There are many ways to be sensory friendly, but first let me explain what sensory sensitivity is.
Sensory is covered by the 5 body sensors:
- Hear
- Sight
- Taste
- Touch
- Smell
In many places these work overtime or what we call sensory overload. Sensory overload is when many sensory areas are triggered by surroundings.
Here are some issues that can occur:
Sound– crowds, music, surrounding noise, emergency alarms, No noise
Sight– light, movement, darkness
Taste– food, drink
Texture– Food, clothes, bedding, surfaces
Smell– Perfume, food, candles, aftershave
Sensory issues are mostly common in neurodiverse people due to our brains making us more hyper aware of their surroundings and our brains are wired to be more intuitive and connected to our senses so we require stimulation and sensory input to regulate our nervous systems, but many neurotypicals can experience this as well, but not at the same volume as neurodiverse people.
I recently experienced sensory overload myself. I had to get away from what was causing it. This time it was different lighting and layout changes in shops, taking a different bus route than normal, a sudden amount of people around me as it was lunch time and greater waiting times to be served than normal. This caused me to get very dizzy and disoriented which ended up me being detached from my surroundings and ended up crying as I was frustrated.
If you would like to read more about everyday sensory issues have a read of one of my old posts: https://www.jaimegraceuksworld.co.uk/2022/02/everyday-sensory-issues.html
How to be sensory friendly Part 2 will follow soon
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