An interesting article on smell sensitivity.

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There is plenty of information on how people with autism are hypersensitive to certain stimuli. As a teacher of students with ASD, the most common hypersensitivity is sensitive to sound. Several of my students do not like loud sounds. Before I turn on a video, I ask to speak to students outside and warn them that I am going to play a video. I then ask them if they are okay with the noise. Hypersensitivity to light, touch, taste and smell have also been documented.

With respect to social stimuli, the effect is often the opposite. People with autism may be unresponsive to to social stimuli. Social stimuli includes anything related to people. For example, if a person talks with another, the people are social stimuli to each other. In a classroom, social stimuli include peers, the teacher, a class pet, writing about people, cooperative computer games, seating arrangement, and more!

A defining trait of autism is that people with it are less responsive to social stimuli than their developmentally typical (or "normal") peers. On most days my students respond to my greeting in the morning. It's something I look forward to. They line up at the door, sleepy-eyed but awake. I stand at the door and greet them one by one. Most of them return the greeting, as expected with a typical student. But, sometimes, they just walk past me. They might seem oblivious, but I know they are wired to be unresponsive to me.

For most students who are less responsive to social stimuli, this isn't a major problem. It can be a simple matter of using a social story to explain how to greet people in the morning.

1) Tom gets off the bus.

2) He is ready to learn and thinks about science. Science is his favorite subject in school.

3) Tom sees his teacher. But continues to think about yesterday's science lesson.

4) Then Tom remembers that in the morning people greet each other.

5) Tom does the best job he can to too at his teacher's eyes.

6) Tom says, "Good morning."

7) Then Tom enters the class ready for his day.

A visual can also be used like this one from Adrienne's Autism VISUALS on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Recently, I read an article on how men with autism think about smells. The article was written for Spectrum News by Emily Anthes. The article was about research that shows differences in how men with autism did not have the same response to sweat as their typical peers.

The research participants smelled sweat from men who were skydiving and men who were calmly walking. Skydivers were a good choice because men who experience fear have different chemicals in their sweat than when calm. The men with autism were able to identify this difference just like the men without autism. This was important because it establishes that the men with and without autism are able to detect states of fear through sweat.

The differences came when skin conductance was measured. Skin conductance is a common way to detect changes in the body to changes in our environment. Skin conductance is basically a measure of how skin can conduct electricity. The more skin conductance, the more of a reaction a person feels. For example, a person who is afraid will normally have more skin conductance that a person who is not afraid.

Skin conductance in the men with autism was less than that of the men without autism when they smelled the fear sweat. This suggests that the men with autism had less of a reaction to the smell of fear.

A logical leap is that men with autism did not react as much to the fear sweat because they are less responsive to social stimuli. The men with autism may not have cared as much about the fearful men they were smelling.

The research is almost silly because we don't usually go around sniffing others. But, the research shows that there are interesting difference between how people with autism react to social stimuli. It adds to the mountain of evidence that requires us to have more understanding of how to work best with our counterparts who have autism.

From now on, I will be more sensitive to the odors of my room. My students who have autism may react to different smells in unexpected ways and I want them to feel comfortable in my classroom.

Reference

“Men with Autism May Misread Social Cues in Body Odors.” Spectrum | Autism Research News, 18 Dec. 2017, spectrumnews.org/news/men-autism-may-misread-social-cues-body-odors/.