BookLaunchPod

Sarah Shotts32min

Sarah

00:01

Hello, so I'm back with another really casual chatty podcast, because I want to let you know that we are crowdfunding a picture book about neurodiversity, specifically about sensory modulation. I am co creating this book with my friend and fellow artistic and very talented illustrator, Gracie Klump. We have been working on this behind the scenes for quite some time. And I am super excited to finally tell the world that we're doing it. We're still in the early stages. So I'm just going to talk a little bit about the project kind of like off the cuff so you can know about it. If you are listening to this podcast, that means that the crowdfunding campaign is open, and we are taking pre orders for limited edition hardcovers, pre orders for paperback will happen further down the line. I may talk about that later in the episode. So look in the show notes for the details for that. Or you can find them on any of our social medias, which I will also link down below. So yeah, this is a book that kind of auto downloaded into my head. Now, I'm not saying that we aren't editing it and refining it. And it's not evolving into something new, especially now that I have great season input, like the scope of this book has kind of expanded beyond what I initially created. But the idea for a picture book that actually scientifically explains the reasons that autistic and neurodivergent people have different sensory experiences. That downloaded to me, like one afternoon, after I had sent my son to school, and I was really wishing that I had this book to share with them to communicate these things, both with the teachers, but also with other kids in the class. So the rough draft of that book kind of like just came right to me that went right into my iPhone notes. Actually, it was a different app. And so I have lost part of that. But I have part of that draft, and I have the rest of the vision for it. Basically, I want to break down what the idea of sensory modulation is, in a way that's really clear. And it can be read to kids. It's not like a kid like the kid. I don't know it's time to eat early reader. It's more of a read this book with an adult and you can discuss these things. Or I mean, I'm sure adults could read this book and get something out of it too. I so I had this idea last autumn and I've been trying to figure out like I'm not an illustrator. I am an artist. So I was trying to figure out if there was a medium I felt comfortable illustrating it in or what I could do. And then Gracie kind of mentioned on her Patreon podcast that she was going to take on one big project every month this year, or every other every month ish. And I was like, wait a minute, if you have capacity for that, would one of those projects would you like to team up and make a picture book with me? Because Gracie, I love her illustration style. I've been following her and supporting her illustration career for several years now. And just Yeah, so when she said yes, I was completely over the moon. And so my initial concept for the book was to communicate this idea of sensory modulation and also sensory supports, specifically like for families and teachers have kids that are autistic have sensory processing disorder, ADHD, like any neurodivergent that has a different sensory experience. And what was really cool, like within like, I don't know, the first week of teaming up with Gracie like she kind of like exploded this idea, rather than the really narrow focus of like this is for educating these specific people. The idea that everyone can benefit from this book, which honestly, I was completely blind to that neurotypicals can also benefit like neurotypical children can read this book and it can help them understand neurodivergent kids, it can also help them understand sensory modulation in their own brain. And so we went from like, my first concept was like, Okay, it's mostly going to be like a pretty small group of people that are going to want this book to win. I brought Gracie on board and like I know how amazing her illustrations are. I'm like, everyone is going to want this book. Like if you like picture books, you're going to want this book. It is going to be beautiful. I just know that. So we're still in the concept phase as far as the vision rules, but already like some of the ideas that Gracie is brought on board I'm super excited about. So I'm just going to talk a little bit now about sensory modulation, it might be something that you've never heard of. So I was diagnosed as autistic eight years ago. And before that, I was always just told that I was sensitive. And it really feels it is often intended as a criticism, as if it's some kind of choice, as if like every human has the same sensory experience. And that my reaction is what's quote, sensitive, that I am having an outsized reaction for what is happening to my body. I have had that from, like medical professionals, I've had that from like, parents, like as a child, other parents, luckily, my own family was very supportive of my sensory needs. But outside of that nuclear family, like the world just did not get it. And I can see now like, we have made a little bit of stride. But there's still not that understanding of what's actually going on. When a human is, quote, sensitive, or having a sensory experience that is different than your own. So last year, when my son was also diagnosed as autistic, I went into this really deep dive on, on, how do I put it? What was that book, it's basically, I read this book by, of course, it's it's blanking, but I will be sure to link to it in the show notes. But I read a book about occupational therapy, and the different type of sensory needs of children is basically in a nutshell, sensory integration and the child. That's it. So I read this book about sensory integration, because it's something that I had like a vague concept of like I knew there was sensory seeking, and there were sensory avoiding, but I find that in online discourse, and even in some of the other books that I've read that those things are very simplistic, and presented as black and white concepts when there is actually it's not just a spectrum between those two things. It's like a plaid. There are so many different nuances to this sensory integration and sensory like the lived sensory experience of a human, that I no longer believe that any one human is either sensory seeking, or sensory avoidant, one of those may be more obvious, because those are a little bit, like countercultural when it reaches a certain level, you're like, Oh, well, that's, that's different. Or I would find that highly unpleasant, and you're really loving it, you know.

Sarah

08:07

Or I would find that pleasant and you're hating it, you know, those are kind of the two sides of the spectrum. But it's so much more complex than this. And so when I read this book, sensory integration and the child, it really went into that nuance for me, like, it's basically one of the first textbooks for occupational therapist. And I didn't write any notes for this. So like the, maybe it'll come to me later. The author's name is has slipped my mind. But it was one of the first people who studied sensory integration. And the one caveat I have with this book, as far as recommending it to others. First of all, it's very expensive. Very, very expensive, because it's a textbook for students. And textbooks are expensive. But also it was written in like the 70s. And while most of the book like the science as far as the research on sensory modulation, and integration is really great. But the it has a lot of outdated information about autism specifically, like if you do go and read this book, please either skip or take with a grain of salt, the chapter on autism because it's working with really outdated perceptions of autism basically thinks that you have to be like, aggressive and nonverbal to be autistic. And that is just not true. And the new research is really showing that. So it would classify anyone who is not aggressive as just having sensory processing disorder and not as autism. But as we've learned, like since the 70s, that was a long time ago. The research has moved along, and I wish when they had republished this work, they had included a little more in information about that. That's my one caveat for the book. However, everything else in the whole book is about autism. The whole book is about neuro divergence, and sensory processing. And it's, it's it, it opened up for me, and added so much nuance to my understanding of sensory experience in a lot of ways. But the thing that really, really clicked for me, that I'd never heard of before, is this concept of sensory modulation. And that's what we're going to dig into in this picture book. So sensory modulation is your brain's automatic process of turning the intensity of different senses up or down. This is mind blowing for me, as a late diagnosed autistic adult, who was always told that my sensitivity was like a flaw, and that I shouldn't be over, quote, overreacting to different experiences like water in my face, or the same in my sock or tag in my shirt, like whatever it was, that it was my fault, how I was reacting. And what we've learned, when you take on board this sensory modulation, is that when your sensory modulation is working in a neurotypical way, that a neurotypical brain automatically tunes out certain senses that it automatically deems as unimportant. So, let's say a neurotypical is sitting at a busy restaurant, and they're trying to have a conversation, they're probably not feeling the contact of their clothes on every part of their body, they're probably not hearing the hostess sort silverware at the front of the restaurant, they're probably not hearing the cooks having conversations in the kitchen, every other conversation happening in that room, the buzz of the light bulb, the tapping of somebody's foot or hand, they aren't feeling like the crack in the cushion of the booth that they're sitting in there, they may not feel how hot or cold they are, in that moment, they don't notice the music that's playing like, their brain can automatically either turn those senses down to a very low level, or tune out completely any one or numerous of those sensory inputs. And so a neurotypical, when they go to a restaurant, they will hear most loudly and clearly the thing they choose to pay attention to. So there's a combination here. And I think this happens in language when they're like, Okay, when someone tells you to focus on this, this is something that is more possible for neurotypicals, right? So they can kind of shift their focus to and from certain areas, they can be like, Okay, I'm having a conversation, and their brain automatically assist in this by turning down. Now, if someone in the conversation says, Hey, I think I know this song, do you, then their brain will turn the music, that level of the music up, because they've shifted their awareness. Now, for all my neurotypicals listening, this is not an artistic or neurodivergent experience. So everyone's brain is different. And not like we're all unique. So if you had 10 autistic people, they would tell you 10 different experiences. But one thing that we have in common is that our sensory modulation, often we get way more sensory input than a neurotypical. And so we hear the sound of the lightbulb sometimes, or we hear the sound of the silverware. And it doesn't melt away when we're having a conversation. And so just imagine, like 10 Different TVs on with the volume at 100. And trying to just listen to one. It is very this is one of the reasons that we struggle with communication. So that concept kind of blew my mind because it gave me a window into actually the neurotypical experience because one of the main reasons that autism can be misdiagnosed or overlooked is we think everyone is experiencing the same thing. And so I thought everyone was overloaded, that their senses were overloaded, and they were just better at quote focusing because this is what worked Hold to do is to focus on one particular thing. Now, I will say that it's not that. I mean, I can't speak for everyone, but for myself, it's not that I have zero sensory modulation. But my brain's ability to modulate senses is greatly dependent on my, on my environment on my regulation. And so like, the more overstimulated I am, and the more that's going on, the less I can kind of tune certain things in or out, like I, I have some limited ability to do that. But it's definitely not something I can count on, always being able to do. And so depending on like at a restaurant, it would depend on how busy the restaurant is, how loud everyone is, if there's music going on what kind of music it is how hungry I am, like, it's really complicated. But the thing that we want to explore in this book is just the simple idea that brains have this ability to turn senses up and down. And that for some people, these are the neurotypicals that happens automatically. And they have a very narrow sensory experience. And for some, that is either not happening at all, or it's happening. Um, it's

Sarah

16:37

my words are failing me right now, because I'm more of a writer than a speaker. But autistic brains are likely to get much more sensory input that is not brought down to a lower level of intensity, we feel things more intensely, like every single thing, temperature, sound, tactile, taste, touch, sight, like, almost, you know, everything can be more intense. Now, like I said before, every autistic person and every neurodivergent person is different. And so some of us have more sensory aversion to certain things. And this is what that textbook got into as well is someone might be a sensory seeker when it comes to tactile, like they might love to touch certain textures, but they might hate or find painful. This is the thing about sensory modulation is one of the reasons that neurotypicals have sensory modulation is to prevent themselves from experiencing pain of like when something is such a piercing sound, they will just tune it out. And autistic might hear that they might find certain sounds to be actually physically painful, not just annoying. And I think that's one thing that isn't really understood when we understand someone is sensitive, that they have a sensory processing disorder, we don't always understand that what's happening can sometimes be sensory pain, like sometimes there's sensory overwhelm, or overstimulation. And that's one thing, but there can also be sensory pain. And so there are all of these nuances within there that we want to dig into. And another thing I want to point out, is that yes, having a very heightened nervous system that doesn't modulate senses as highly as a neurotypical. So you're feeling and you're experiencing the world in so much more visceral, tactile detail. It's not all bad. Like, sure there can be negatives, there can be time that it becomes painful, or they can be time that it makes it hard to communicate or hard to hear. But also, like in general, autistic people in particular, but also other neuro divergence, are just soaking up so much more input from the world, that we're literally seeing things that are essentially invisible to neurotypicals because their brains have automatically and without their consent, decided that those things are not important. And that is one of the strengths of autism. And that is why so many autistic adults are begging the scientific community not to look for our cure. We love being autistic, we just would like when we say that something is hurting us, for that to be respected. And for us to for either our environment to be changed or for us to be allowed certain supports that can allow us to be in that in that situation or place or without community without being in pain and with being able to understand and interact with that environment in a way that success. The bowl to us and so after explaining sensory modulation in a much more concise and visually compelling way than my big ramble just now, then we're going to give some examples of sensory supports. And some obvious ones are like noise cancelling headphones or ear defenders, sunglasses, like sometimes it's really simple. Another thing that I learned in this book is that the sensory experiences that feel good to you are actually integrating they can help your brain modulate. So this is where things like the fidgets come in. And for a neurotypical, it just seems like a distraction, but actually fidgets and just different, you know, stems like when an autistic might flap their hands or tap their foot, that's not really an expression. It's not like a communication type style gesture. It's a, it's a method of self regulation, and it can help sensory modulation. So like if an autistic is overstimulated, they might flap their hands, and that might help their brain turn some of the volume down, or the intensity down on some of the sensory experiences that they're having. So it's really important that we don't suppress stems that we offer sensory supports that we understand that fidgets aren't toys, they're focused tools. And sure, if you give a fidget Turner typical kid, they might find it more distracting. I don't know, I don't I don't know the science on that, if that can distract them for their work. But the Fidget is actually helping an autistic or neurodivergent child to focus. So we're going to talk about sensory supports. And when Gracie kind of expanded the audience of the book to include neurotypicals, I think it would be really interesting, and it's not something I've seen done before, to explore the idea of sensory supports for neurotypicals. Because your brains are automatically filtering things out if you're a neurotypical. And what if you want to hear more, feel more, see more. And some of that is more of a like mindfulness, like actually bringing your focus to a thing. But like, for example, if you want to hear more, you can close your eyes, and your sense of hearing will increase, you will hear more things if your eyes are closed, like there's science to back this up. And so we can think about this way. It's not that autistic brains and neurodivergent brains are broken. And so we need these supports, it's that our brains give us a lot. And if the a lot becomes too much, we need help to bring the allot down the intensity down, and that neurotypical brains have less to pull from and so if a neurotypical wants to sense the world more deeply and to notice more things and consider more possibilities, because this also happens, not just with sensory experiences, but like with problem solving. It's one of the greatest strengths of neuro divergence is that we can see more possibilities because our brain isn't shutting ideas down. And so I think something that I am in the ideation phase for how to explore is this idea that a neurotypical can also have a sensory support and what would that be like? How can we help neurotypicals feel more things, and then something that's really important because as autistic, particularly autistic people, we can have trouble communicating sometimes, and autistic people are more likely to be able to pull up a script or like a phrase, actually, our language is developed in a totally different way. That is based on Mitt mix and match phrases rather than learning individual words. It's like, it's a very fascinating, that's a whole nother podcast. But because of that, I want to make sure that throughout the book, there are scripts that we can use to communicate these things to people that may not understand. And the working title we have for the book is how it feels to me. And I think that if we can just have the readers come away with this idea that we all experience the world differently. And that when someone tells you what their experiences to not invalidate that and to listen to what they need in that moment, and then sure, like neurotypicals can be overwhelmed and they can find sensory experiences. is painful to, but it's going to happen much less often and much less frequently. And if you can, just this phrase of okay, well, I know that you like that. But how it feels to me is this, or you know, even just, yeah, so I'm really excited about this idea of ending the book

Sarah

25:26

with giving tools to communicate sensory differences and sensory needs. And not just for the autistic and neurodivergent kids to learn this, but also for the neurotypical kids, if they have an autistic friend who's finding it difficult to verbally communicate, and they know their friend, and they know they're in pain. They can say, we haven't worked all this out yet, but there's there are things they could say that can offer support, like, do you need your headphones? Or can can we turn the music down, and being able to advocate for yourself and advocate for other people when they need it, and obviously with their, obviously want them to be able to communicate first. But sometimes, it can help to have a friend like you might be, there are instances in my life where I've been trying to communicate my needs, and they're not being understood. And so having a neurotypical friend who could jump in and say, Actually, this is a little bit too intense for Sarah, like, can we turn down the volume like it's getting too loud in here, or, or you could even not say that, it's for that, you know, we've got to work out the details of this. It's very much in the ideation phase. But I love the idea that we're empowering, autistic and neurodivergent kids to advocate for themselves. We're also empowering neurotypical kids to advocate for their friends, or parents to advocate for their children. And then in the back will, I'm sure, put some resources where people can find more information and connect to community. And so yeah, that's it in a nutshell. Now, we just have to make the thing. So if you want to help us make this picture book a reality, you can hop over to Indiegogo, and I'm sure you could just type in Sarah shotts, S H, O, t, t s, and it will pop up. But if you can click over to the shownotes, there will be a link there where you can support. And if you can't pre order or support monetarily, right now, you can definitely help us by spreading the word. So you can share on social media. Actually, the best way and I've learned this over time by doing a few different crowdfunding campaigns is if you know one person who would really love this project, share it with them, share it with that one person. And if you know five people who would really love the project, you can share it with them. But the more that you're taking the time to personally connect it to, to an individual. And even if you have a moment to say, hey, like I'm subscribed to this podcast, or they're an autistic artist, you know, I think that this book is going to be really amazing. I thought maybe your kids would love it. See, if you want to back this project. That's gonna resonate a lot more than just hitting like, share on Instagram Stories. Now, I'm not saying don't share on Instagram stories. But basically, the way it works is you have to see something a bajillion times, if it's just on Instagram stories, but if you have a little bit of that personal connection, and you can like weave that into telling somebody about the project be like, Hey, my friend, Sarah is writing this book. This is an Own Voices book, like we need more books by autistic authors and illustrators. Let's make it happen. The more that you can make it personal and you can send, send it to directly to a specific person. Those are the impacts that are the strongest. But if you if you have nobody in mind, you can't think of anything you can absolutely. It never hurts to share it to stories or Twitter or Facebook or any of those things, especially because I am not on Facebook and Twitter and the tiktoks. And if you want to share it on any of those media, it might be kind of expanding our reach, because I would just love this book to reach as many people as possible. We need a lot more understanding about neuro divergence and neuro diversity in the world. And yeah, I will really, really appreciate your support for this one. Um, I feel like I had one more thing to say and it was related to this. It was related to the Indiegogo and I've lost it. So I might come back with that here in a minute. But if you have made your way over here, because this podcast was shared with you, which is something else you could do if you found this podcast to be interesting, you didn't know this about sensory modulation, you could share this with frightened. And hi, if you're new, thank your friend. Thanks to your friend for sending you here. Glad to have you. You can subscribe. This is a substack podcast, we can also send it directly to your podcast app, there is a transcript, I maybe should have said that at the beginning. There's transcripts if you prefer to read if you have benefit from that. And if you'd like to support the podcast, you can pledge and the pledges for that go directly to helping support the cost of transcription. If I can remember the thing that just slipped my mind, I might pop that here on the end or into the show notes. But basically, thank you so much. I'm so excited to bring this project for bring this project to life. And thanks for coming along on this experiment in unmasked communication. When I first started podcasting before my son was born, I would spend literally five hours editing a one hour Podcast. I'm just taking out the air like taking out every time I said um or all and making us sound like super slick and professional. But this is rough and scrappy and air conditioners on because that's what my body needs today. And yeah, I just want to thank you for showing up and for supporting neurodivergent creators if you haven't connected to Gracie, be sure to follow Gracie over on Instagram and substack and I guess that's all for today's episode, but I'll we'll see you next time.

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