As I continue to contemplate the meaning of my daughter’s autism diagnosis, I’m thinking a lot about the Goldilocks Zone of our 5 senses. Just like the Goldilocks and the Three Bears reference we use when searching the cosmos for planets that can sustain life because they are neither too hot nor too cold, we all have a Goldilocks Zone for each of our own 5 senses. The difference for my daughter is that her Goldilocks Zones for her 5 senses are different from mine.
While she is more sensitive to sound, her Goldilocks sound Zone shifts according to the environment and her level of excitement or boredom. I suppose this is true for all of us. In a perfectly quiet room at night in a house in the country, the sound of the flushing of a toilet in another part of the house can wake us. Yet, in a Led Zeplin live concert, we might revel in the cacophony. So too, my daughter covered her ears when the Kennedy Krieger Institute doctor allowed her to look something up on his computer on YouTube, but she doesn’t have any problem with Dave & Buster’s, a particularly noisy place to play lots of different video games and carnival-like games. We have a decibel tracker display in our dining room which we have had for a year or more. While my daughter is calm and happy at 40 decibels and generally doesn’t like more than 70 or so, she can rock the decibel display with her shrieks of enthusiasm at more than 100 decibels. This is the Konnon Digital Noise Meter Wall Mounted Sound Level display. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XB14FSC
So too do we all have a Goldilocks Zone for scent and taste, which we think of as distinct senses but are actually linked neurologically. While we all have specific tastes and smells we enjoy and those that we don’t, many people with autism seem to have a tighter set of boundaries for their Goldilocks Zone of scent and taste. What’s more, the scent and taste is also connected to the texture and presentation of the food, which, again, it is for all of us and yet the specific Goldilocks Zone is different, perhaps more narrow for many people with autism. Lastly, the stomach pain which I still don’t understand certain contributes, even if only psychologically, to the consideration of food.
While we still don’t know why my daughter’s stomach is randomly angry, many people with autism report GI issues. However, taste aversion is a negative association with food you ate just before you got sick. This is a survival mechanism to make sure we don’t eat something again that might have been toxic. However, if one’s stomach is randomly angry, I can imagine how this natural system could over time pile up a long list of foods that a person develops aversions to, narrowing the options for a satisfying meal.
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy. Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry. – John Denver. Obviously, no one likes to drive directly into the setting or rising sun, but light sensitivity is generally reserved for blue eyed, autistic or people taking certain types of medications. Oh, and vampires, of course. We’ve tried over and over to get my daughter to wear sunglasses as she repeatedly complains about the brightness of the world. I’m going to try again by getting her an appointment with an optometrist. The problem is that while she hates the light, she also hates the feeling of anything on her face. I’m amazed that she has finally adjusted to wearing goggles when she swims. Although that was similar to this problem in that she hated both the feeling of the goggles on her face and the sting of the chlorinated water in her eyes. Don’t we all? She was finally able to make friends with the lesser of those evils.
I’ve alluded to the Goldilocks Zone of touch in many of the previous senses, but touch is a challenge because food touches our mouths, sound vibrations as we speak or listen touch our inner ear, nose and throats, clothes touch our bodies and our bodies touch furniture. Hair touches the edges of our faces. Touch is everywhere and in everything. And touch is related to the Goldilocks Zone of boredom or sensation. In her book Unmasking Autism, Dr. Devon Price talks about opting out of many standard social customs like ties for men and other restrictive clothing requirements.
After the Kennedy Krieger Institute psychiatrist gave me our daughter’s autism diagnosis, I listened to the Dr. Devon audiobook and we went shopping for clothes. I had complained to a friend a year earlier that I’d never been able to find a pair of pajamas that suited my daughter’s requirements, but to my amazement we found a pair. I always shop online. I hate to go brick and mortar stores. But as we walked through Walmart, Target and Kohls, Vee put every piece of fabric to her cheek. The ones that felt good to her, she rolled herself into them. I have been looking for PJs for years based on whether they had specific Disney themes or colors she liked. I never thought twice about the feel of the fabric. But the feel of the fabric is her #1 consideration. As she described it, “fabric is first, color is second and style is third.” So, for the 1st time since infancy, she’s wearing pajamas!!!
My impression is that clothing and the Google Ball at her desk and the faux fur washable rug under her feet under her homeschooling desk actually address two different Goldilocks Zones. One is touch. But the other is boredom or being sufficiently stimulated.
Four months ago, when Vee was diagnosed as ADHD, our pediatrician recommended Vyvanse, a stimulant. This made no sense to me. You take a kid who is already bouncing off the walls and give them a stimulant? Dr. Swinton chuckled. First he said we don’t actually know why it works. Then he added it might be they need more stimulation. I think this last part is accurate. There’s much in the literature that ADHD kids/people have zero tolerance for boredom. And again, like the Goldilocks Zones of our 5 senses, who likes to be bored? The difference here is in the degree. Boredom for ADHD kids is a form of torture. And so stimulation that helps to keep my daughter in her Goldilocks Zone, both in the form of medication like Vyvanse and faux clothes, rugs, a bouncy Google ball and most importantly, http://www.AdaptedMind.com webapp for education is critical.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming to public education. Just ask Henry Kissinger. But for ADHD kids, it’s not coming fast enough. Every kid wants to be in the perfect sweet spot, the Goldilocks Zone of education on every topic. And it’s impossible for a teacher to be able to give this kind of educational material to a room full of 30 kids. But AI can. My daughter’s constant mantra regarding public and private education was that it was boring. However, AdaptedMind webapp has constantly kept her almost exactly in her intellectual Goldilocks Zone for mental simulation. She actually likes to learn. She just can’t sit still or keep her hands still (no flapping. Not that flapping is bad. It’s just not something she does at the moment.). She can’t keep her hands to herself and off other students. She can’t listen politely to peers and adults. Anyone with ADHD or a family member completely understands all these elements. This is why AI is so critical. After Vee has answered 5 consecutive questions correctly in math, she’s automatically moved on to a different question type. If she gets something wrong the next day, she’s automatically moved back to a simple topic. AI education is everything education should be. And, of course, edutainment – games that teach.
As long as my daughter is perfectly engaged in her education and perfectly clothed and perfectly fed, her mood is better and we don’t have tug of wars and she doesn’t have meltdowns. At the moment, it seems like we need to nail down her Goldilocks Zones – all of them – and stay inside them. Or, if like a Marine in cold weather training, we are going to venture outside them, we need enough warm gear to keep our bodies and minds in the Goldilocks Zone while we venture into the artic.
35-Year Public Affairs & IT Professional 