Autism Changes the Way Kids

See the World

“Learning is rewiring your brain,” Rubin said. He likens the process to learning to play a musical instrument. “At the start, you don’t know anything about the instrument, let alone how to read music. But the more you practice, the more you’re able to play, and then, you can do it without looking at the music. You’ve created new pathways in your brain. Therapies are mechanisms for creating new pathways in the brain. Therapies use repetitious elements to help children learn, and one-on-one engagement helps them to relate to another person. The ultimate goal for learning is how to be independent and best function in society.”

Some schools incorporate specific classes into the instruction to help students with behavioral challenges. Cumberland Academy of Georgia integrates social and life skills into students’ schedules to teach how to interpret social cues, demonstrate appropriate social pragmatics and put them to practice. The day also begins with unstructured time to allow students to interact with each other, and kids can participate in sports and afterschool clubs for more engagement.

“The spectrum is just so wide range, but for some students, behaviors are more about frustration,” Scarborough said. “Some students get frustrated because they think they’re going to get it wrong, and they want to be perfect. Some may get frustrated at a noise in class that bugs them. You have to know what triggers the students and give them a break when needed. We teach them to learn coping skills, which is done in the social skills classes and with the counseling department.”

The school has seen success with the incorporation of academics and skills classes. “We had a 100% college acceptance rate in last year’s senior class,” she said. “We want to teach them to love to learn, and it’s important that they understand it.”

One misconception Scarborough deals with is that ASD relates to troubling behavior. “These are kids who cannot predict the intentions of others, because they don’t understand social cues,” she said.

Rubin explained ASD behaviors are often a reflection of the societal expectations we hold. “One of the characteristics of ASD is they do not make eye contact. That’s not totally true; it’s just that the quality of eye contact is different. These individuals may not make as good eye contact, because they think and learn differently. There’s a phenomenon in psychological evaluation called processing speed, which describes the speed with which you process information. For most children with autism, processing speed is one of the lowest scoring elements. It speaks to the difficulty of taking information in, making it work and being able to respond.”

Signs and Symptoms May Include:

Avoids or does not keep eye contact

Does not respond to name or show facial expressions by 9 months of age

Does not play simple interactive games, like pat-a-cake, by 12 months of age

Uses few or no gestures by 12 months of age

Does not share interests with others

Does not pretend in play

Shows little interest in peers

Has trouble understanding other people’s feelings

Exhibits restricted or repetitive behaviors

Reacting differently to an expected social norm can allow children with autism to keep their brains on track to whatever task or conversation is at hand.

Helping at Home

As a parent, understanding the special way your child thinks can help you to be more effective at teaching your child new skills and enforcing learning at home.

You can use visual systems at home to help your child, such as using graphs for tasks or chores. Visual schedules or timers may also help children with transitions. Break big tasks down into small, manageable steps to help your child understand how to get started and see that they are making progress.

Kids may seem distractible, because when they see an object, they are immediately drawn to it. Try to clear away distractions before beginning a learning activity. Some kids may have items they fixate on, such as trains or dinosaurs. It may help to incorporate these fixations into your activities, such as reading themed books or using toys to demonstrate numbers.

You may also need to provide explicit instruction for new skills. Learning new things you’ve never been taught is called implicit learning, but children with autism need more help with these types of tasks, such as reading body language, trying new foods or playing pretend. You can help by demonstrating how to do something.

To help with behavior, teach a selfcalming routine for your child to do right when they start to get frustrated, or even before they begin a challenging task.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Ask your child’s teacher or therapist what strategies they use with your child that you can implement at home.

“For parents, make learning meaningful to children,” Siller said. “There are opportunities in everyday activities to embed learning. On a walk, at the grocery store, getting dressed — there are lots of opportunities to embed communication and life skills in these routines. For children, we want them to be intrinsically motivated. We can help kids along the way with rewards, if we have expectations for children that we want to encourage. Be mindful of these expectations and give them feedback along the way that they’re on the right track.”

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