The chapter “The Squeeze Machine: Sensory Problems in Autism” in Grandin’s Thinking in Pictures presents a series of life perspectives of various individuals, including her own, regarding the sensory problems they experienced. Temple Grandin offered significant input in understanding the intricacies of autistic behaviors related to their sensory perceptions and processing. She gives her struggles with sensations of touch, which she described to have stimulated erratic behavior as the feeling was overwhelming. However, Grandin (2006) sought relief through pressure application, motivating her to design the Squeeze Machine that applied control pressure that was calming. Additionally, in autistic children, initiating the process is crucial as they perceive control over the situation, which calms them (Grandin, 2006). Thus, the aspect of control in situations is integral to overcoming these sensory problems.
Discussion
The chapter presents multiple perspectives on sensory problems and mannerisms of response to stimuli. Similarly, Tom McKean faced a similar problem but with a higher intensity of pressure required using tight wrist straps and an inflatable jacket for relief. The intensity of the sensory problems varies in intensity and areas of pressure application as some incorporate different instruments on different body points. Touch was applied in Therese Joliffe’s auditory and visual reception that distorted her perception of a phenomenon in her environment. Practically, she learned correct shoe-wearing after feeling the edges of the shoes and her feet to understand how the two fit into each other (Grandin, 2006). The approach allowed her to create an associative perspective of unseen objects.
Moreover, functions and reception of sounds, touch, and visual stimuli offered unique perspectives. Grandin documented cases of an indefinite reception of body parts seen in severe cases caused by fractured processing of phenomenon, recognizing a part at a time either visually or through touching objects and their body boundaries. Also, auditory stimuli are received differently as autistic persons may perceive them differently, expressing relief or heightened fear. Thus, the chapter postulated the sounds of vacuums or toilet flushing may be soothing, showing the varying extents to which sensory processing in the brain is essential, affecting the daily lives of autistic persons (Grandin, 2006). Thus, autistic people’s processing of these features instigates their choices to avoid them or, in heightened sensory circumstances, may exhibit the reactions as escape mechanisms to relieve the intensified feeling.
Visual problems are sensory challenges impeding autistic children from processing factors in their environment. Grandin (2006) argued that the inequity of visual reception might be very severe that autistic people mimic blind people as sight is unreliable. The phenomenon is heightened when they experience new environments; hence, sensory tune-out occurs, implying that the brain whiteouts the imagery. This is a challenge as the response interferes with sociological interactions and high risks as some lose perception of depth. In some instances, it is a struggle to recognize people they met, requiring repetitive reception on the brain to gain familiarity as they trace features such as beards or scars that they associate with a particular person.
Consequently, the development of adaptive mechanisms is advanced and integrated into supporting other autistic people. Sensory integration was developed to support the treatment of autistic people by employing pressure applications, as used in the hug machine (Grandin, 2006). These features are an example of the crucial advancements that support the recognition of sensory relief and adjustment of environments to be conducive for autistic people. Generally, the message she passed on was the deficiencies in the integration of sensory importance as researchers predominantly focus on making sense of autism.
Echolalia
Echolalia is a recurring phenomenon essential in expanding the knowledge and understanding of the experiences of autistic individuals. According to Grandin (2006), the phenomenon represents the perception of parrot-like utterances of words made by others. In practical terminology, it is considered an involuntary imitation of certain stimuli of words or sounds individuals experience (Boksa & Kominek, 2022). Moreover, Prucoli et al. (2021) presented that echolalia exists in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5) as a problem behavior commonly affecting autistic individuals, as a pathological repetition of words or utterances. Additionally, Boksa and Kominek (2022) explored the concept as a communication behavior that occurred naturally as a pathological deterrent from creating and sustaining social interactions. Thus, in defining the concept from a clinical point of view, it has been construed as a pathological impediment from neurodivergence.
However, the aspect may be presented positively as an adaptation to autism. Accordingly, Grandin (2006) postulates that the phenomenon occurs predominantly among individuals struggling to hear details from auditory responses. Contextualizing the concept, she gives the case of Therese Jolliffe, who, from her childhood experience, was delayed in detecting that someone was speaking to her. Moreover, Grandin’s personal experience and tests indicated that she had limitations in her reception and distinction of multiple auditory stimuli, as she could not pick information from two concurrent sources of communication. The chapter was based on Joan Burleigh’s tests that measure the capacity to piece information from two audio sources. Grandin failed to get 50 % compared to 100%, which was attributed to neurotypical performance (Grandin, 2006). Thus, the inference of her findings indicates the phenomenon as an approach attributed to receptiveness to auditory stimuli that affect autistic people.
The idea that echolalia can be perceived as an adaptation is rooted in the perception of infants’ developmental process. Grandin (2006), in this case, indicated that the phenomenon is rationalized as normal in children as a tool for learning a language for children. Boksa and Kominek (2022) argued that speech is an adaptive function in which autistic persons communicate through partial adoptions from their immediate environments. Just as in babies learning speech, autistic people with echolalia parrot partial words to express necessary conversations as language. These events occur as a fundamental implicature of particular words or statements associated with certain expressional features such as images or gestures. Thus, from this perspective, echolalia is integrated as a learned adaptation to support interaction and communication.
The changing perceptions have influenced a more salutogenic of addressing challenges faced by autistic people, focusing on how to address the issues rather than pathogenetic stances of deciphering the origin of health challenges. Consequently, Boksa and Kominek (2022) argued that echolalia could be applied in the medical context of addressing challenges faced by autistic individuals as a speech therapy support. Grandin (2006) gave a case under the same context of Jane McDonell’s 2-year-old son, who experienced challenges in receiving an auditory sense of words and understanding. Instead, the child understood communication more expressively through gestures. It creates a perspective that autistic individuals attribute expressional reason to communication, varying from person to person, as some detect intonations, expressions, and imagery as defining subjects to attribute language. Therefore, the takeaway from the holistic research distinguishes that based on experiences by autistic people, the behavior patterns are simply a mechanism of response to the environment. Grandin is adamant in presenting echolalia as a positive input in understanding and learning language. Thus, the aim of the chapter may be perceived as a revolutionary call for a transition to stimulating innovation to support autistic people.
Reflection
Conclusively, Grandin expresses her convictions and experiences with autism and how they stimulate an adaptive nature to their environments. In the chapter, the message passed down indicates that the subject of autism is a situation of heightened specialization in specific sensory needs. According to Kojovic et al. (2019), the adaptative capabilities to social interactions are distinctly affected by the outcomes of sensory responses that impede the reception of otherwise considered neurotypical activities. They postulated that the phenomenon is underresearched and uncharacterized as a vital conception of ADH. As such, Gernsbacher and Yergeau, (2019) refute the assumption of autism as an impairment, citing that the findings lack empirical justification to claim these issues are impairments. As Grandin took an orthodox approach, supporting the sensory issues viewed from the autistic person’s perspective as innate feelings that they incurred involuntarily.
However, in the process, they present unique perceptions using the neurotypically standard sensory capabilities and responses to establish some form of social interaction or expression. This is indicative that autistic people can communicate and interact with their environment but not in ways that the neurotypical stance perceives. The erratic behavior should not be understood as an impairment but as an adaptive reaction to unconducive environments. As such, Gernsbacher and Yergeau (2019) probe that autistic are rather more objective in their sensory responses, seeking that which is necessary and true. They debunk all notions that autistic people lack the sense of mind and express the inaccurateness of these findings. Despite the perspective as neurodivergent, it is clear that sensory issues are predetermined based on biologically heightened receptions that are altered for autistic people.
References
Boksa, E., & Kominek, A. (2022). Echolalia as communication behavior. Logopedia Silesiana, 11(1), 1–15.
Gernsbacher, M. A., & Yergeau, M. (2019). Empirical failures of the claim that autistic people lack a theory of mind. Archives of Scientific Psychology, 7(1), 102–118.
Grandin, T. (2006). The squeeze machine: Sensory problems in autism. In Thinking in Pictures (Vols. 58–83). Random House, Inc.
Kojovic, Ben Hadid, Franchini, & Schaer. (2019). Sensory processing issues and their association with social difficulties in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 8(10), 1508.
Pruccoli, J., Spadoni, C., Orsenigo, A., & Parmeggiani, A. (2021). Should Echolalia be considered a phonic stereotypy? A narrative review. Brain Sciences, 11(7), 862.