Growing PerspectiveLEARNING STRATEGIES

By JC Ellinger

THE CHALLENGES OF PERSPECTIVE-TAKING FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH AUTISM ARE A KNOWN CHARACTERISTIC.

A REVIEW BY AMY PEARSON ET AL. PUBLISHED IN FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE DEFINES PERSPECTIVE-TAKING AS “…THE ABILITY TO SEE THE WORLD FROM ANOTHER PERSON’S PERSPECTIVE, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT WHAT THEY SEE AND HOW THEY SEE IT.”

So why exactly is perspective-taking a challenge for individuals with autism? Well, the ability to complete this task requires a particular cognitive process that is neurologically difficult for them to access as it involves one representation, whether visual or auditory, but asks for the individual to execute “two differing points of view” regarding the singular input. In other words, we are asking them to process what they hear or see but translate an interpretation from a perspective that is different than their own, polar to their natural understanding.

This is not an easy task for individuals on the autism spectrum, but the more experiences we, as parents and caregivers, can expose them to, the greater their access to a broader perspective. Let your child gain perspective by allowing them to gain tangible experiences through their own senses.

My son, T, is now in middle school, and the social situations and questions he asks have become a bit more complicated to explain to him than before. So when these moments surface, I find myself leaning on examples to which he can relate.

One example is an unforgettable day trip initiated by my son, who offered me the “challenge” of driving across as many bridges as possible. We live in the Central Valley of Northern California—within a one-hour drive of San Francisco. So, against my innate preference for having a plan, my son and I drove the open road, merging from one major intersection to the next, with no exact itinerary. As a result, he saw how fortune cookies were made authentically by hand, ate one of the best-tasting hotdogs (that he still brings up two years later), and can recollect the eight variations of architectural ingenuity in the bridges all across the Bay Area. His memories of the experience can now act as a point of reference.

Scenarios that require perspective-taking are limitless and range in different contexts for social and academic purposes. Understandably, when your autistic child reveals a clueless face in their effort to understand what does not make sense to them, you may feel at a loss over how to help.

As parents and caregivers, we can help our children create denser cognitive pathways toward understanding different perspectives by guiding them to broaden what they DO know and what they CAN relate to. We need only rely on the resource of your child’s memory and experiences.

For example, my son is reading a book about perseverance and grit. He mentions to me that the book contains a story about a climber’s experience ascending Mount Everest. Naturally, he has no direct climbing experience, nor does he feel he can relate to the obstacles encountered in climb - ing a mammoth mountain such as Mount Everest. His difficulty connecting to the story hinders his ability to answer critical-thinking-type questions that ask him to take in the perspective of the climber.

So, what experiences does my son share with the character that might spark his relational understanding? How can he be guided towards feeling connection to the climber in his book? To help him achieve this, I pull from his encyclopedia of life experiences: “T, do you remember the first hike we took in Yellowstone to Fairy Falls? Remember how long the hike seemed, but you continued walking not knowing what the end would bring us? Sometimes we know the journey, hike, or climb, can be challenging, but we go anyway because we hope the outcome will be that much more triumphant. And with that hope, we keep trekking forward, right? That’s exactly what you did, which made the view and the fun of playing in the waterfall even more spectacular.”

More experiences bring exposure to a wider variety of emotions, which contributes to helping individuals with autism elevate a simple memory to one of deeper connection. It is also said amongst researchers, as noted by a piece written by Tsunemi et al., that “social perspective-taking can influence many elements of the academic experience and that students that get higher grades also tend to be more motivated and more accurate in perspective-taking.”

Instead of limiting your child’s main source of perspective to stories in books or movies, take their hand and help them create their own stories. Try a new experience and awaken a unique sensory experience together because the more you can introduce them to nuanced aspects of the world, the more tools they will have in their mental arsenal for broadening how they can connect with others. Guide them to seeing through a wider lens.

So, what story will you help your child write next?

Resources:

Paton, Priscilla. “Temple Grandin and the Neuroscience of Empathy.” JAC, vol. 33, no. 1/2, 2013, pp. 352–63. JSTOR, http://www. jstor.org/stable/43854556. Accessed 23 Dec. 2022.

Pearson, Amy, Danielle Ropar, and Antonia F. de C. Hamilton. “A review of visual perspective taking in autism spectrum disorder.”

Frontiers in human neuroscience, vol. 7, 2013, pp. 652.

Tsunemi, Kohei, et al. “Intensive exposure to narrative in story books as a possibly effective treatment of social perspective-taking in schoolchildren with autism.” Frontiers in psychology, vol. 5, 2014, pp. 2.

JC Ellinger brings life stories and experiences as an autism mom to publications such as Exceptional Needs Today and Autism Parenting Magazine. She is currently working on her first children’s book geared at bringing relatability and support to other ASD children just like her amazing son. JC carries an MBA from Regis University and a BA in Communications from CSU Long Beach. Now, she is returning to graduate school to add an MA in English to her resume and spread her love of writing to young minds.

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