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Spatial awareness

copingwithdivergence

I just discovered I lack spatial awareness. My husband just mentioned it yesterday casually and I just googled it today and I have every single sign except difficulty reading and writing.

It’s just amazing that things like these have been researched so much and understood and even have names. I’m not diagnosed yet but it’s one of the signs of ASD, sometimes I feel so normal then I see stuff like this that makes me feel more and more that I may be autistic.

I sit down on my husband so many times and he complains a lot, I sit on anything, phone, laptop, food. I don’t understand reversing when driving, I have difficulty using the mirrors and judging when I’ll hit the car next to me. When traveling, I get lost at least twice.

When walking with my map I get lost so many times. I stub my toes a lot. When I eat and  I may have to change clothes after. I’m a health worker and setting up an IV line into a vein is very difficult because I just don’t understand how to get the needle into a vein, I see the vein but actually getting the needle into the vein is very scary, I hate it. I don’t understand it. 

sigh…

Parents

  • I have issues with this too (for example, I often bang my elbows and shoulders into doorframes).

    This lack of spacial awareness relates to hyposensitivity (being less sensitive) in respect of proprioception - our sense / perception of the position and movement of our body / body parts.

    You might find this NAS resource helpful - it includes a downloadable resource that explains (with examples) how we can be affected by hyper- and hyposensitivity across this and our other senses, along with examples of what we can try doing to help with those issues.

    It also includes a separate download that can be used to log your own sensitivities, along with ways in which you and others can help to manage and accommodate them - this can also be useful, for example, when working out what reasonable adjustments to request from an employer:

    NAS - Autism and sensory processing

Reply

  • I have issues with this too (for example, I often bang my elbows and shoulders into doorframes).

    This lack of spacial awareness relates to hyposensitivity (being less sensitive) in respect of proprioception - our sense / perception of the position and movement of our body / body parts.

    You might find this NAS resource helpful - it includes a downloadable resource that explains (with examples) how we can be affected by hyper- and hyposensitivity across this and our other senses, along with examples of what we can try doing to help with those issues.

    It also includes a separate download that can be used to log your own sensitivities, along with ways in which you and others can help to manage and accommodate them - this can also be useful, for example, when working out what reasonable adjustments to request from an employer:

    NAS - Autism and sensory processing

Children
  • in reply to Bunny

    Thank you for this link. Do you know right at this moment I’m trying to tell if I’m hungry? I can’t differentiate, hunger vs anxiety vs fear vs tiredness sometimes, especially when I’m stressed. I have to deliberately list out the signs and match them to my body Sob

    I didn’t know anything about this until I started reading the link you dropped. I thought it was just something I did. Never knew there was something called interoception. This is something! 

  • in reply to Bunny
    Bunny said:
    I have issues with this too (for example, I often bang my elbows and shoulders into doorframes

    Absolutely every dingle day and I hear "be careful!" But I can't, I don't know how to be careful. Once I even slapped my own face badly with a cupboard door. My husband covered his face in his hands when he saw it. He said he has no idea how to help me.

    And i also hear that I walk in a very funny way but I donf feel it.

    And I relate a lot to the description. Getting lost in buildings, or outdoors, etc.