupational skills sessions add
An occupational skills specialist assesses which senses are over- and under-responsive, designs a "sensory diet" — a planned daily schedule of input tailored to your child — and works on the practical skills that sensory differences block: dressing, feeding, tooth brushing, tolerating haircuts, handwriting, and joining group activities. At EICADD these sessions are one-to-one, delivered by licensed specialists, and coordinated with speech, behavioural and neurofeedback sessions so that the whole plan pulls in the same direction.
Sensory differences do not disappear, but a child's ability to cope with them can change enormously in a year. The earlier that work starts, the fewer habits of avoidance have to be undone.
Frequently asked questions
Is sensory processing difficulty the same as autism?
No. Sensory differences are very common in autism and are part of how it is identified, but they also occur in ADHD, developmental delay and in children with no other condition. An assessment tells you which picture applies to your child, and the plan differs accordingly.
Should I stop my child from spinning, flapping or chewing?
Usually not. These are ways the child regulates their nervous system. The aim is to make them safe and to provide the same input in more useful forms (planned movement breaks, chewable jewellery, heavy work), not to suppress them. Suppressing a regulating behaviour tends to increase distress.
Will my child ever eat normally?
Most selective eaters expand their diet substantially with the right approach: no pressure, repeated exposure, reducing the sensory load at meals and addressing any digestive discomfort. Progress is measured in months, but it is real. Forcing food almost always makes it worse.
What is a sensory diet?
A planned daily schedule of sensory input — movement, pressure, touch and calming activities — designed by an occupational skills specialist for one specific child. It is called a diet because, like food, the input is given in planned amounts at planned times rather than only when the child is already overwhelmed.
Worried about your child's development?
A single AiDi session takes 6.5 minutes, needs no speech from your child and can be done from four months of age. Book an assessment in Ajman or Amman, or an online consultation.
