How does "sensory overload" feel like?
Many autistic people experience intense anxiety and emotion fluctuations. I made a short video to demonsrate what is it like to live with sensory overload
Key Findings
1. ASD is a developmental disability that causes social, communication, and behavioral challenge. Individuals with ASD have significant variations of symptoms.
2. Living problems faced by people with ASD include: unemployment, low participation in education beyond high school, and limited opportunity for social activities. 40% of them spend little or no time with friends.
3. Coping with Anxiety and intense emotions 1 is a big challenge for most autistic people. Some of them can feel the emotion but has difficulties naming them, and some of them have hyper sensitivity to stimuli.
@Baoshan Intellectual School
I went to Baozhan Intellectual School, which serves children with all kinds of mental and intellectual disabilities. I talked to 3 autistic kids and their parents, and their mentor Miss Zhou. I brought a box of colored markers, and gave a creative task to them. I intended to test their ability to concentrate.
However, I found they were more interested in the arrangement of colored markers than drawing. Some of them carefully arranged the markers in the order they wanted, which is a super interesting finding that proves autistic people have pattern seeking behavior.
I did an empathy map to reflect wants and needs for High functioning autistic kids. I found many of them have pattern seeking behavior, and finding patterns makes them feel safe 2 .
User personas are created based on two user groups: Aspergers, and less affected children with autistic disorder from 10-18 years old. Here's an example.
I use the coding platform "Processing" to realize my vision, and created three brush effects with code.
Click on the image below to try out the brush effects ↓
I found these autistic kids had very short attention spans and could easily be distracted, and it’s hard to get their attention on the screen. However, after I managed to get their attention, they showed interest in this drawing program and started creating drawings.
“Chil.ly” still has room for improvement. As I use a computer for the user testing, and the kids are not so familiar with using a computer, some of them showed curiosity about on my computer more than the screen.
In the future development of the app, I would use ipad and phone as interface as these interfaces more intuitive to them, and would be harder to get distracted.
• Another finding is that my peers also found this program good for practice mindfulness, and they thought the process of drawing relieves stress. Therefore, neuro-typical people may be a secondary user group.
1. Faridi, Farnaz, and Reza Khosrowabadi. “Behavioral, Cognitive and Neural Markers of Asperger Syndrome.” Basic and clinical neuroscience vol. 8,5 (2017): 349-359. doi:10.18869/nirp.bcn.8.5.349
2. Jeste SS, Kirkham N, Senturk D, Hasenstab K, Sugar C, Kupelian C, Baker E, Sanders AJ, Shimizu C, Norona A, Paparella T, Freeman SF, Johnson SP. Electrophysiological evidence of heterogeneity in visual statistical learning in young children with ASD. Dev Sci. 2015 Jan;18(1):90-105. doi: 10.1111/desc.12188. Epub 2014 May 13. PMID: 24824992; PMCID: PMC4231013.
3. Saffran JR, Aslin RN, Newport EL. Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science. 1996 Dec 13;274(5294):1926-8. doi: 10.1126/science.274.5294.1926. PMID: 8943209.
4. Scott-Van Zeeland AA, McNealy K, Wang AT, Sigman M, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M. No neural evidence of statistical learning during exposure to artificial languages in children with autism spectrum disorders. Biol Psychiatry. 2010 Aug 15;68(4):345-51. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.01.011. Epub 2010 Mar 29. PMID: 20303070;
5. https ://www .who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disorders
