Flutterby™! : Autism & visual thinking 2014-03-17 18:52:37.267469+00

Autism & visual thinking

2014-03-17 18:52:37.267469+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

Superior Visual Thinking May Be Key to Independence for High Schoolers With Autism:

Researchers at UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) and UNC’s School of Education report that teaching independence to adolescents with autism can provide a crucial boost to their chances for success after high school.

“We explored many factors that contribute to the poor outcomes people with autism often experience,” said Kara Hume, co-principal investigator of FPG’s Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (CSESA). “It’s clear that teaching independence to students with autism should be a central focus of their activities in high school.”

The more I read how thinking on Autism Spectrum Disorders is evolving, the more I find myself on that spectrum...

I have a diagnosis of Adult ADD (not ADHD), but the truth is I am probably somewhere on that spectrum myself; somewhere towards the Aspberger's end, but without the funny walk. The thing is that, as an adult, I have managed to gain a LOT of coping skills that tend to mask the problem for anything but long- term interactions. This was not true of my childhood.

Charlene has been working with students in an autistic class, and is also a big fan of the processes of the "Option Institute", with methods that involve trying to understand why the students are behaving the way they are. Not just mimicking behaviors, but actually understanding why the autistic subjects are engaging in those behaviors, in order to find a common space to communicate.

As she describes some of these behaviors, I'm totally reminded of some of the things I was bullied about: Yes, I was standing there staring at that light because I was fascinated by the diffraction patterns, or repeating that motion over and over again because I was trying to "feel" it and didn't have the framework of calling it Tai Chi to excuse that behavior on.

I know I was diagnosed with a whole slew of learning disabilities sometime in high school, which I used largely as an excuse, but it'd be interesting to dig deeper into that now...