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My Five Senses

by Kathy Grant

As a person with autism, the way I perceive and sense the world and interpret it is different from most people. My nervous system is wired differently and because of it, I have my ways of interpreting what goes on around me. In this article, I will explain each of my five senses and how I use them to interpret the world around me. In this article, I hope to impress upon the reader that the reason why some people with autism react the way they do when certain things come up is because of the way that person is processing the environment around him.

1. Sight and Visual Processing

According to convention I see 20/20 with my glasses on. But it is the way my brain interprets what is being seen that makes the difference. For example, I have no depth perception. That means I cannot tell how deep, or wide, an object is, if it curves. This lack of depth perception is one of the reasons why I chose not to drive because when I did drive a car 10 years ago, I sometimes missed an entire highway because of it being at an angle I couldn’t see. This also means that I cannot judge distances accurately, and when one drives a car, it is important to have this ability. Also, I have almost no peripheral vision and when I see something it is only close to my line of sight, straight on. If I want to see something on the side, then I turn my head. I cannot just use my eyes to follow something outside of my visual field. This means that if I am on a street and see it and if I come back to that same area from a different path, then that street looks different to me. It’s like being a horse with blinders on because when I explore an area, I see what is in front of me and that means I pay special attention to what I see so I can remember what that particular place is. This also means I take into account "landmarks" that stick out. I recognize different areas based on these things, and if I don’t see them, then it makes me anxious. For example, when I was in downtown Louisville, I learned my hotel’s location by noticing things like it being near the Ohio River and by certain buildings that looked different from others.

I don’t see in three dimensions, I see only in two. So if I see a picture of Pike’s Peak in a book and then go to Colorado Springs and see Pike’s Peak up close, it looks the same, with the only difference being that seeing Pike’s Peak up close, the mountain is bigger in size. But otherwise, it looks the same as it did in the photo. I appreciate the beauty of Pike’s Peak, but it doesn’t look any different than if I’m looking at a picture of it. And yet, I notice things that other people don’t notice. For example, I can spot a map or a flag of a country anywhere. I have surprised people that way. I have seen a map of the world on commercials for a nanosecond and am the only one who notices it. I can be walking a street exploring an area, like I did in Louisville on Sunday and all of a sudden, I saw foreign flags flying. I immediately went over there to see what countries these flags represent. I walked around these flags and named the countries they represent. Louisville, like other major cities, has sister cities in foreign countries that these sister cities were located in. When I am with people, what I see surprises them because they would notice other things and wonder why I would be all of a sudden walking in a different direction. Very rarely have I met someone who would notice flags and maps the way I do. And the same goes for cats. I notice cats the same way I notice flags and maps. I can spot a cat anywhere.

2. Auditory Processing and Hearing

My hearing according to conventional tests is good. The hearing tests I have taken have confirmed that I hear within the limits of what is considered normal. Despite this, the way my brain interprets what my ears hear varies depending on the situation. When I hear static or babies crying, it hurts me physically. In public, I cringe, but tolerate these things out of necessity. But last weekend when I was in Louisville, KY, my friends and I went on a riverboat and took a tour of the Ohio River. I had to cover my ears because the toots of the boat’s whistle were too loud. I don’t care for high-pitched voices or kids’ songs because it is the equivalent of having someone run their nails on the chalkboard. Also, there are times when I talk to friends and what they say is not clear to me.

Many times when a person is speaking, it sounds like garble. I can partially read lips and that helps. Also, many times I have been surprised to find out the real words of my favorite songs because when I listen to them on the radio or watch VH1, what I think that band is singing and what they actually are singing are two different things. Despite this, I can hear very clearly names of geographical places from across a big room. I amazes me how everything else is just mumble, but the name of any geographical location comes out clearly.

3. Touch

Unlike some people with autism, I don’t have tactile defensiveness issues. I don’t mind being touched and like to be hugged; yet I don’t like people to give me wet kisses. When I was married, I could only tolerate dry kisses. Somehow wet lips don’t feel good, and yet I don’t mind it when my cat, Vivir, licks me on my shoulder. I like the feeling of warmth, soft fabrics, and cat fut. I like it when Vivir sits on my chest. I crave deep pressure, but the only opportunities come from my five-pound cat. When I was married, sometimes I would ask my ex-husband Ray to sit on me. I also liked it when he stepped on my back to crack it. Also my temperature controls are off in that I get cold quite easily, but very rarely get hot. I am comfortable wearing a winter coat in 70-degree weather, but when others are sweating from the heat, I am just lukewarm. I also have a very high pain tolerance, except around my lips. For example, I got stitches on my hand years ago from being cut by the top of a cat food can. I remember looking at this clean cut and looking at the fat layers. I couldn’t decide if I should go to the emergency room and get fixed up because I don’t have insurance and I didn’t want to shell out a lot of money for nothing. So I called my sister Amy and told her what happened and asked her if I should go to the ER. As I was talking to Amy, I took a ruler and measured it and told her how big the cut was. After talking to her, I waited until Ray came home and he saw the cut and urged me to call Mom because he felt it was important for me to go to the ER and get stitched up. That evening after talking to Mom, Ray convinced me to go to the ER and he came along with me. I was afraid of missing a Star Trek episode that night, but went anyway to satisfy his wishes. It was a good thing I went because if I hadn’t gone, it might have been infected and required more care. And throughout that entire experience, the most painful part was when the bill came. It cost $300 for three little stitches.

4. Smell

I have almost no sense of smell. Unless the odor is strong and pungent, I don’t have any clue that something stinks. This means that in the past I have missed noticing natural gas leaks in my apartment and have to rely on someone else to sniff things out for me. My lack of an adequate sense of smell also means that I miss out on many "pleasant" things that people enjoy. I do like to smell roses and can smell food if it is being cooked nearby. At times when I am on the bus, I have noticed other people’s odors if they are really strong, like reeking of alcohol and smoke. This lack of a strong sense of smell also meant that when I was a janitor at a veterinarian’s office last year, I could clean up after nasty messes and not mind it very much.

5. Taste

The only thing I can say about taste is that I don’t care for spicy foods. I think the reason for that comes from being brought up eating bland foods because my father had 2/3 of his stomach taken out because of ulcers. And because of this, he could eat no spicy food and thus the family had a very bland diet. I have eaten Ethiopian food and my tongue burned for two hours afterwards. Just last weekend when I was in Louisville, I had some Caribbean/West African food and my tongue burned. Give me the typical American diet of fast food and Coke, and I am happy. I also don’t care for seafood, partially because of the smell. I also have a tendency to eat the same things over and over because if I like something, I like it and want to keep eating it. I know my diet is limited because I only eat the foods I like and am leery of trying out anything new.

I hope dear reader, that this article will give you a small inkling of how someone with autism processes the world around him. Many times when a person with autism does something, it is based on how the world is perceived by his senses, and viewing the world from the autistic person’s point of view is helpful in understanding that unique person.