Sensory simulation helps sixth graders understand, experience autism

It's the smell that gets you first.

Garlic. Lots of it.

Cass Zimmerman holds a glass jar of several crushed cloves in his hand. He takes a sniff and quickly sets it on the table, securing the lid.

“Mrs. Davis, couldn't you have picked roses or something better?” Cass, 12, asked.

“But then you wouldn't be bothered by the smell,” Stephanie Davis replied.

She wanted Cass, and his classmates, to be bothered. On Friday, more than 100 Harding Middle School sixth grade students participated in an simulation to promote autism awareness.

Visiting five stations in the school library, the students experienced sensory overload in sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing. They wore burlap covers that made their arms heavier than normal. They listened to loud music with headphones and tried to concentrate on a conversation at the same time. They wore blindfolds, then tried not to blink in the bright lights after they were removed.

“Now try to imagine if your brain made you that sensitive to these senses all the time,” Davis, the 6A language arts teacher, said.

Harding has autistic students who live that way every day. It isn't an experiment or a simulation – it's life. It's their life.

“I didn't realize how bad it is,” Leslie Pettie, 12, said.

Taking the headphones off at the hearing station, Leslie said she could barely make out what anyone said to her as the music blared.

“It was loud,” she said. “I couldn't imagine having to deal with that all the time.”

“I thought I'd be able to hear everyone fine, but I couldn't,” Tytan Tarbox, 11, said.

While all Cedar Rapids school district middle schools serve autistic students, Harding has the district's only middle school program for Level III autistic  students – the most severe. Still, rather than keep the students sequestered in their own classrooms, staff try to integrate them in general education settings, if possible.

Seventh grader Hunter Smith spends time in Davis' classroom every day. Hunter communicates mainly by sign language , so Davis' students have learned some signs so they can communicate with him. Hunter is greeted by name in the hallways, often accompanied by a high five. When he walked in the library Friday, several students asked him to sit by them.

“I think it's awesome that the students are going through this so they know what their friend, what Hunter, goes through every day,” Luke McClyman, a paraprofessional and communication coach said.

Interestingly enough, Hunter wasn't bothered by the garlic, sniffing the jar as his peers gagged. He also like the burlap sleeves, while other students were in a hurry to take them off. But that's what most people don't understand about autism, Susie Crichton said.

“There's a generalization out there that people with autism don't like to be touched, but each autistic child is an individual,” Crichton, one of Harding's autistic teachers, said. “It's important that you get to know them as an individual.”

Bridget Schuster, who also teaches in the autism classroom, said there are some students who don't understand the school's autistic population and act out by making fun of them. Davis' efforts to inform her students, both by opening her classroom and having her students serve as Peer Pals, has helped break down that barrier.

“She's done a great job where students now see their behavior as interesting instead of weird,” Schuster said. “They look at it as being detective, trying to find out why their friend is upset. Maybe there's a tag in their shirt that's bugging them or the halls are too noisy.”

The teachers hope increasing students' understanding and empathy will result in better understanding at all grade levels at Harding.

“We're just trying to make the school a little more inclusive,” Davis said.

April is Autism Awareness Month. Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges.  People with ASDs handle information in their brain differently than other people.

According to the Autism Society, 1 to 1.5 million Americans live with an autism spectrum disorder. It is the fastest-growing developmental disability.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 1 in 80, with an average of 1 in 100 children in the U.S., have an ASD. Approximately 13 percent of children have a developmental disability, ranging from mild disabilities such as speech and language impairments to serious developmental disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism.

Autism Speaks, an autism science and advocacy organization, states that more children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined. Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism.