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Molly Pieri's picture

Re: questions about sensory input

Submitted by Molly Pieri on Wed, 02/27/2008 - 8:43am.

Just a few thoughts....

First, it's interesting that you bring up the feel of a person's clothing on thier skin. My cousin, who is autistic, cannot wear anything except silk/synthetic silk-like clothes, because he finds the feel of any other fabric against his skin completely intolerable. He also gets the same type of material for his sheets and blankets etc. From what I gather talking to him, he doesn't get "used to" the feeling of cloth rubbing against his skin, and so he makes up for it by wearing clothes which will stimulate this sensation as little as possible.

Second, a note about itching: according to Nina Jablonski in her book Skin, when we itch, we experience a tickling sensation on our skin. Scratching stinulates minor sensations of pain, which over-ride the itchy feelings. So, when we scratch an itch, we decide that we would rather inflict pain on ourselves than be itchy... how odd is that?

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