Category Archives: Autism

Visual Style of Thinking

February 24, 2020Autism, Autistic Neurologyadmin

Besides having sensory differences, autistic people generally are known for their particular style of thinking. We tend to have a quite literal and concrete way of thinking. Most autistics think in pictures. Temple Grandin, undoubtedly the most famous autistic the world over, actually wrote a book entitled Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism (Grandin, 1995, 2006).

I think differently than typical people think. Many people with autism have a visual way of thinking. It is not an inferior way of thinking. It is just different. Even so, because autistics are measured according our deviation from the typical standard of normal our different ways are often assumed to be inferior or less than.

The world is set up according to what is comfortable and efficient for neuromajority people. This means the interface to society, while comfortable and efficient for most people, is actually an uncomfortable and inefficient interface for autistic people. Undoubtedly this contributes to our awkward appearance as we go about our daily lives every day interfacing with the mismatch-to-our-neurology societal and social contexts all around us.

Often times it feels as if the world is not our home. Many autistics report a pervasive sense of not belonging, being an alien and feeling that no matter what they do they never fit in anywhere they go. I believe this has to do with needing to live out our lives in this everyday context that is not a comfortable fit with our neurology.

When the context changes and adult autistics are among their autistic friends that pervasive feeling of not belonging is largely absent. Many of us have had discussions about this over the years. If home is where you belong then we know that even though we must go out and live in a world mismatched to us, we can always come home to our autistic community. For many of us this means meeting up at autism conferences.Thinking differently than the majority of the population needs to be better understood. For too long the problems that result from autistics simply being who they are have been addressed through a neuromajority lens. This isn’t a criticism, but instead, a statement of fact.

We all assume shared understanding. We are rewarded for using this assumption when solving problems for others because most of the time when we look through the lens of our own neurology and figure out if-I-were-doing-that-it-would-mean-this we are rewarded in that we come away with a correct guess. We can then go on to solve the problem by looking through this lens. Every once and awhile we are not successful when we use this strategy. These are the times when the behavior we are trying to figure out is generated by autistic neurology.

Here is an example: It is not uncommon for early childhood students to cry at drop off when mom or dad leaves. You have taught early childhood for many years and know that getting the child interested in something else will help the tears dissipate. Except this year you are unable to get Carter, a student with autism, distracted. In fact, rather than dissipating, Carter’s tears become worse over the couple of hours he is with you. His crying gets louder and louder, taking on an angry feel and after about an hour his cries become pitifully mournful. You have tried everything you can think of to be helpful to Carter. You have offered a variety of toys, movement activities, alone time, alternative seating, using a first/then schedule, alternative lighting, the quiet corner, taking him for a walk and offering favored snacks and drinks. Nothing helped. Every day was the same scenario with Carter.

I know this teacher as I consulted at her school district. She was in fact trying to implement all the sorts of supports that autistic students find helpful. Why was nothing working for Carter? It took some time, but we did figure it out. Carter’s difficulty had to do with his visual thinking style. When his mom left, because he could not see her it felt as if she had died. This was because Carter had not yet learned to hold the picture of mom in his head.

How did I come to figure this out?

First I determined that Carter’s sensory system was regulated during the time before arriving at school by having a conversation with his mother. I also learned from his mom that Carter had the same crying episodes whenever she left him with her sister or mother. Nobody could console him. If mom was away for more than a few hours he would fall asleep exhausted only to wake up to start the whole crying episode over from the beginning.

Next, I looked for clues on how Carter was taking in, processing, storing and retrieving information. He was not able to contribute any information himself so my guess was based on his crying – increasing anger over time (during which time he would throw things, kick, hit, scream) that gave way to mournful cries (during which time he would isolate himself, turning his back to any activity and not interact with any adult who approached him). It looked like a grief process. I suspected that he was not able to hold the picture of mom in his head. Thus, it felt to him as if she had died when mom was simply out of sight.

To test out my hypothesis mom was asked to bring along a picture of herself to give to Carter when she dropped him off. Carter was free to carry around this picture whenever he wished, which he did most of the time for a few weeks.

Having access to the picture of mom made all the difference for Carter. He was able to participate in the early childhood programming. He only had a few crying episodes during the first couple of weeks that happened when he set down the picture of mom in order to play and then noticed he didn’t have it. Carter’s teacher helped him make “a home for mom” by standing the picture in the chalk tray of the blackboard and drawing a little box around it. Carter could look up and see mom in the box whenever he wished. He was happy with this remedy.

This is but one illustration that shows the importance of understanding the autistic thinking style. Just like no two neuromajority people think exactly alike, but share lots of similarities so is it that no two autistics think exactly alike, but share lots of similarities. For all my life the onus has been on me, the autistic, to figure out the majority thinking style and make accommodations for it. It has been difficult at times, but I have been able able to do so. Because of my own experience in being able to learn how a foreign-to-me thinking style works I am sure that neuromajority folks can do it too. Yes, you can learn how autistic thinking style works! You do not even need to figure it out all by yourself, but can instead read this book and others like it.

I find when I start problem solving with the autistic neurology rather than with the behavior I am being called in to solve that i am able to solve the problem more quickly and efficiently while respecting and actually supporting the uniqueness of the student’s own neurology.

I get called upon for consultation because students are having “problem behavior.” After listening to the problem and all the things that have been tried to solve the problem I then observe and sometimes meet with the student.

Note: This blog is a selection(pg 31) from the following book:
Order book here

BOOKS BY JUDY ENDOW

Endow, J. (2019).  Autistically Thriving: Reading Comprehension, Conversational Engagement, and Living a Self-Determined Life Based on Autistic Neurology. Lancaster, PA: Judy Endow.

Endow, J. (2012). Learning the Hidden Curriculum: The Odyssey of One Autistic Adult. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2006).  Making Lemonade: Hints for Autism’s Helpers. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2013).  Painted Words: Aspects of Autism Translated. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2009).  Paper Words: Discovering and Living With My Autism. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2009).  Outsmarting Explosive Behavior: A Visual System of Support and Intervention for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2010).  Practical Solutions for Stabilizing Students With Classic Autism to Be Ready to Learn: Getting to Go. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Myles, B. S., Endow, J., & Mayfield, M. (2013).  The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Autism and the Sensory System: Part 8 of 8

December 15, 2019Autism, Sensory Solutionsadmin

Autism and the Sensory System
Part Eight: The Role of Interoception: The Eighth Sensory System
With Kelly Mahler, MS, OTR/L

Interoception is the sense that allows us to feel sensations from the inside of our body like a growling stomach, or full bladder or tight muscles (Craig, 2002). These internal sensations can serve as important clues to our emotions (Craig, 2002; Critchley et al., 2004; Herbert, Herbert, & Pollatos, 2011; Herbert, Pollatos, & Schandry, 2007; Pollatos, Gramann, & Schandry, 2007; Pollatos et al., 2005). For example, noticing a growling stomach is a clue that we are hungry, or noticing a full bladder is a clue that we have to go to the bathroom, or noticing tight muscles is a clue that we are frustrated. This body-emotion connection provides valuable information about the world around us and within us, information about the way our body is responding to the situation at hand. For example, noticing tight muscles and recognizing it as a clue of frustration provides us with valuable information about our current situation, our body serving as an alert that something might be off around us. This body-emotion connection urges us into action, to seek out a solution that will help us regain a comfortable feeling body and emotion (e.g. seek help; request that an unmet need is fulfilled; take a quite break) (Jackson, Parkinson, Kim, Schüermann, & Eickhoff, 2011).

Taking In Interoceptive Information

Just as with all other seven senses, autistics can have differences in the way they take in interoception information. Internal sensations can be

too big(e.g. where many internal sensations are amplified, noisy and can cause extreme internal confusion)

too small (e.g. where internal sensations can be muted or even go completely unnoticed) or

distorted (e.g.where internal sensations can be vague or not clear enough to provide specific detail about the exact location or quality of the sensation)

Processing Interoceptive Information

Additionally, the processing style of autistics can impact the interpretation of the signals sent by the sense of interoception.

Linear processing of interoceptive information that in turn informs self-understanding of emotional state may happen in two different ways

Linear processing style one
The physical feelings connected to emotions may be processed one at a time:

first noticing the heart beating faster
next noticing hands shaking
then noticing tight feeling in chest

Due to this linear processing style these sensations are not linked together into the big picture of feeling anxious. This makes learning to label emotions extremely difficult and yet we see this goal over and over on a student’s IEP or a client’s therapy treatment plan.

Linear processing style two
With this linear processing style an autistic might

first process a sound like a loud noise
then process an interoceptive sensation like a tight feeling in chest

Because these two sensations were processed in a linear fashion the sensations are not linked together. This makes it impossible for the individual to process the experience as a whole. Thus the informative learning mechanism available to most people – that the loud noise caused my chest to feel tight which in turn means that now I feel anxious – is not going to happen automatically for individuals whose brain processes sensory information in this manner.

Nondiscriminatory processing, which refers to all incoming information getting processed equally means all interoceptive sensations noticed may be automatically interpreted to be of equal importance. This makes it difficult to figure out which sensations are relevant to the situation at hand.

Imagine if while eating, you were to notice all of these things as if they were equally salient to eating:

a slow heartbeat
warm hands
fidgety legs
heavy eyes
tight, heavy stomach

In nondiscriminatory processing the sensory system is not able to discriminate and then track the sensations relevant to eating. The pairing of tight, heavy stomach to being full is does not happen. Individuals affected in this way are prone to overeat.

Monochannel processing, where one sensory system is used to process all information, poses a wide variety of interoceptive difficulties. For example, if I am working on learning when I am full and some days my one channel to process is interoception then I can feel sensations from my stomach. This will help my learning! But other days my one channel could be any one of the other seven sensory system. How will I make any progress at all about feeling full on those days!

Storing and Retrieving Interoceptive Information

As with all other sensations, the storingandretrieving of interoception information can be enhanced by teaching categorizationand using deliberate practice to develop critical mass. Here are some examples:

teach mini categories first (e.g. the category of hand sensations or, in other words, providing the category of ‘all of the different ways that my hands can feel’)
then put these mini-categories together into a larger category that represents entire body sensations (or the category of ‘all the different ways my entire body can feel’)

use deliberate practice designed to give concrete meaning to the words within a mini category (e.g. when washing hands in warm water, noticing the way the hands can feel ‘wet’ and ‘warm’)

systematically categorizing the way each individual body part can feel, giving plenty of specific practice (make it a game or a predictable routine), can help move towars critical mass

use deliberate practice by playing a game or engaging in a routine that draws attention to noticing the ways the entire body can feel is another essential step in moving toward attaining an interoceptive critical mass (Mahler, 2019)

As awareness of interoceptive signals and their meaning expands over time by using the above bulleted techniques, critical mass can develop.This means individuals can come to not only experience interoceptive physical sensations but also learn to pair meaning to that sensation. Thus, a client may come to know that when he notices shaky hands, fast heart and a tight chest, it means he is anxious.

As discussed, interoception underlies our ability to clearly detect our own emotions in the moment. This body-emotion connection is now well-validated and understood in research.

Furthermore, the awareness of our own emotions has been found to underlie the ability to quickly read the emotions of other people. In other words, research has found that a solid body-emotion connection is first needed for understanding of our own emotions, and once that connection has been established, only then can we come to understand or read the emotions of other people (Adolfi et al, 2017; Singer et al, 2004; Cook, Brewer, Shah, & Bird, 2013; Grynberg & Pollatos, 2015; Gu et al, 2012; Shah et al, 2017). It is essentially a self first, other people second phenomenon. In other words, we need to understand our own body and emotions before we are ready to intuitively understand others.

Difficulty reading the emotions of others, whether a conversation partner or a character in a novel, is typically due to a skipped step in the developmental progression of emotions (e.g. missing interoception information). Ensuring that emotions are learned from the inside out is an essential skill for reading comprehension: being able to quickly infer the emotions of characters in a story. It also goes a long way in making comprehension of life in the world around us easier.

Thanks, Kelly Mahler! Now, I (Judy), would like to share with you a personal example from my growing up years that illustrates the impact sensory disregulation can have on literacy instruction.

I like to think I am fairly intelligent with good cognitive resources to bring to the task. After all I received a nearly perfect score on the ACT College Entrance Exam so there is some validity to my assumptions in this department! I tell you of my normal intelligence because when it comes to reading, my cognitive capability isn’t the only thing that matters.

When my sensory system is not well regulated my comprehension fades. Even though I am able to read the words with fluency I do not know what they mean. Because of this oral reading fluency and because of my intelligence teachers often made assumptions about my character on days my comprehension was low or altogether missing. I have been called lazy, stubborn and told that I didn’t care about my grades and that I must want to fail during my elementary years. In High School I was told that I must think I am too good to answer the teacher’s questions and was actually punished for failing to answer comprehension related questions! I had to move my desk to the hall when the bell rang and sit in that desk until I was ready to answer while the rest of the students moved on through their class rotations.

I didn’t have the words to explain my truth at the time, but then I heard one teacher say to another, “She won’t answer questions today” in an exasperated voice. After hearing that, each time I was asked if I was ready to answer the questions I co-opted that phrase knowing that teachers have all the right answers. I repeated my teacher’s words along with her irritated voice saying, “She won’t answer questions today.”

No matter how many times I repeated this right answer it did not work out for me that day. I sat there, shamed in front of my peers, for a few more hours. When the dismissal bell sounded I got up and left with the other students.

Some days I could comprehend what I read and some days I couldn’t – a lot depended on my sensory regulation in the moment. As a child I did not know the information I do today and thus had no way to explain what was happening to my teachers. Instead, I believed them. They were the adults. They were in charge. I indeed must be lazy and stuck up just like they said.

Unfortunately, experiences like this, where others made assumptions based on the behavior I exhibited happened frequently. Regardless of the techniques employed – negative or positive – none of it gave me access to comprehension when I was disregulated. Even as an adult, having a well regulated sensory system before I begin to read anything makes a huge difference. In fact, I am unable to take in written information when I am not well regulated. I can read the words both silently and aloud, but am unable to comprehend them. Over the years I have come to learn that this differential access to comprehension has nothing to do with my character or intelligence, but instead has to do with the fact of my autistic neurology.

– from Autistically Thriving: Reading Comprehension, Conversational Engagement, and Living a Self-Determined Life Based on Autistic Neurology.

Note: This blog completes the series below.

Autism and the Sensory System

Part One: Introduction
Part Two: Taking In Sensory Information
Part Three: Processing Sensory Information
Part Four: Processing Delays
Part Five: Storing and Retrieving Information
Part Six: Categorization of Information
Part Seven: Critical Mass Development
Part Eight: The Role of Interoception, The Eighth Sensory System

REFERENCES

Adolfi, F., Couto, B., Richter, F., Decety, J., Lopez, J., Sigman, M., Manes, F., & Ibáñez, A. (2017). Convergence of interoception, emotion, and social cognition: A twofold fMRI
meta-analysis and lesion approach. Cortex88, 124–142.

Critchley, H. D., Wiens, S., Rotshtein, P., Öhman, A., & Dolan, R. J. (2004). Neural systems supporting interoceptive awareness. Nature Neuroscience, 7(2),189-195.Cook, R., Brewer, R., Shah, P., &Bird, G. (2013). Alexithymia,notautism,predicts poor recognition of emotional facial expressions.Psychological Science, 24(5),723.

REFERENCES

Endow, J. (2019).  Autistically Thriving: Reading Comprehension, Conversational Engagement, and Living a Self-Determined Life Based on Autistic Neurology. Lancaster, PA: Judy Endow.

Endow, J. (2012). Learning the Hidden Curriculum: The Odyssey of One Autistic Adult. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2006).  Making Lemonade: Hints for Autism’s Helpers. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2013).  Painted Words: Aspects of Autism Translated. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2009).  Paper Words: Discovering and Living With My Autism. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2009).  Outsmarting Explosive Behavior: A Visual System of Support and Intervention for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2010).  Practical Solutions for Stabilizing Students With Classic Autism to Be Ready to Learn: Getting to Go. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Myles, B. S., Endow, J., & Mayfield, M. (2013).  The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

.Grynberg,D.&Pollatos,O.(2015).Perceivingone’sbodyshapesempathy. Physiology and Behavior, 140. 54-60.

Gu, X., Gao, Z., Wang, X., Liu, X., Knight, R. T., Hof, P. R., & Fan, J. (2012). Anteriorinsularcortexisnecessaryforempatheticpainperception.Brain,135(9),2726-2735.

Herbert, B. M., Herbert, C., & Pollatos, O. (2011). On the relationship between interoceptive awareness and alexithymia: Is interoceptive awareness related to emotional awareness? Journal of Personality, 79(5), 1149-1175.Herbert, B. M., Pollatos, O., & Schandry, R. (2007). Interoceptive sensitivity and emotion processing: An EEG study.International Journal of Psychophysiology, 65(3), 214-227.

Jackson, S. R., Parkinson, A., Kim, S. Y., Schüermann, M., & Eickhoff, S. B. (2011).Onthefunctionalanatomyoftheurge-for-action.CognitiveNeuroscience,2(3-4),227-243.

Mahler, K. (2019). The Interoception Curriculum: A step-by-step guide to developing mindful self-regulation. Lancaster, PA: Kelly Mahler.

Mahler, K. (2016). Interoception the Eighth Sensory System:Practical solutions for improving self-regulation, self-awareness and social understanding of individuals with autism spectrum and related disorders. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Myles, B. S., Endow, J., & Mayfield, M. (2013). The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment.Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Pollatos, O., Gramann, K., & Schandry, R. (2007). Neural systems connecting interoceptive awareness and feelings. Human Brain Mapping, 28(1), 9-18.

Pollatos, O., Kirsch,W., & Schandry, R. (2005). On the relationship between interoceptive awareness, emotional experience, and brain processes. Cognitive Brain Research, 25(3),948-962.

Shah, P., Catmur, C., & Bird, G. (2017). From heart to mind: Linking interoception, emotion, and theory of mind. Cortex. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.02.010. Website accessed 2019.

Singer, T., Seymour, B., O’Doherty, J., Kaube, H., Dolan, R. J., & Frith, C. D. (2004). Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain. Science, 303(5661), 1157-1162.

Autism and the Sensory System: Part 7 of 8

December 8, 2019Autism, Sensory Solutionsadmin

Autism and the Sensory System
Part Seven: Critical Mass Development

As I worked on another year’s worth of daily hidden curriculum items, much to my delight, I discovered that it appeared that all the individual hidden curriculum items on a given topic had come together on their own! Brenda Smith Myles refers to this as having enough similar experience to enable critical mass development (personal communication, 2010). She has since written a book about this topic called Excelling With Autism: Obtaining Critical Mass Through Deliberate Practice(Myles, Aspy, Mataya & Schaffer, 2018), which is pretty much a mirror image to my personal experience.

For me, “it was as if those [individual hidden curriculum] items had somehow morphed into my general operating system. I no longer needed to intentionally go on a search-and-find mission to uncover a pertinent hidden curriculum item in order to act on the previous information I had learned and stored.

Another thing I noticed when compiling literally thousands of learned hidden curriculum items was that once there was enough critical mass on a given topic, such as racism, for example, so that the information became part of my operating system, similar topics, in this case, sexism, had also morphed into my operating system even though I had not intentionally noticed and compiled information on sexism. It was just there!

It was necessary for me to learn, item-by-item, many similar, but not exactly identical, items until I had stored enough individual items to create a critical mass. I needed to enter enough data for the critical mass to develop, and once the individual data morphed into a critical mass, it automatically became part of my operating system.” (Endow, 2012, pg. 66-67)

Thus, critical mass development allowed an automated sort of retrieval. For me, the process over time followed the same trajectory and to this day when I want to learn something new I follow the same path of taking in, processing, storing and retrieving information.

Handling New Information: Charging Camera Battery Example

Taking In: I learn the new bit of information such as how to remove and charge the camera battery by reading about it in the instruction manual that came with my new camera.

Processing: Initially, once I understand the instructions, I manually decide this information will go with other information about my new camera.

Storing: I slide in this newly learned information under the topic category of Cannon T3i that I can see in my head.

Retrieving: I know that when I learn new things it works best for me to intentionally store any information I learn on the new topic under that topic category as it makes for more efficient retrieval.

I have come to learn that over time, as my brain develops enough critical mass in different areas, information tends to automatically duplicate itself into other pertinent categories. In the above example I know that I deliberately created a Cannon T3i topic category and visually watched the information on how to charge the battery slide under that topic category in my head.

Three years later, after not using the camera for some time and needing to charge the battery, I was quite surprised when my visual thinking pulled up Batteries/Charging/Cannon T3i. I had never intentionally stored the information in this way, but my brain had developed enough critical mass that it was able to duplicate and plunk that information under another whole topic of batteries! I am learning critical mass development allows for a more efficient retrieval of stored information. Today I am amazed all over each time I see that my brain has automatically stored and retrieved yet even more data. It is quite miraculous to me!

– from Autistically Thriving: Reading Comprehension, Conversational Engagement, and Living a Self-Determined Life Based on Autistic Neurology.

Note: Approximately once a week a new blog in this series will be released.

Autism and the Sensory System

REFERENCES

Endow, J. (2019).  Autistically Thriving: Reading Comprehension, Conversational Engagement, and Living a Self-Determined Life Based on Autistic Neurology. Lancaster, PA: Judy Endow.

Endow, J. (2012). Learning the Hidden Curriculum: The Odyssey of One Autistic Adult. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2006).  Making Lemonade: Hints for Autism’s Helpers. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2013).  Painted Words: Aspects of Autism Translated. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2009).  Paper Words: Discovering and Living With My Autism. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2009).  Outsmarting Explosive Behavior: A Visual System of Support and Intervention for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2010).  Practical Solutions for Stabilizing Students With Classic Autism to Be Ready to Learn: Getting to Go. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Myles, B. S., Endow, J., & Mayfield, M. (2013).  The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Autism and the Sensory System: Part 6 of 8

December 1, 2019Autism, Sensory Solutionsadmin

Autism and the Sensory System
Part Six: Categorization of Information

Even into my adult life I had to consciously categorize similar bits of information into general categories. My brain did not automatically categorize anything. No new information automatically fit itself into anything previously stored.

I became intensely aware of this back when I authored the 2010 Hidden Curriculum calendar (Endow, 2009a). Near the end of the process and after all the items for each day had been written I was then supposed to categorize these items. This posed a problem because at that time my brain had not stored the individual hidden curriculum items according to categories. I tried to figure out how to categorize the year’s worth of individual items. I started reading books on my shelf written by autistics (Grandin, 1995; Paradiz, 2002; Purkis, 2006; Williams, 1996; and Willey, 1999) specifically looking for information on categorization. It is interesting to me that even though I had read these books, I had not retained any categorization information.

I came across Temple Grandin’s explanation of her system of categorization of social sins (Grandin, 1995, 2006 and Grandin & Barron, 2005) and once I had this structure I was able to go on and construct my own. I actually wrote my categorization system down on a piece of paper and for some time needed to look at it in order to place the hidden curriculum items pertaining to social sins into the proper categories I, myself had created. Having this visual outside of me to look at was essential in that over time it allowed my neurology to grab onto this structured storage system. Once the picture of these categories was in my head I could more easily sort and categorize the items.

From this I was able to go on to write the index for the 2010 calendar. I looked at the index of the older calendars (Myles, 2006; Myles & Duncan, 2007; and Myles & Duncan 2008) and initially used that written structure to place items. Because the 2010 calendar was the first one specific to older adolescents and adults I had many items left over that did not fit into the index structure gleaned from an earlier calendar targeted towards elementary students. As I had done with developing my own structure for social sins, I wrote the categories from the older calendar on a piece of paper and then added to the topics. I think it took me longer to write the index than it did to write the individual hidden curriculum items for the 2010 calendar!

My brain was being deliberately instructed (by me) on a totally new storage system as I applied the above strategies to the task of writing the index for this 2010 calendar. Once this calendar was completed and sent off to the printer, I very soon began writing the next 2011 calendar (Endow, 2010). This time I already had the list of topics from the last calendar and as I wrote the hidden curriculum daily entry items I typed the dates right into the topic index. Initially I needed to look at and ponder over the entire index written out on paper for each hidden curriculum entry. It took considerable time as I figured out where to put each item. Over time I no longer needed to look at the topic index to know where to put new items.

My brain had been deliberately and intentionally taught this new storage system. This meant I could start automatically retrieving the system. Once retrieved, the new calendar item needing to be inserted could be slid right into the proper category! I watched the process in my visually thinking brain as the words slid under the topic category. I was glad the whole system was working more quickly and without as much intentionality on my part as time went on.

One day I noticed my retrieval of this stored information was changing. After initially developing the new (to my brain) storage system I was able to slide new items into the system, but retrieving them from this system meant my brain automatically scanned the system using the alphabetically arranged topics until the individual item was found. This meant if the item was under the topic of cyberspace I would retrieve it more quickly than if it was under the topic of workplace. To me this seemed inefficient, but I didn’t have any ideas on how to speed up the new way my brain was now working.

– from Autistically Thriving: Reading Comprehension, Conversational Engagement, and Living a Self-Determined Life Based on Autistic Neurology.

Note: Approximately once a week a new blog in this series will be released.

Autism and the Sensory System

REFERENCES

Endow, J. (2019).  Autistically Thriving: Reading Comprehension, Conversational Engagement, and Living a Self-Determined Life Based on Autistic Neurology. Lancaster, PA: Judy Endow.

Endow, J. (2012). Learning the Hidden Curriculum: The Odyssey of One Autistic Adult. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2006).  Making Lemonade: Hints for Autism’s Helpers. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2013).  Painted Words: Aspects of Autism Translated. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2009).  Paper Words: Discovering and Living With My Autism. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2009).  Outsmarting Explosive Behavior: A Visual System of Support and Intervention for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2010).  Practical Solutions for Stabilizing Students With Classic Autism to Be Ready to Learn: Getting to Go. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Myles, B. S., Endow, J., & Mayfield, M. (2013).  The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Grandin, T. (1995, 2006). Thinking in Pictures: My life with autism. New York, NY: Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, Inc.

Grandin, T., & Barron, S. (2005). The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships.Arlington, TX: Future Horizons.

Myles, B. S. (2006). 2007 Hidden curriculum one-a-day calendar: Items for understanding unstated rules in social situations. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Myles, B. S. & Duncan, M. (2007). 2008 Hidden curriculum one-a-day calendar: Items for understanding unstated rules in social situations. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Myles, B. S. & Duncan, M. (2008). 2009 Hidden curriculum one-a-day calendar: Items for understanding unstated rules in social situations. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Myles, B. S., Endow, J., & Mayfield, M. (2013). The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment.Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Paradiz, V. (2002). Elijah’s Cup: A family’s journey into the community and culture of high-functioning autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. New York, NY: The Free Press.

Purkis, J. (2006). Finding a Different Kind of Normal. Philadelphia, PA: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Williams, D. (1996a). Autism – An Inside Out Approach. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Ltd.

Williams, D. (1996b). Like Color to the Blind. New York, NY: Times Books, a division of Random House.

Williams, D. (1998). Autism and Sensing. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Ltd.

Willey, L. H. (1999). Pretending to Be Normal: Living with Asperger’s Syndrome. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Ltd.

Autism and the Sensory System: Part 5 of 8

November 24, 2019Autism, Sensory Solutionsadmin

Autism and the Sensory System
Part Five: Storing and Retrieving Information

For me, every bit of incoming information was stored separately as I grew up. It was also stored in a sensory fashion. Just like typical people do not consciously decide how their brain would store information, neither do autistic people. Even so, it is important to consider because it impacts all of life.

For example, I can remember taking a history test in seventh grade and it took me much longer than it took other students. It was because of the way the information had been stored when I was studying for the test. I had studied in multiple locations so I had to go looking for information by visualizing the sparkles I saw from the fluorescent lights in the history classroom. Then, I recalled I also studied in the morning study hall where the outside lighting was coming in at a slant so had to visualize that in order to gain access to the information studied in that location. Next, I had to visualize studying in my bedroom with incandescent lighting in order to look at that chunk of information.

Because my brain had automatically stored cognitive information according to sensory environmental lighting conditions it took much longer to retrieve it than it would have taken if it had all been stored under a topic or category such as “history.” First I had to understand the schemata in order to even begin the search for information in my storage system. Next, I had to be able to visualize (or put myself into) the visual sensory condition at the time the history information was stored. Therefore,

IF I did not understand the storage schemata AND
IF I could not recall all the places I had studied for the test AND
IF I could not visualize myself in each of these locations of study inorder to access the information

THEN I would be missing some information needed to answer some of the questions. This would directly have a negative affect on my test score.

Over the years I have learned about all sorts of unique storage systems from students and clients with whom I’ve worked. I believe it is important to find out this information because it directly impacts the learning or therapy outcome.

For example, I had a student who was academically gifted, but was failing one of his favorite classes. I met with him to try to figure out why he was failing and to right the situation.

The way I usually interface with individuals who are able to talk with me is to check out how they take in, process, store and retrieve information. So, first I asked him to show me how the important astronomy information landed in his brain. I wanted to make sure he was taking in the information.

I learned not only was he taking in the information, but his brain was also storing it as he described the library card catalog storage system in his brain. He had a library card catalog for each class. He told me the information went into the card catalog in alphabetical order.

Then I checked on how he retrieved information. He said, “Duh…..I just pull open the right drawer and fish it out.”

Next I thought time might be a factor so started asking things related to how long it took him to look through the drawer and if he had to sometimes look through several drawers before finding the information. He responded that he always looked in the right drawer first try. This told me he had processed the information before storing it.

It looked to me that he had a working system for handling information. I was a bit stumped so commented about needing to find the breakdown in this system that had served him well all through his school years until now. He told me nothing was wrong with the system. It worked fine, but some of the drawers had been shut down for business.

This took some time to tease out, but in the end I learned that when a card catalog drawer became full it automatically shut itself down for business. This meant he had nowhere to put additional information that would have gone in this drawer had it not been shut down for business. Because the drawer was full there was no room to add any new information so he simply didn’t store it. I assured him that since he had figured out one solution (discarding information when the drawer was full and therefore shut down) he could figure out more. I commented that it would be great if there might be a way to have self-expanding drawers so that once they reached capacity they would automatically regenerate the original space.

The following week when I saw him he said he really hadn’t done anything at all, but the next time he had read astronomy material the full drawers that had previously been shut down for business, unable to store any additional information, had somehow lengthened on their own so there was now plenty of storage room in all drawers of the library card catalog storage system.

He had to go back and read over about three weeks of assignments to pick up the missing information and get it into his storage system. Over time, it did turn out that each time a drawer in the storage system became full it did self duplicate the physical space of the original drawer so as to be ready to take in and store more information. This is but one example. I believe it interesting to note that I have never found two autistic people who have identical storage systems.

– from Autistically Thriving: Reading Comprehension, Conversational Engagement, and Living a Self-Determined Life Based on Autistic Neurology.

Note: Approximately once a week a new blog in this series will be released.

Autism and the Sensory System

BOOKS BY JUDY ENDOW

Endow, J. (2019).  Autistically Thriving: Reading Comprehension, Conversational Engagement, and Living a Self-Determined Life Based on Autistic Neurology. Lancaster, PA: Judy Endow.

Endow, J. (2012). Learning the Hidden Curriculum: The Odyssey of One Autistic Adult. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2006).  Making Lemonade: Hints for Autism’s Helpers. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2013).  Painted Words: Aspects of Autism Translated. Cambridge, WI: CBR Press.

Endow, J. (2009).  Paper Words: Discovering and Living With My Autism. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2009).  Outsmarting Explosive Behavior: A Visual System of Support and Intervention for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Endow, J. (2010).  Practical Solutions for Stabilizing Students With Classic Autism to Be Ready to Learn: Getting to Go. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.

Myles, B. S., Endow, J., & Mayfield, M. (2013).  The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment. Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.