Tag Archives: visual routines

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, Visual Thinking and the Parking System

May 8, 2016Visual Supportsaccommodation, autism, Diversity, neurodiversity, neurology, visual routinesadmin

Many autistic people think visually. As a young child who thought visually I was often thought to be stubborn and insisting upon my own way when in reality I was merely trying to keep ahold of a thought. Today in my work I come in contact with many on the spectrum and see the same phenomenon at work. Let me explain with two examples:

Example Parking Objects: Every day Britt comes to school with a toy from home. It is very difficult for her to leave the toy in her cubby so she carries it with her. Sometimes this works out ok; other times it poses problems such as when the toy is large or makes noise or is something other children want to play with. Whenever someone attempts to put the toy in her cubby or elsewhere Britt falls to floor crying loudly and becomes inconsolable.

Britt is a visual thinker. When an object is out of site, it is as if it were lost forever because she can no longer see it. We placed a bright piece of construction paper placed by her cubby for Britt to use as a parking space. She put her toy in this garage and we took a picture. After printing it we held the picture next to the actual garage with the toy parked in it so Britt could see the picture was the same as the toy parked in the garage.

Next we played a game. We gave Britt the picture of Minnie Mouse in the garage to hold. We asked, “Where is Minnie Mouse?’ Britt could see both the real Minnie Mouse sitting in the garage and the picture of Minnie Mouse in the garage. Next we turned our back to the garage and asked, “Where is Minnie Mouse?” Britt could see the picture of Minnie Mouse in the garage. We increased the distance between the garage and Britt. As long as she was holding the picture she could see Minnie Mouse and know Minnie Mouse was in the garage.

In a few days the picture of toy in garage was printed smaller and attached to the bottom of Britt’s visual schedule. Britt did not yet understand to make the picture in her head, but this strategy has served her well for several months now because it supports her visual style of thinking, allowing her to be separated from favorite toys.

Example of Parking Thoughts: Each weekday morning Eli’s grandmother picked him up. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday she brought him to preschool. On Tuesday and Thursday they went to grandma’s house. Each morning at breakfast mom would tell Eli if it was a school day or a grandma’s house day. If Eli thought he was going one place and it turned out he was going the other place he had a meltdown and had trouble the rest of the day.

Eli is a visual thinker. When he thought he was going to grandma’s house and it was a preschool day he had no way to hold his thought – i.e., he had no where to put his visual thought for safe-keeping – until the time he needed to retrieve it. As a visual thinker, this meant he had to hold onto the picture of the activities he had in mind to do at grandma’s house until the next day when he could actually go to grandma’s house. In doing so he was unable to fully engage in today’s activities. Furthermore, everything he did in his today was a mismatch to the picture in his head (activities at grandma’s house). This mismatch precipitated intermittent crying and throwing of objects throughout the day.

This often happens with visual thinkers. When thoughts are pictures you need to keep seeing them in order to not forget them. Often this leads to behavior that doesn’t work well. In this case Eli was not able to engage in any of his school activities and spent time crying and throwing things. The whole time he was at school he talked about being at grandma’s house and what he was going to do at grandma’s house.

Eli had been using a daily visual schedule. Drawing on his familiarity, we used a small dry erase board, labeling it Another Day. I started drawing with a dry erase pen each of the things he talked about. For example, he talked about playing Candy Land, eating goldfish crackers, cheese and grapes and swinging outside at grandma’s house.

Once these things were drawn on the page labeled Another Day this page was placed next to his visual schedule. This allowed Eli to know he could return to his thoughts about what he would do at grandma’s house whenever he wished. He knew where to look. This meant he no longer had to keep the picture in his head. Thus, he was able to engage with the activities on visual school schedule. Periodically, he would go over his schedule, point to the dry erase board and “read” the pictures, reciting aloud what he would do Another Day at grandma’s house. Occasionally he would add a picture item. Thus, Eli learned a system for how to park a visual thought in a way that worked with his visual thinking. This allowed him to engage in the activities at hand because he knew he would not lose his thoughts and plans for grandma’s house.

Conclusion: There are many ramifications of thinking visually. Often, children on the spectrum can benefit when we understand how their thinking works and give them visual strategies compatible with thinking style. Always remember to consider the impact of visual thinking when unproductive behavior emerges.

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 5, 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.
To leave a comment at the end of this blog on the Ollibean site click here.

The Predictability, Pattern and Routine of Stimming

March 5, 2016Activism/Advocacy, Growing Up Autisticart, autism, autistic experience, Diversity, first person account, neurology, sensory, social, visual routinesadmin

The neurology of a person with autism does not automatically organize the world outside their skin. When we are able to organize the happenings in the world we usually do so differently than neuro majority people.

As a young child I saw over and over how light from the sun interacted with water particles rising from the ground and with water droplets in the air. This repeated experience became useful over time in that I learned the predictability of this occurrence. I also learned the effects of various factors (such as clouds, rain, air temperature, wind, etc.) had on impacting the interaction of sun brightness with air and ground moisture.

By the time I was old enough for kindergarten I had an extensive experiential knowledge of sun sparkles and thus could put myself into the picture of the sunlight in various circumstances. Because I had figured out the predictability and pattern I was able to attain mastery over the situation that once took me by surprise, causing unfavorable behavior reactions! With this newly found mastery I was able to become part of the world around me, as literally seen in these paintings that now include the little girl of me. (Paintings are at www.judyendow.com Please see Morning-Chirp Sun Girl, Night-Song Sun Girl and Cloud-Breath Sun Girl.)

I especially liked the moon sparkles. They were much less intense. I noticed the moon sparkles mostly by looking through the window as I lay on my bed at night. I learned the predictability of moon sparkles as one season gave way to another. I loved the predictable repeating pattern of sameness that I could see in so many ways as I watched the moon sparkles each night through my window (Paintings are at www.judyendow.com Please see Moon Sparkle Winter, Moon Sparkle Spring, Moon Sparkle Summer and Moon Sparkle Fall).

Painting is Moon Sparkle Spring
available in packs of 5 greeting cards
and 3 print sizes
under the Art Store tab at
www.judyendow.com

It was wonderful to have learned so many kinds of order to the world around me – an order I learned as I learned the pattern of sun sparkles and moon sparkles across the seasons.

I had many opportunities to gain mastery over the blinding sun sparkles due to the fact that children growing up in the 1950’s played outdoors for many hours a day. Every day I interacted with what I saw by repeatedly trying to catch the sparkles and tails my eyes could see all around me. Looking back, I am so glad I grew up then and not now because back then children had much more opportunity for imaginative play.

If I was a little girl growing up today and displayed the repetitive behaviors of catching sun sparkles and world tails it would likely be referred to as stimming and adults around me might try to stop the behavior. If that had happened I may never have sorted out the world by learning and using the various predictable patterns of atmospheric interaction between the elements of light and water. The behavioral stims of repeatedly trying to catch the sparkles and tails I could see, but were not seen by others, helped organize the world around me.

This was important because as an autistic I thrived on predictability, sameness and routine. I organized my world in an unusual way using predictable atmospheric interactions of light and water.

Before I had my world organized I experienced lots of confusion, chaos and change each day. It was unsettling and anxiety provoking. It caused me to want to sit still and only look at books for long periods of time when I was indoors. For some children this perception of constant confusion, chaos and change in the world can precipitate meltdown behaviors.

Often time behaviors that don’t work well in the world develop in response to the autistic perception of confusion, chaos and change. This is not intentional, planned or defiant behavior, but instead an unplanned reactive behavior.

The way to provide support to prevent an autistic from a repeat of this felt experience of confusion, chaos and change is to allow for a high degree of predictability, sameness and routine in his world. One of the ways we provide this for ourselves is through stimming. The repetitive nature of stims can be highly organizing. Regardless of the stim, it certainly provides a high degree of predictability, sameness and routine.

Most of the time stims are helpful and allow us to participate in life. For me, it helps to organize the world outside my skin because while stimming I am able to unravel the everyday ordinary barrage of sensory and social information that becomes overwhelming. I am so glad nobody stopped my stims when I was a little girl. It was simply thought of as playing outside when in reality I was busy at organizing the world – finding the predictability, pattern and routine outside my skin.

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 March 6, 2016.
To leave a comment at the end of this blog on the Ollibean site click here.

Autism, Visual Schedules and Prompting

November 22, 2015Visual Supportsautism, prompt dependency, prompting, transition, visual routinesadmin

Many autistic students, who have difficulty transitioning from one activity to another, benefit from using a visual schedule in the same interactive way for each transition. Visual schedules provide the means to implement the same transition routine each time the activity changes. Many teachers simply say, “Check your schedule” to signal when it is time for one activity to end and another to begin. Those words serve to initiate the transition routine which the student has learned to complete once initiated without further prompting.

When getting your student to use a schedule, whether it is a schedule with activities represented by real objects or one where activities are represented by pictures or by words, it is important to be mindful of the prompts you put in for the student. Before introducing anything new, think through how you want the student to ultimately engage in the activity.

Do you want the student to start only after you verbally prompt him? For example, when a student puts a picture from his schedule into the “all-done” pocket, if you want him to be in the habit of waiting to start the next subject, you would teach him to only start after you prompt him saying something like, “Look what’s next.” Some teachers do this because they need to check over work the student just completed before wanting him to move on to the next subject or task on the schedule, or they may need to get materials for the student to use in the next subject or task.

Do you want one prompt to initiate a whole sequence? It is most expedient to use one prompt such as “Get ready for the bus” to initiate the chain of events that is to occur when getting ready for the bus. Initially, the student may not know what getting ready for the bus entails. What often happens is that someone prompts the student each step of the way so as to offer support and to keep the student on track to ensure he is out the door to the bus on time. As a result, some students inadvertently learn to wait for the prompt each step of the way. To avoid this, it is helpful to provide a mini-schedule of pictures to show each step in getting ready for the bus. Then you can use one verbal prompt “Get ready for the bus” and use visuals for the student to track the process. Remember NOT to insert verbal prompts as you teach the student to follow the mini-schedule.

At the same time, when students are learning to follow the sequence of steps, you may need to repeatedly draw their attention to the visual. One way of doing this without speaking – and inadvertently creating a prompt – is to take the student’s finger, put it on the beginning of the picture sequence, and then when he is looking, move his finger through the pictures that represent steps he has already completed, stopping at the picture showing where he is in the sequence. This designates what he is to do next.

It may take several days or weeks for the student to learn this, but once learned, it will be a lifelong skill as we need to “get ready” for countless things and situations. Visuals can be used for the process of getting ready for several different things, such as getting ready for the day (self-care, getting dressed), getting ready for school (school clothes, lunch, backpack, jacket), and getting ready for bed (pajamas, brush teeth, story book). Adults get ready for work, for taking the car in for an oil change, for grocery shopping, etc. The fact is, we all “get ready” for many reoccurring events. All we are doing for our students is making that process visual, teaching it to them, and setting them up from the outset to be able to accomplish the entire process independently when we tell them, in this case, “Get ready for the bus.”

Do you want the student to need a prompt each step of the way? Occasionally you may want the student to wait for a prompt for each step of the way, such as on a field trip to a new place where you may not know exactly what will happen when. It then becomes helpful to the student to know that he can count on your prompt each step of the way. At the same time, it is helpful for you to know that the student will not do anything new until you prompt him to do so.

However, in most everyday situations it is not helpful for our students to need to be prompted each step of the way. Most everyday situations are repeated over and over, time after time. Typical students learn from repeated routine that when the teacher says, “Time for math,” she expects students to have their math book, math notebook, and pencil on their desk with everything else put away. However, our students with autism often need to be taught the routine directly as they do not pick up on routines in the same way typical students learn them.

It is natural for us to verbally prompt each step of the process and that is what is helpful and what works for most students. In fact, it works so well that we don’t even realize when we are doing it. Only when we prompt each step over and over more times than typically necessary for most students do we become frustrated. Verbally prompting each step of a sequence isn’t an expedient way for many students with autism to learn routines. In fact, this often results in the teacher exasperatedly exclaiming, “He is sooooo prompt dependent!” Just remember that for every prompt-dependent student, there has been a prompt-dependent teacher – rarely someone who set out to intentionally teach prompt dependency, but who never-the-less has taught his student well!

Often, educational assistants work with students with ASD. Since they often work with only one student, they end up talking to that student a lot, often using continuous verbal prompting in their well-intentioned attempt to be helpful to the student. Unfortunately, many students learn that the way to do any activity is to wait for the prompt each step of the way. In the end, they may not be able to use their visual schedule unless the teacher or assistant talks them through each and every step at every transition from one activity to the next. Before you start using any new visual with a student it is most important to know that visuals do not need to be narrated! In fact, narrating visuals often insures they are not nearly as helpful as they would have been had your verbiage not been inserted.

To avoid such counterproductive outcomes, it is important to think carefully of the prompts up-front, only putting in what is necessary rather than all of a sudden realizing that your student is not able to use his picture schedule unless you are prompting him each step of the way. It can be difficult to fade prompts, so it is best not to incorporate them in the first place. So, plan ahead. What do you want to ultimately happen when you say, “Check your schedule?”

– From Practical Solutions for Stabilizing Students With Classic Autism to Be Ready to Learn: Getting to Go.

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 November 19, 2015
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