Do people with autism taste the same foods and textures as people without autism?
In this project, I will be testing people both with and without Autism to see how they taste and deal with different foods and different textures. I decided to do this project as I myself struggle with a sensory overload and I have always wanted to conduct an experiment and explore my condition. In this experiment, I will be testing 3 people with Autism and 3 without to see and test how different their senses are and what foods they are attracted to, based on different textures. This is important because it will help me investigate what I have and see if other people who don’t have it taste something different or the same thing as they have a different palate.
Questions:
- What is a Sensory Overload?
- A sensory overload is something that commonly occurs to people who have ASD or Asperger’s Syndrome, which is when you get extremely overwhelmed with noise and have a breakdown. This effect can also occur with anything the involves senses, even different foods with unfamiliar textures can have the same outcome. To prevent a sensory overload, you normally see children covering their ears hoping that the sound would end. This normally effects children with Asperger’s or ASD as they have hypersensitivity meaning that they are very sensitive to their taste, noise, eyes, and nose.
- What foods normally effect people with ASD?
- Some foods that people with autism normally prefer is junk food or carbohydrates such as pasta, noodles and bread. People with Autism prefer junk food as their brain is going at one million miles per hour and always decide to go with the first thing that they see even if it is a bad option. People with autism also prefer carbohydrates as it considered “safe food” and doesn’t have much of a texture and is easier for them to eat. Some other foods that effect people with autism would be salads, as it takes a long time for people with ASD to mix certain foods and textures together. It takes people with autism along time to get used to different foods and textures because their senses are more sensitive and less developed.
- What are the symptoms of a sensory overload?:
- You can notice a sensory overload by having an overview of the symptoms.
- Some of the symptoms are;
- Irritability
- Nervous
- A quick change of mood
- Crying
- Attempting to block out sound (Blocking ears, hiding face and trying to leave an uncomfortable situation)
- No expression
- Falling asleep unexpectedly
Dear Cleo, I am so proud of you deciding to research something so close to home and being brave sharing your experiences with others. You have done so much thinking and research around your experiment. It would be great to see you experimental design coming to life, next step is to think about your hypothesis and method. Love Mrs Kemp