Autistic children & their world: importance of sensory park

Autism is now becoming a familiar condition in Bangladesh. The total numbers of autistic children are increasing day by day. According to Ministry of Social Welfare, the total number of persons with ASDs (Autism Spectrum Disorders) could be as high as 1.4 million. In this situation we need to spread out our thinking about their treatment and other facilities. Sensory park or sensory garden is the natural treatment for autism children.

The word 'autism' comes from the Greek word 'autos', meaning 'self'. The term describes conditions in which a person is removed from social interaction — hence, an isolated self. Autistic children have their own world. They like to live in their world and don't cope with others.

Sensory integration is defined as the ability to feel, understand and organise sensory information from the body and environment. The issues surrounding sensory integration are reflected in both hypersensitive and hyposensitive reactions by children with ASD to the vestibular, proprioception, visual, audio, tactile and olfactory senses.

The main problem of autism is the sensory processing disorder. That time their sensory system does not work appropriately. That is why they show different abnormal behaviour. Sensory describes something relating to sensation — something that you feel with your physical senses. When we grasp a lemon that time we can realise that it is a lemon by seeing, touching, smelling and sometimes by tasting. So here tactile, olfactory, gustatory and visual senses are helping us to identify a lemon. This identifying process is organised by our brain. When this processing has difficulties then children may show unusual behaviour.

A sensory park may help to facilitate the normal development of sensory system. As more and more children are diagnosed with ASD, the need for a sensory garden designed specifically for their use and based on the research in the preceding sections seems appropriate.

General guidelines for developing this garden are found in the sensory integrative issues of ASD and include the need for a stimulating space for hypo-reactive children and a calming space for children that are hyper-reactive.

Accepting that simply being in a natural setting promotes general health and well being, a garden setting is appropriate and would allow children with ASD to experience and explore nature while finding specific areas which simply feel good for them to be in.

In Bangladesh, we have many parks. In these parks if we allocate some space for sensory garden then it will be more helpful for the autistic children. So the government needs to visualise this issue and act accordingly.

The writer is a Clinical Occupational Therapist at Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP).

Email: rabeya1988@gmail.com