Different Types of Thinking in Autism by Temple Grandin
Recent studies on the brain, and especially the brains of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), are shedding light on the physiological underpinnings of our thoughts and emotions. We are gaining a better understanding of how neuropathways are formed and the extent to which biology influences behavior.
All minds of the autism spectrum are detail-oriented, but how they specialize varies. By questioning many people both on and off the spectrum, I have learned that there are three different types of specialized thinking:
1. Visual thinking – Thinking in Pictures, like mine
2. Music and Math thinking
3. Verbal logic thinking
Since autism is so variable, there may be mixtures of the different types. The importance of understanding these three ways of thinking comes into play when trying to teach children with ASDs. Strategies that build on the child’s area of strength and appeal to their thinking patterns will be most effective. This is most likely to become evident between the ages of five and eight. In children younger than five, it is often difficult to identify their strengths yet, unless savant skills are unfolding.
More detail : The Way I See It by Temple Grandin – Different Types of Thinking in Autism
Don’t Mourn for us by Jim Sinclair
Parents often report that learning their child is autistic was the most traumatic thing that ever happened to them. Non-autistic people see autism as a great tragedy, and parents experience continuing disappointment and grief at all stages of the child’s and family’s life cycle.
But this grief does not stem from the child’s autism in itself. It is grief over the loss of the normal child the parents had hoped and expected to have. Parents’ attitudes and expectations, and the discrepancies between what parents expect of children at a particular age and their own child’s actual development, cause more stress and anguish than the practical complexities of life with an autistic person.
Some amount of grief is natural as parents adjust to the fact that an event and a relationship they’ve been looking forward to isn’t going to materialize. But this grief over a fantasized normal child needs to be separated from the parents’ perceptions of the child they do have: the autistic child who needs the support of adult caretakers and who can form very meaningful relationships with those caretakers if given the opportunity. Continuing focus on the child’s autism as a source of grief is damaging for both the parents and the child, and precludes the development of an accepting and authentic relationship between them. For their own sake and for the sake of their children, I urge parents to make radical changes in their perceptions of what autism means.
More detail: DON’T MOURN FOR US by Jim Sinclair
Change the way you look at
“when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”
– Wayne Dyer
Admiring Autism: Busting ‘autism myths’ with a camera
Sara Dunn said her son is a “sensory seeker” who needs to touch everything around him
Since her young son was diagnosed as autistic, Sara Dunn has been attempting to help “challenge the myths surrounding autism” with a camera. The photographer has been documenting her experiences with her son and other families affected by autism through photography.
Ms Dunn, 27, from Chester, stays with families for 48 hours to take images and wants to stage a public exhibition of her work, Admiring Autism.
“Some people have said to me they don’t believe in autism, my son’s just a naughty child. I’ve been told autistic children don’t know how to love. They do,” she said.
“Usually these children are having very complex sensory experiences and they’re in distress, with some adults perceiving it as misbehaving. It’s pretty scary.”
Ms Dunn and her fiancé have a two-year-old son called Frank. After initially wondering if he was deaf, a doctor then mentioned autism.
“We thought we would have a fight on our hands by all the horror stories you hear about diagnosis taking years, but it was easy with Frank due to the severity of his needs”, she said.
By the time he was 23 months old he was diagnosed as autistic.
The paediatrician told Ms Dunn it was the “first time she had diagnosed a child under two with the condition”.
“It was really hard, I’m quite optimistic about it now but at the time I kind of grieved – it was a fork in the road”, she explained.
Following the diagnosis, she decided to start taking photos of Frank to help her cope.
“I did it initially to remind myself that there are good days and there are small achievements. Before I knew it I also wanted to photograph the bad days to show the professionals involved”, she said.
“Through the photography, I’ve realised the small triumphs that he has. More regular eye contact, more hugs, starting to understand simple commands like ‘bath’ or ‘juice’, it’s a good reminder of how enjoyable these children are.”
She added the images helped her manage “Frank’s meltdowns and when he hits me”.
After posting her images on social media, other families around the UK started to get in touch to say they were also going through a similar experience.
She then decided to find out about “other people’s ups and downs of autism” by staying with other families
From BBC News Admiring Autism: Busting ‘autism myths’ with a camera
How a young disabled people dealt with bullies
Research shows disabled children are much more likely to be bullied. Three young people who were once victimised tell their stories and share tips on tackling the problem.
This year’s Anti Bullying Week has been asking schools to give particular attention to children with disabilities or special educational needs. The organisation behind the campaign, the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), has published new research on attitudes to disablist language this week and cites other recent research which shows eight out of 10 children with learning disabilities have been bullied, and that disabled children at primary school are 50% more likely to be victimised.
Rebecca was at the receiving end of bullying. She explain how she got through it in the hope that her stories will help those having trouble now.
‘Speak up’
More than 90% of parents of children with Asperger Syndrome told the ABA that their child had been bullied in the past 12 months. Rebecca Parkin is 17 and has the condition. She was bullied regularly from the age of six until recently, when becoming a campaigning voice for others in her situation boosted her confidence. Rebecca says she was an “easy victim” for bullies. “I rarely spoke to anyone. I was really shy and kept to myself, even saying hello to someone was really difficult for me,” she says.
The problems began in primary school, where she was called names and excluded from friendship groups, but she describes high school as “a living hell”. “I was called fat, crazy, weird, stupid, ugly. When I was about 12 a gang of 16-year-olds came up to me in a park and tried setting my hair on fire. In school I got hit and tripped up, I had food and water thrown on me. One day a boy cornered me and said he was going to find me after school and kill me. I also got abuse online and someone set up a fake account on YouTube in my name so people could leave nasty comments on my videos.”
Rebecca was so badly affected that she began self-harming and needed help from mental health services. Things only changed for the teenager when she managed to speak up about what was happening to her. She says that she bugged teachers “until they did something about it” and that helping others in the same situation taught her that “you need to speak up so things will change”.
“I know it’s hard but if you can’t vocalise what’s wrong, write it down or draw it,” says Rebecca. “Do whatever you can to show how you are feeling and what is going on.”
From BBC News – How three young disabled people dealt with bullies
What is autism?
Individuals with autism have less activity in the amygdala (shown in red), which plays a key role in processing emotions
Autism and Asperger syndrome are part of a range of conditions known as autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). They affect the way the brain processes information.
Autism is a developmental disorder that can cause problems with social interaction, language skills and physical behaviour. People with autism may also be more sensitive to everyday sensory information.
To people with the condition the world can appear chaotic with no clear boundaries, order or meaning.
The disorder varies from mild to so severe that a person may be almost unable to communicate and need round-the-clock care.
Research has revealed that people with autism have brains that function in a number of different ways to those without the condition.
One recent study suggested that people with autism tend to have far more activity in the part of the brain called the amygdala when looking at other people’s faces. The over-stimulation of this part of the brain that deals with new information may explain why people with autism often have difficulty maintaining eye-contact.
Specific nerve cells in the brain, called neurones, also act differently in people with autism. Mirror neurones help us mimic useful behaviour so we can learn from others.
Brain imaging studies suggest that the mirror neurones in people with autism respond in a different way to those without the disorder.
This could partly explain what many behavioural studies have already shown – that children with autism can find it difficult to copy or learn simple behaviours from others. Scientists have suggested with social interaction could have a knock-on effect on language learning.
From BBC Science – What is autism?
Isolated in a box for 100 hours to raise awareness on autism
Shop worker Hayley Bicker wanted to raise awareness about autism after feeling shocked at people’s reaction to an autistic child in a supermarket.
She decided to lock herself in a glass box for 100 hours to raise awareness of a condition that leaves some people feeling isolated from the world.
Breaking Autism’s Barriers: A Father’s Story
On autism and disability: Bill and Chris Davis’s interview of FAR FROM THE TREE by Andrew Solomon
Bill Davis is the father of Chris, who has autism. Breaking Autism’s Barriers: A Father’s Story chronicles Bill’s fight to overcome the physical, emotional, public, educational, and therapeutic obstacles to his son’s disorder. Few books about autism have been written from a father’s perspective. None so effectively walks the reader through each moment of a family’s experience. It is an honest, direct account from a father’s point of view of bringing up a child with autism, and the pressures and pleasures this brings to him, his wife Jac and his daughter Jessica. Now a leading autism advocate, Bill Davis gives advice and support to families trapped in a frustrating, unyielding system. Every facet of daily life with autism – including potty-training, aggression, marriage, family support, and finances – is discussed, with humour and realism. Breaking Autism’s Barriers gives useful information to help parents jump the hurdles necessary to get a diagnosis, effective education, skilled therapists, and funding. Professionals will gain great insight on how to work better with families struggling with autism. And families will take comfort in knowing they are not alone, and be inspired by an ordinary man like Bill who is overcoming autism’s obstacles
From Amazon – Breaking Autism’s Barriers: A Father’s Story
Parents Magazine – Autism: “Don’t Ignore My Son!”
Genius is an abnormality, too
“Genius is an abnormality, too.”
—Temple Grandin
INTO THE MIND 