More Information about Autism and Environments (08-26-10)

New work by researchers at Yeshiva University definitively describes the ways that autistic children process sensory information and supports previous research indicating that people with autism “have difficulty coping with multiple sources of sensory information.”  As Sophie Molholm, the senior author of this study, reports, “If you have all these sights and sounds coming at you but you can’t put them together in a meaningful way, the world can be an overwhelming place.” Children aged 6 to 16 were studied.    These findings have implications for the design of residential and academic spaces used by children with autism.

“Autism Research Finds Empirical Link Between Multisensory Integration and Autism.”  2010.  Press release, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, http://www.einstein.yu.edu.