– Above photo by Cynthia Price
– Above photo courtesy of Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
By Cynthia Price
By now, many people understand that what used to be called autism turned out to refer to so many different symptoms with such different severity that those suffering from the disorder are now placed along a “spectrum” of degrees of the disease. Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, can refer to any number of difficulties experienced by people, some of which are mild and others of which may prevent them from living to their fullest potential.
But whether mild or severe, the disorder causes sufferers to have difficulty with sensory stimulation and, again to a greater or lesser degree, crave order, routine and consistency.
Normally, museums – which seem to be designed to bombard the senses to draw attention to what they are trying to teach – are pretty much a nightmare for children on the autism spectrum.
But there is a national movement to change that, which involves anything from stand-alone events for children with ASD to always-available “quiet rooms” to training museum staff to help visitors make the best of any visit.
The Lakeshore Museum Center held the first of several events on Jan. 12, called ASD Sensory Saturday. The next one is planned for March 23, from 10 a.m. to noon.
Museum Center Program Manager Jackie Huss said that the event was well-attended and staff is pleased with how it went.
“We really care about the experience of these kids, and we hope to get the word out so more can take advantage of it. We may do other things too, but for now, we definitely plan to do one of these ASD Sensory Saturday events every other month,” she said.
To find out more in the future, visit www.lakeshoremuseum.org/full-calendar/
Not only is the museum offering such tools as noise-reducing headphones, visors, and fidget toys in a “sensory bag” parents can check out, there is also a story that parents can read to their children before they visit. (Access it by clicking on the event on the web calendar above).
Huss says that after interest developed in serving children with ASD, they attended a training at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum (AAHOM).
The programming at AAHOM has been doing on since 2015. A mother whose son had gone to the museum years ago and never returned after a major meltdown, and who had since started a school for kids with ASD (Aim High School) approached AAHOM to see if other children could be helped to avoid overstimulation, Chief Learning Officer Lorrie Beaumont explained. The museum involved five others in the area, including the Leslie Science Center which has since merged with AAHOM – as well as involving experts from University of Michigan in designing ways to make the experience better.
They started out with very similar stand-alone events to the Lakeshore Museum Center’s, and expanded with the demand. Beaumont said that the decision to include other museums in the training which Lakeshore Museum staff attended was kind of last-minute, and they were surprised at how many people came.
“You take things down a couple notches, you bring the lights down and the noise down. Kids on the spectrum don’t like sudden surprising events, and you have to think of a lot of small things,” Beaumont said. “One example is, we have a set of chines on the stairwells that go off when you step on them and there was a little boy who was disturbed a little bit by it – even though it was quiet, it was surprising.”
Beaumont added that it is always amazing to her to see how happy the parents are and how well they know their children. “There’s a saying, ‘If you know one child with an autism disorder, you know one child with an autism disorder.’ They’re so different, and the parents have to get them what they need.”
This, of course, poses a problem for an institution like a museum, but both AAHOM and the Lakeshore Museum Center think it can be solved. One method is simply to set out a number of learning toys with different textures and visuals, as the Lakeshore Museum Center did in its quiet room.
“If they get overwhelmed, we bring them in here, but we have a table of different things they might like that they can choose themselves, along with their parents,” Huss said.
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