Teaching without Words

Since we know that people with autism don't process auditory information well, why is it that we persist in presenting concepts by explaining with words? Even written information is difficult for persons on the spectrum who may be hyperlexic, but have limited comprehension or reasoning abilities. Let's face it, for some people words just complicate things. And for the rest of us, we spend half our lives trying to figure out what was meant by someone else's words. Miscommunications abound in all interactions. Start thinking about the upcoming holidays, and most of us anticipate complications with family communications. It is all about words, inflection, symbolism and intentions.

So, maybe we should concentrate more on how this applies to our teaching. With so much new technology available, this is the time to take advantage of computers, iPads, AAC devices and use more visuals rather than words. In our Morgan Autism Center Model, we remind staff in our trainings to use visual schedules, pictures, illustrate what you want the student to understand. A repetition of what you just said to your student does not mean comprehension. Visually presenting the concept is typically the best way to achieve understanding.

I recently heard about a study at the UCDavis MIND Institute about teaching math without words. This is particularly exciting for educators to be able to access software designed for this very purpose. I am sure there are many other innovations out there just waiting to be discovered, so we need to explore and see what works best. Check out this post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7odhYT8yzUM.

The M.A.C. Conference

October 1 marked the 10^th anniversary of the Morgan Autism Center’s Annual Autism conference. And what a conference it was! The last 10 years have been a culmination of information on the latest medical and educational interventions, highlighting specific programs that have gained prominence to help educate people on their merits or shortfalls. To that end, the concentration has been primarily on early intervention and building social awareness. These are still topics well worth investigating, but while we are looking for ways to refine our interventions, the children are growing up. What to do then?

This year’s conference was full of excitement and energy, as our focus was on the transition years. After all the discreet trials, social skills training, and focus on eye contact of the early years, what skills are really important to help our students navigate the world? We had four very informative presentations; from Stephen Shore, talking about the Hidden Curriculum and its applications on participating in the community; Peter Gerhardt, presenting a very energetic view on how to get autistic people with serious behavior problems into the community successfully; James Ball, on the broader uses of ABA with adolescents and adults in expanding their behavioral repertoire; and Jamie Marshall, talking about how the very wonderful Boston Higashi School works with the transition age, through the development of specific routines and much physical activity.

These four were full of information on how to circumvent the difficulties of adolescence and the adult years. The common theme was to get those students out into the community as much as possible and help them experience to the best of their ability all the things we all like to do – use public transportation, go to restaurants, movies, shopping, etc. Practicing in a classroom just doesn’t cut it when the real world beckons us to do more.

To fill us in on the latest in medical interventions, we had Dr. Glen Elliott from Children’s Health Council. As usual, he presented clearly and specifically the choices of doctors in medicating people with autism, pointing out the pros and cons of each medication group and why some work better than others.

Then to explain Special Needs Trusts was Ellen Cookman from Gilfix and LaPoll, providing information so necessary for planning the future of people with disabilities.

And finally, Danielle Samson and Shannon Des Roches Rosa talked about the iPad and its application in the classroom and in the community. Theirs was a very app specific talk, which is exactly what parents and teachers want to know about. They also focused on the need to facilitate the use of apps with kids with autism, as the kids can very quickly thwart the underlying assumptions of the app and make it into just another stimming toy, thus loosing its learning potential.

All in all, a great day and we look forward to our next conference in 2012!