I feel that my future classrooms will be a comforting place for students with autism, simply because I suffer from migraines. When I have a migraine, bright lights make me cower and search for dim lighting. This weekend I was was with my family watching sports. When we would change the channel from baseball to hockey, I had to leave the room. The baseball game was comforting, but the hockey game hurt me because of the bright white ice on the television.
Imagine the implications of this in a classroom- computer screens must be dimmed, projectors can't be used without some modification, and fluorescent lights can make the day unbearable.
Sounds can become a problem too- scraping of chairs can hurt. I even understand some of the self-stimulating behaviors. They mask the problem. I once had a boyfriend that drove a truck with a loud engine that shook the truck. The low frequency of the sounds and the movement of the truck seemed to make my headache go away until the engine turned off. This reminds me of the rocking movement and making noises.
So solutions that help manage both migraines and the aversive stimuli of students with autism:
- Lamps instead of fluorescent lighting OR covering lights to dim the room with plastic table cloths or fabric
- Tennis balls to cover the legs of chairs to prevent the loud scraping noise
- Carpeting on the floors to minimize echoing of sounds
- Good classroom management- When can we be loud? When do we need to keep our voices down?
- The white noise of fans
- Covering white walls with soothing colors
- Adjusting the brightness of computer screens
- Adjusting the contrast of projectors to the rest of the room- The room should not be too dark around a projector
- Sign language- create a sign for students that discretely tells you when things are too bright or too loud
So all of this makes me wonder: Do people with ASD's get migraines?
