Kappa Lambda Delta Sorority Inc. celebrated its founders week by hosting five senses experiments to support autism awareness. 

There was a table for each sense and experiments designed to overwhelm the senses. For example, putting headphones in on a high volume and trying to speak to the person next to you, or tasting sour, sweet and spicy in under a minute.

“It’s just a way to teach everyone who came,” said the president of Kappa Lambda Delta, Shaine Singson. “It’s to give them the experience of what it would feel like to be autistic.”

Other events that Kappa Lambda Delta hosted last week were a basket-stuffing activity on Thursday and an autism information session on Tuesday that was led by representatives from Behavioral Innovations of Fort Worth, an alternative to public school for children with autism and other developmental disorders.

Behavioral Innovations is an educational center that promotes achievement to children with high, medium and low functioning levels of autism with Applied Behavior Analysis to teach them how to become more functional in society, program manager April Moseley said.

“It’s one of the fastest growing disabilities in our country right now so we want to get as many people involved as possible,” Moseley said.

Senior biology major Gilberto Vazquez said that he came to the info session for a more personal reason.

“It impacts everyone in different ways. For example, my roommate has a form of autism,” Vasquez said. “This is a good way to get informed about how we can get involved and help.”

Moseley said it is important for young people to be aware of conditions like autism to continue to make significant improvements in the field. 

“I think if we can get a younger crowd involved, they can be more open-minded to learning different ways to go about treating [autism] and how to interact with kids with autism,” Moseley said.

Singson said she feels students at TCU have a higher chance at becoming a leader because of TCU's small school atmosphere, and that she hopes students will use their influence to spread awareness.

Members of Kappa Lambda Delta delivered the baskets filled with puzzles, coloring books and toys to the children at Behavioral Innovations Tuesday.

The organization also plans on participating in Walk Now for Autism Speaks on Oct. 20.

Kappa Lambda Delta was founded at TCU on Sept. 19, 2005 and has three active members.