Tag Archives: sensory

Teaching Autistic People

July 5, 2016Activism/Advocacy, Autistic "Behavior", Communication, Growing Up Autistic, Hidden Curriculum, Sensory Solutions, Social Considerationsautism, autism acceptance, autistic experience, differentiated instruction, Diversity, hidden curriculum, neurology, sensory, social, sped, teaching, transition, visual routinesadmin

Just like people of all ages can learn, so is it that autistic people of all ages can learn. It is an utterly sad state of affairs that this even needs to be said, but unfortunately, it needs to be said. Too often I see autistic children being babysat rather than being taught at school. When I ask about academic curriculum being used, I am told, “Oh, he has autism” as if this is an answer to my question.

In my work as an autism consultant I am called on to go to public schools to see autistic students who are thought to be failing what the system has to offer. Most of the time students I see have behaviors that don’t work well in a school setting. For all students I am called in on, I use the stabilization techniques below, which are also the first steps I use when teaching autistic students if the student is not stabilized. This is why I can say that even when your student has autism, including when behaviors are present, he can learn just like any other student can learn. Autistic people are just as deserving of an education as other human beings. That being said, specific supports must be in place to insure access to that education. After all, nobody can do math (or any subject) when they are literally bouncing off the wall (a sign of extreme sensory disregulation).

Stabilization

Internal Regulation (sensory diet)
Autistics have a neurology that means many systems (sensory, emotions, movement) in their body do not automatically regulate. This means conscious attention and effort must be brought to regulate whatever systems need regulation. For most autistics I work with, the sensory system is so disregulated that it masks emotional and movement disregulation.
External Regulation (interactive visual schedule)
It really helps to know what is going to happen when – the schedule of events.

Most students have a neurology that can pick up this sort of information without being instructed. They can sort out the spoken words of the teacher. Students with autism typically have weak auditory processing abilities. Their neurology may not allow them to take in verbal words, sort out which words are relevant and process those words to understand what will happen next. This means every transition from one activity to another can hit them as a huge surprise, causing further disregulation.

When typical students are distracted and miss the teacher’s verbal instruction of “get out your math books now” they usually become aware that the other students are getting math books out of their desk so they know they are meant to get out their math books too. Autistic students do not pick up these external cues as readily.

Even when they see other students getting out math books, autistic students do not necessarily take that to mean they should also get out their math book. This has nothing to do with cognitive ability. It has to do with weak connections between areas of the brain – several areas of the brain working together to synthesize environmental, social, emotional and other kinds of information to inform them “I need to get out my math book.”

Visual schedules support this issue for most autistic students. It is often helpful for the schedule to be interactive – meaning the student needs to do something with the schedule before each transition.
Relationship
Most students I have been called on to consult for have experienced much angst along the way. They know they are not like other kids. They may or may not know they have autism. One thing I find is that students who are able to communicate are very aware they are different from other kids and they have made up a narrative to explain their differences to themselves. I have been honored by a number of students sharing these stories about why they are different. I have yet to hear a positive story. They are typically stories about major character flaws, sometimes character traits they have heard others ascribe to them such as lazy, stubborn, willful, violent, refuses to share, refuses to co-operate, etc.

As I begin working with new students I typically use a simple interactive schedule to show them “work” and “sensory break.” I ensure they are successful at following this schedule even if it means we work for a few seconds and engage in sensory regulating activities for a much longer time. I am visually instructing how schedules work while getting the student’s sensory system regulated and doing that in the context of forming a positive relationship.Most students I see have not experienced a lot of positive relationships. They have learned not to trust others around them. I am giving them an exact visual way our time works. They can count on it, become part of it and will always succeed. Over time strong relationships develop. Once a relationship is solid, we know what sensory activities are needed (along with how long and how often) and the student has mastered his interactive visual schedule I know he is now stabilized. Once stabilized we are ready for more formalized instruction.

Instruction

Identify and Teach Needed Skills
Besides academic instruction, students with autism often have particular skills for which they need to receive direct instruction. This can be anything from how to open a milk carton to waiting for the teacher to call on you when your hand is raised before contributing. It is helpful to identify a few of the skills that are deal breakers to your student getting along in the classroom. Learning and using these skills can be intertwined with academic content and other parts of the day.
Ensure Success by Decreasing Task Demands
Differentiated Instruction is one way to reduce educational task demands to match the needs of an individual student while ensuring them opportunity to learn along with their peers even though he may not have the same personal resources to bring to the task. My favorite person when it comes to differentiating instruction is Paula Kluth. Every student can do something. If you need ideas on how to use general education curriculum for students with autism who you think cannot do general education curriculum please look up Paula’s work. (paulakluth.com)

My favorite people when it comes to a discussion about decreasing task demands are Ruth Aspy and Barry Grossman. (https://www.zigguratgroup.com/pages/services) An example of decreasing task demands for a student who struggles with handwriting is to take handwriting off the table in all subjects except Handwriting Instruction. Perhaps a scribe is used to do the actual handwriting task or an app such as Dictation Dragon, which means he can now do creative writing through dictation. If the student is an efficient typist perhaps that is the way to go, which means the student can now do social studies assignment that involves answering questions with a paragraph.
Reinforcement
There is significant brain research that shows students with autism do not benefit from the same kind of social reinforcement that typical students do. For typical students, in general, the more social opportunities you can add into instruction and use for reinforcement, the more learning that takes place.

For students with autism, social reinforcement and adding social aspects to learning detract rather than enhance learning. Tangible reinforcement tied to learning has been shown to work better than social reinforcement. In fact, it has been the ticket to learning for many autistic students.

NOTE: I realize ABA therapy has had a history of using reinforcement in a punitive manner tied to repetitious drilling, often quite disrespectfully. This makes punishment, demeaning drilling and disrespect wrong. It does not make reinforcement wrong. All human beings benefit from positive reinforcement.

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.

Originally written for and published by Ollibean in June 2016. Add a comment here.

Autism and Consequences

June 18, 2016Autistic "Behavior"autism, autism acceptance, autistic experience, Diversity, hidden curriculum, neurodiversity, neurology, sensory, sped, visual routinesadmin

One way people learn is from consequences. For example, if you leave your car parked outside with the windows down and it rains, the natural consequence is that your car seats will get wet. Sometimes a person with authority over another engineers a consequence for certain behaviors as a way to decrease the frequency of unwanted behaviors. For example, a mother or a caregiver might decide that if hitting occurs at the park there will be no going to the park for the next two weeks. This sort of engineered consequence for unwanted behavior works for most people most of the time. It is why we use it to successfully teach our children to become responsible citizens – responsible for themselves, their behavior, their belongings and beyond. These kinds of consequences rarely work well for individuals with autism.

Underlying Brain Functioning
For consequences to be effective in deterring future behavior, a typically functioning brain needs to be in place. For example, if an individual is prone to hitting others when at the park we decide that because he very much enjoys going to the park, the consequence of not going to the park for two weeks will help him to not hit or at least hit less when he does go back to the park.

The underlying brain function that causes this consequence to be helpful in reducing hitting is very intricate and is based on reliability of connections between many areas of the brain. In practical terms it means that in order for this consequence to change the hitting behavior, at minimum, these elements must all function smoothly for the person receiving the consequence:

Understand hitting is wrong
Love going to the park
Understand hitting at the park will mean no park for two weeks
Be negatively affected during the two week park ban, i.e. wishing it wasn’t so
Dislike the park ban so much that he is willing to not hit
Come to learn what he can do instead of hitting
Have the skills and ability to carry through with alternative behaviors
After returning to the park and finding himself about to hit – his brain quickly and efficiently connects all the dots, gathering up and synthesizing information from multiple areas of the brain in a split second whereby he can put together an informative and behavior-altering understanding that keeps him from hitting.

Most people have brains that can accomplish all the above bullet points. However, people with autism do not. Autistic people generally have brains that do not support the last bullet point. Remember, an autistic brain means the connections between areas of the brain are weak making it difficult for the brain to pull together information from the various brain regions – the very thing needed for consequences to change future behavior.

A confounding factor here is that autistic people, after an incident and when in a calm state, can repeat to you exactly what happened, why it was wrong and what they will do instead of hitting next time they are in a similar situation. Then, the next situation arises and the hitting again occurs. After the incident is over the autistic individual is usually remorseful, knows what he did was wrong, understands what the consequence will be and promises not to hit next time, reciting all the options he might employ other than hitting. Then, the next situation arises and the hitting again occurs. Repeat, repeat, repeat over and over and over.

Regardless of how many times the consequence of park ban is employed it never seems to work in terms of stopping the hitting. Many times people assume the consequence of park banning isn’t a big enough consequence so they up the anti. I have seen this get out of hand quickly and regardless of how big the consequence or how articulately the autistic individual can explain the behavior/consequence sequence it is not effective in producing the desired behavior change.

After a time of bigger and bigger consequences, parents, teachers and caregivers start blaming the person with autism as if he wants to be a bad person. They say he is making poor choices and ascribe character flaws such stubborn and mean. It doesn’t turn out good for anyone, including the autistic.

Ways to Get a Different Outcome
Once you understand autistic brains will most likely be unable to attain the last bullet point in the above list – not because the individual consciously chooses this, but because of the brain functioning available to him – it would make sense to stop using consequences in hopes of changing behavior. But, we still have the hitting behavior. What can we do instead? Here are some ideas that have worked for numerous autistics of all ages whom I have worked with:

Escalating Behavior
If the behavior is escalating in nature; i.e., if you can predict when it will occur because you can see the build up then you can prevent the behavior by intervening very early on rather than waiting until the last minute when it is impossible to stop the behavior from happening. In escalating behavior the physiological fight/flight kicks in right before the behavior occurs. This means the individual is operating on survival instinct, feeling he is fighting for his life, no matter how small and non-life threatening the situation actually is in the moment. Thus, intervention when the behavior is occurring fails. Successful intervention is at the beginning stages. For more information please look at Outsmarting Explosive Behavior: A Visual System of Support and Intervention for Individuals With ASD.

Non-Escalating Behavior
If the behavior is not escalating in nature, remember the reasons an individual gets an autism diagnosis and address those areas – communication, social, specific deep interests, and sensory. In light of this, here is what I do to help prevent unwanted behaviors when out in the community.

A. Proactively Address Sensory Regulation Daily
Strive to make sure autistic individuals are supported daily in sensory regulating activities. As an autistic myself, daily sensory regulation allows me to be employed and go out into the community each day. It is the same for others I’ve worked with. For the individual in the example, when he was well regulated he was able to cope with unexpected events better. This meant he was less likely to hit.

B. Plan Schedule Ahead of Time
It is important for most of us to know what will happen ahead of time. This is true no matter how our autism presents. Very few autistic people can track a verbally recited chain of events that are to happen in the future. Some people need a written list. Some need a picture schedule. All of us, regardless of how autism presents in our bodies, like to know the plans rather than to have continual surprises randomly occurring.

C. Stop Talking
As autistics get overloaded in sensory, social or emotional aspects of situations the ability to process and comprehend verbal input decreases. Helpers typically “help” by talking more. This is the opposite of what is actually helpful to autistics in tense situations.

D. Use Alternative Communication
Even for a person who is highly verbal, an alternative way to communicate becomes essential in tense or overloaded situations. For example, one individual I worked with had a key chain with mini pictures of the van, a bag of peanuts (his favorite snack), his house, and his favorite video game. When he was having difficulty in the community, I would hand him this key chain. Offering the key chain was a nonverbal way to communicate our exit plan.

E. Use Positive Reinforcement
In this example the pictures on the keychain showed the order of events and included two reinforcements. First picture was the van. Second picture was the bag peanuts that were in the glove box in the van. Third picture was his house where his favorite video game (fourth picture) would be available upon arriving. Thus, positive reinforcement got him out of the park when needed so as to prevent the hitting from occurring.

F. Plan and Practice Exit Strategies
Use preplanned signals or visuals to exit a tense or problematic situation BEFORE any problem behavior can happen. In this example the keychain with mini photos was our exit strategy. We went to the park on three different occasions specifically to practice using the exit strategy. Once the strategy was practiced, including eating the peanuts on the ride home and playing the favorite video game, we then went back to the park for an hour – our usual park time. It was important for this young man to actually get his park time.

G. Assure Social Understanding
After a difficult time and the individual is settled down remember to go back and insure social understanding of what happened. Most autistics are literal and concrete by nature. Social situations are rarely literal and concrete. Thus, we are prone to have a different take on social situations than most other people. I have found it helpful to draw out a situation, finding out the autistic person’s take on it and leaving space in the stick figure cartoon frames for the thought bubbles of other people. Often times the way other people think is a surprise to autistics because it makes no sense to a literal and concrete mind. Social constructs and socially accepted behavior in society are based on this thinking style of the majority. Many autistics benefit in learning this social information.

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.

Originally written for and published by Ollibean June 14, 2016. To comment click here.

Autism, Behavior and the Impact of Kindness

May 22, 2016Activism/Advocacy, Growing Up Autistic, Sensory Solutionsautism, autism acceptance, autistic experience, Diversity, first person account, neurology, sensory, visual routinesadmin

Please know that the behavior of people with autism makes sense in the context of their experience of the world around them. Because typical people do not share our context they are not often able to assign correct meaning and motivation to some of our behavior. They do their best by assigning meaning to our behavior based on what the behavior would mean were they themselves engaged in it the behavior. Often they arrive at wrong conclusions. Sometimes they even assign negative character traits to us based on their wrong conclusions.

Example: As an autistic I can readily see environmental phenomena of sun particles interacting with moisture in the air and rising up from the ground. I thought of these things I could see as sun sparkles and world tails. As a young child in the 1950s I organized my world according to this information. This allowed me to know when it would be lunchtime, naptime, dinnertime, bedtime and gage when other things might occur during the day. I could organize my day and come to understand the typical way in which I could expect the day to unfold.

Sometimes, as life would have it, something that was supposed to happen later in the day occurred earlier. For example, I can recall a morning when ice cream cones were passed around before lunch. To my organizational scheme this was out of order. I really wanted the treat, but couldn’t eat it out of order. My solution was to eat lunch first and then eat the ice cream cone. My use of language wasn’t an asset at the time, so I insisted on lunch in a way others perceived as quite unpleasant.

In the example from my own childhood above you can see my intent was not to be stubborn and uncooperative by ignoring or not interacting with others, but instead was quite the opposite. I was trying to preserve the predictable order of the world in the only context available to me at the time – that of sun sparkles and world tails. I needed to do this IN ORDER TO ENGAGE WITH OTHERS – in this example to be able to take the ice cream cone being offered I needed the perceived order of events to take place meaning lunch came before afternoon treat.

When it comes to autistic individuals, try to refrain from assigning motive and meaning to behavior of based on your what the behavior would mean were you engaged in it. Instead, assume that even though you may not understand it, the behavior makes sense to the autistic individual in the context of his experience of the world. This will allow you to more creatively solve problematic situations.

It may be interesting to the reader to know that I am now in my 60’s and I have not shared the constructs of sun sparkles and world tails along with their importance in my early childhood until three years ago when I wrote Painted Words: Aspects of Autism Translated. When I was a youngster I did not have the words to describe it. Even if I had the words and the ability to use those words to effectively communicate I would not have understood how to do so. How would I have known that others would be interested or that this was a topic for conversation when I had never heard anyone else talk about it?

Today I try to get teachers and adult care workers to understand that even if they ask autistics to explain why they are behaving the way they are behaving seldom will they be able to tell you. This isn’t because they do not want to tell you, but is because they do not have a way to do so. Rather than being a matter of won’t (as in “he won’t tell me or he refuses to tell me”) it is a matter of can’t (as in he does not have the language, the skills or the ability to tell me in the moment).

The truth is many times our neurology does not allow us to access the needed information or skill in the moment. I know this is very frustrating for you. It is very frustrating for me too. The most expedient way past this frustration for me happens when others show kindness and assume I am doing the best I can in the moment, regardless of the conventionally assigned meaning to the behavior I am displaying.

Kindness and belief that I am doing my best is often the impetus helpful in accessing the action or words I am having trouble with in the moment. And in cases where I am ultimately not able to access and use the behaviors or words I wish just then, your kindness and belief in my goodness is even more important. It allows me to not be so hard on myself and to have the courage to face my future. I did not ask to be sent to earth in this uncooperative body, but know your response of genuine kindness is so much appreciated whether or not in the moment it serves as a catalyst to access for me.

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.

Originally written for and published by Ollibean on May 15, 2016.
To leave a comment at the end of this blog at the Ollibean site click here.

Autism and Measuring Normal

March 21, 2016Activism/Advocacyautism, autistic experience, Diversity, sensory, socialadmin

Even though people described me as in my own world as I was growing up, I was in the same world as every other human being. I could not help it that other people could not see the details of the world such as the sun sparkles and the misty tails rising up from the ground early in the morning like I could, but that didn’t mean our worlds were different.

Instead our experience of the same world was different. My experience was much more detailed because I had ever so much more to see than most people. I could also hear in a much more robust way than most people. In fact, my sensory experience of the world in general was always to a much higher refinement and greater impact than others report.

If we used my experience as the norm then all the typical people would come up as very lacking. But we do not measure experience from the most to the least sensory quantity or quality perceived. Instead we measure according to what most of the people perceive and label that as normal. Then, any experience that does not fall into this normal range of experience is labeled abnormal and people with this abnormal experience are said to be lacking.

If the truth were told, whenever the neurotypical yardstick of normal is used to measure me I do not measure up to be very many inches. (Endow, J., 2009a, 2009b, 2013) Because there is not a good way to measure the things that make me be me those things go unmeasured. Instead I am measured by the yardstick of what makes you be you and am found to be lacking.

Deficit based language in the field of autism is used for diagnostic purposes. A diagnosis is important in many regards because it can provide access to accommodations and supports, needed services and even a disability income and health insurance in adulthood for those who need it. The problem with deficit-based language comes when we take that deficit language out of the diagnostic arena and start using it to describe the humanity of a person with autism.

It is true that autistics are not like neuro majority folks and that when measured we often land outside of the majority norm. Geniuses land outside of the majority norm, too. Landing outside of the norm does not equate to mean less than as a human being.

Personal Questions for Self-Reflection:

Do you confine the use of deficit-based language to the diagnostic arena of Autism Spectrum Disorder?
How do you think about what is normal and what lies outside of normal?
Do you want or need to change your thinking?

When autistics are treated as equal human beings positive relationships are more likely to develop. This is important because people with autism are generally able to learn new things and to access their highest level skills and abilities in the context of a positive relationship. (Robledo, J. & Donnellan, A., 2008).

And yes, we actually have research to show this – quite sad to need to “prove” autistics respond to positive relationships just like other human beings. Just the idea that this research needed to be done is a reflection of the world’s continuing erroneous presumptions about autistics. Hopefully, research like this will help change the faulty perception of the world about autistics.

Personal Questions for Self-Reflection:

In your heart of hearts do you think of autistics as equal fellow human beings? If you are not pleased with your current thinking know you can change it.
Do your relationships with autistics have a level of shared high regard for one another? What evidence do you have to support this?

In conclusion, please don’t allow yourself to write off autistics as “in their own world.” This only encourages division – an us-and-them dichotomy – when, in reality, we are all in one shared world. Autistics tend to experience the world with a higher degree of sensory awareness and often interact with or guard against the impact of this experience by employing behaviors that can look different or unusual to those who don’t share the autistic sensory experience.

Saying that someone is in their own world tends to give permission to disregard that person and to invite others to think of him as less than other human beings. When this happens everyone loses, including you. So, if you talk about a child, teen or adult autistic as “being in his own world” will you please stop?

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.

OTHER REFERENCES

Robledo, J. A. & Donnellan, A. M. (2008). Properties of supportive relationships from the perspective of academically successful individuals with autism. Intellectual Developmental Disabilities. 46 (4), 299-310.

Originally written for and published by Ollibean on February 18, 2016.
To leave a comment at the end of this blog at the Ollibean site click here.

Autistic Visual Thinking Impacts Comprehension

March 10, 2016Autistic "Behavior", Communication, Growing Up Autistic, Sensory Solutions, Social Considerationsautism, autistic experience, Diversity, first person account, neurology, sensory, social, transition, visual routinesadmin

I think in colors. My thinking colors have sound and movement. When I hear spoken words my neurology automatically goes for the match – a match for the words I hear to a familiar concrete picture of something in the world outside my skin or to an internal picture I have stored in my memory..

When I was a girl I heard the saying, “I got the world by the tail.” Immediately, the matching pictures of my experience of the world popped up for me to see. I found the best match and promptly assigned the words, “I got the world by the tail” to mean the interaction of the sunlight and misty water particles I could see rising up from the earth’s surface whenever I was outside.

The phenomenon of mist rising from the earth became the visual match for the new words I imagined to be about the world’s tail. For most of my life I thought this literally was this early morning mist was indeed the earth’s tail. I thought that people were somehow able to physically grab onto this tail and when they did so they indeed had the world by the tail! To my literalness this made perfect logical sense.

I had always noticed the sun sparkles and the interaction of the sun sparkles with the earth mist. In fact, as a small child, they were often more salient to me than the people in my world. Most times I preferred them to people. I had often tried to touch these sparkles, but now I had a new mission. I wanted to actually catch this tail so I too might have the world by its tail! As a decades older person, a few years ago I used acrylic paints to paint some of these misty tails. Here is one example with many more at my website www.judyendow.com

Painting is Earth Tail Mist
available in packs of 5 greeting cards
and 3 print sizes
under the Art Store tab at
www.judyendow.com

Points to Ponder:

a. Rote Repetition is NOT Evidence of Comprehension!

People with autism are often visual thinkers. It is not something we decide, but rather the way our brain handles information. We do not know when we are little that most other people think with words rather than with colors and pictures. This makes it difficult in school as delivery of information quickly becomes language-based as pictures drop away after the first few years.

This dramatic change in materials in the United States occurs at the third grade level when text based instruction becomes predominant. For me it was hard to think about or understand ideas that were not concrete ideas. Basically, if my brain could not translate the words I heard into a concrete picture in a few seconds, as a young child I would not be able to pick up the meaning of the words being spoken. Even though I did not understand the meaning I was able to repeat the words. For example, when prompted I could repeat the teacher’s instruction to use quiet voices even though I had no idea what the words meant because no picture popped up in my head to equal those words.

Is your youngster a visual thinker?

Do you use concrete language along with pictures as needed?

b. Non-compliance or Comprehension Constraint?

When autistics are able to recite your instructions or repeat an admonition and then do not follow the instruction or admonition do not assume willful non-compliance. Instead, check for comprehension. If the autistic is a visual thinker ask him to draw or show you what the instructions or rule looks like. If a visual thinker cannot do this, he likely does not comprehend the words you are speaking even though he may be able to repeat them quite accurately. Children with ASD have been shown to perform basically normal for age in word decoding, but lower than age expectation in reading comprehension. (Minshew et al, 1994, Myles et al, 2002, Nation et al, 2006, Newman et al, 2007, Asberg et al, 2008, Asberg et al, 2010)

When your student’s behavior has the appearance of willful noncompliance do you stop to ascertain comprehension before ascribing meaning to the behavior?

How will you evaluate your student’s comprehension or lack of comprehension when his behavior looks like non-compliance?

c. Teach Idioms and Other Hidden Curriculum

People with autism don’t automatically pick up the meaning of idioms. However, they are able to learn the meanings of idioms by direct teaching. “I’ve got the world by the tail” is an example of an idiom. Sometimes an autistic will automatically assign a literal meaning to an idiom and then assume everybody else shares that literal meaning because it makes sense to him! That is what I did in the above example using the idiom “I’ve got the world by the tail.”

How will you teach the meanings of idioms and other kinds of assumed social understanding, i.e. hidden curriculum?

Do you check for shared meaning when it comes to idiom usage and understanding?

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.

OTHER REFERENCES

Asberg, J., Dahlgren, S. O. and Dahlgren Sandberg, A.( 2008). Basic reading skills in high functioning Swedish children with autism spectrum disorders or attention disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 2, 95-109.

Asberg, J., Kopp, S., Ber-Kelly, K., & Gilberg, C. ( 2010) Reading cop Reading comprehension, word decoding and spelling in girls with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/ HD): performance and predictors. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 45, 61-71.

Minshew, N. J., Goldstein, G., Taylor, H. G. and Siegel, D. J. (1994) Academic achievement in high functioning autistic individuals. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 16, 261–270.

Myles, B. S., Hilgenfeld, T. D., Barnhill, G. P., Griswold, D. E., Hagiwara, T., & Simpson, R. L. (2002). Analysis of reading skills in individuals with Asperger Syndrome. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 17(1), 44-47.

Nation, K., Clarke, P., Wright, B. J. and Williams, C. (2006) Patterns of reading ability in children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 911 – 919.

Newman, T. M., Macomber, D., Naples, A. J., Babitz, T., Volkmar, F. and Grigorenko, E. L. (2007) Hyperlexia in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 760-774.

Originally written for and published by Ollibean on March 7, 2016.
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