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Autism Spectrum Disorders are a poorly defined and understood set of conditions, but largely affect the two domains of sensory processing and social interaction. Many therapies and techniques are suggested to help students with autism better cope with their differences especially in the often difficult classroom setting.
According to the CDC approximately 1 in 44 children may be somewhere on the autism spectrum and boys are 4 times more likely to show symptoms than girls. When many teachers have class loads of well over 100 students, this means that every teacher will need to consider strategies to help students with autism to integrate fully into their classes. (CDC)
One recently discovered phenomena, called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response or “ASMR”, has been touted as a possible new breakthrough therapy for children with autism. ASMR focuses on sensation and intimacy and so specifically targets the two areas many students with autism struggle with.
But does actual research back up these claims? How can ASMR actually be used with students who have autism?
Before looking at what recent research says on the topic, a quick explanation of ASMR will be necessary. Those already familiar with ASMR can simply scroll down past the next two sections.
What is ASMR?
Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is an experience of chills, tingles, and a sense of comfort seen in people when they listen to certain sounds and see certain visuals. Everyone occasionally has felt a rush of pleasure and goose bumps, more properly termed “frissons”, when listening to a favorite song or feeling a light touch in an intimate setting, but some people are specifically sensitive and able to trigger this experience by watching specially designed videos. (Fredbourg et al.)
The 10 Most Common ASMR Triggers
- Tapping
- Scratching
- Crinkling
- Water Sounds
- Whispering
- Mouth Sounds
- Personal Attention
- Lights
- Paper Sounds (Pages turning, writing)
- Hand Movements
What is an ASMR Video?
ASMR videos usually consist of a person, called an “ASMRtist”, creating delicate and satisfying sounds and visuals with various props and techniques. For example, they may tap their fingers rapidly on a piece of wood or glass, gently brush hair, or whisper.
Though the sounds themselves are usually very delicate, powerful microphones are used to amp up the quiet sounds to be more intense. The ASMRtist must therefore speak very quietly or whisper to not be too loud, giving the videos a hypnotic and intimate feeling.
While many videos simply focus on the sounds and visuals themselves, some ASMRtists create whole situations for the sounds to occur in more naturally. They will often dress up, have sets, and create relaxing situations like massages, spa treatments, and haircuts that the relaxing snipping and lathering sounds can trigger ASMR in a relaxing environment.
Similar to white noise like rain, flowing water, or even a meditation gong, people will often turn on ASMR while they are studying or focusing to help drown out the outside world with sounds that will relax but not distract them. Others will turn on a video before bed to help them relax and fall asleep more easily.
Because of their calming and quite intimate settings, people often report ASMR being helpful for coping with negative emotions. ASMRtists generally keep their videos very positive and supportive, often using words like “Good”, “Perfect”, and “Great”. ASMRtists often speak throughout their videos and directly address the viewer in personal and familiar ways similar to many other types of YouTubers who create a small community with their viewers.
These videos have a sense of trying to cheer up the viewer and empathize with them while trying to help them relax. Sometimes the ASMRtist will walk through emotional regulation strategies like deep breathing, counting, or mantras as well.
ASMRtists who do roleplay videos will often use medical exams or treatments where results are good and any small problems found are easy to deal with. This makes the viewer feel at ease and like someone is taking care of them.
The types of ASMR videos are nearly endless with more and more new unique videos being uploaded to places like YouTube every day. Many ASMR YouTube channels have millions of subscribers and create ever more elaborate videos to relax and entertain their audiences.
Can ASMR be a Therapy for Autism?
While these qualities sound interesting and perhaps relaxing, the applications for students with autism are not immediately obvious. Is ASMR simply to help lower stress levels in students with autism when overwhelmed?
Because the videos have exaggerated emotions and focus on empathy, some people have suggested that ASMR could be helpful to people with Autism Spectrum Disorders to help them understand empathy better and experience intimacy in a safe setting. With this thinking, ASMR videos could work as a sort of training ground or simulation for emotional interactions and help students to be more empathetic with others.
However, despite or perhaps due to the fact that ASMR targets the weaknesses of students with autism, not all students with autism react positively to ASMR. While some people with autism may like ASMR, others report finding the intense noises far too overstimulating and almost painful. Some people with autism may also find the intimacy and whispering in the videos relaxing, while others may find it creepy and off putting just like many people without autism do.
Because autism is an umbrella term for a large spectrum of disorders that are only loosely related, it is difficult to ever say a specific approach will work for any individual reliably. Recent research is unclear on the issue of ASMR as a therapy for autism as not enough research has been conducted.
One initial study did find that people with autism actually processed sounds for relaxation differently than those without autism. However, just processing sounds differently is not really a surprise as much processing in the brain appears to be different in people with autism.
Whether this difference in processing is a sign that therapy could be effective or even ineffective is not currently clear. Just an anomaly in data does not always lead to an eventual application.
More recent research has been done on Voice-based Conversation Agents (VCA) which can walk people with more severe autism through different social situations in a safe setting and help them understand how to properly act. According to the researchers “Our findings demonstrated that VCAs could be an engaging, empowering, emancipating tool that supports adolescents with ASD to address their needs, personalities, and expectations, such as promoting self-care skills, regulating negative emotions, and practicing conversational skills.” (Cha et al., 2021)
Not only do these VCAs help these people learn how to navigate social situations, but they also can work as a bit of a safe space for them to retreat to when they need to manage their emotions. ASMR may be able to take a similar role as a place to walk students with autism through common situations and act as a comforting space.
It is unclear though whether ASMR videos would really be able to fill the roles of these VCAs as ASMR is simply watched passively and it is not interactive. Though perhaps future ASMR content will become interactive. Interactivity would increase the ability for ASMR to actually teach social skills to students with autism rather than just be a way for them to passively relax.
Until that time however, other therapies such as Joint attention symbolic play engagement and regulation (JASPER) and occupational therapies that are actually designed for students with autism will probably remain the staples. While it does not hurt to try out any noninvasive new strategy just to see if it might be helpful, it is important to not use ASMR as a replacement for more traditional therapies that have more support in research.
Conclusion
In order for ASMR to be considered a therapy for students with autism, more research simply needs to be done. For now it remains a theoretical and improperly designed tool to be of much help for a majority of students with autism.
However, if more is learned and ASMR videos can be created in ways that are specifically designed to target the needs of students with autism, then one day they may end up being an important part of learning social skills and emotional regulation techniques. This article can act as a call to action for researchers to conduct more studies in this area and for ASMRtists to consider designing more interactive videos in collaboration with psychologists and other mental health professionals to specifically target the needs of students with autism.
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References
Cha, Inha, et al. “Exploring the Use of a Voice-Based Conversational Agent to Empower Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445116.
“Data & Statistics on Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 Mar. 2022, https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html.
Fredborg, Beverley, et al. “An Examination of Personality Traits Associated with Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR).” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 8, 2017, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00247.
Honcoop, Moniek M. (2022) Emotion Regulation Through Sounds for People With Autism Spectrum Disorder.
