The What Do You Like? Sensory preference cards is a set of 75 cards, each showing a different type of sensory experience that relates to the home, described in simple words and illustrated by photographs. The cards act as visual prompts for individuals with limited verbal speech to articulate their preferences.
In 2011, designers Katie Gaudion and Andrew Brand collaborated on the project Exploring Sensory Preferences: Living Environments for Adults with Autism, in which they created a set of sensory preference cards, inspired by their work with some of the autistic individuals supported by Autism at Kingwood.
The cards enable individuals with limited speech to express their preferences with regards to their home space.
In 2025, Dr Gaudion was awarded an RCA Impact Fellowship to develop this project further. The aim of this phase is to trial the cards with different people within different contexts, such as teachers, occupational therapists, designers, parents who have autistic children, autistic adults and service providers, to understand how they are used, what are their benefits/challenges and how they can be improved.
“I use them as a discussion point with parents of children with sensory processing difficulties. I have also used them with people with higher functioning autism to facilitate discussion on what is a sensory preference and when do they impact on function. The quality of the pictures coupled with the information on the back of the cards has been really useful for both client groups. Other staff members have realised their value hence the purchase of more.”
