Marcia Hamilton, M.A. CCC/SLPVentura County Office of Education

November 3, 2012

UNIQUE CHALLENGES IMPACTING SOCIAL

SKILLS

ANTHROPOLOGISTS ON EARTH

Individuals on the Autism Spectrum are like

anthropologists because…

Living in a Relative World

No Absolutes

Meaning is Context Dependent

Context Blindness

Understanding Autism from Within

AUTISM FRIENDLINESS

CONTEX

STIMULUS

Meaning Meaning Meaning

4

CONTEXT BLINDNESS

Basketball Passes

• Neuro-Typicals• Gestalt - Whole

• Similarities (Categorization)

• Generalization

• 90% Subconscious

• Faster than a blink of an eye

• Simultaneous Bottom-Up & Top Down

• Context Blindness (ASD)• Details

• Differences

• Difficulty with Generalization

• 100% Conscious

• Slow Processing

• Primarily Bottom-Up

5

PROCESSING THE CONTEXT

Context Blindness as the Common Pathway Vermeulen, 2007

INFLUENCE OF CONTEXT BLINDNESS ON OTHER THEORIES

Theory of Mind

Central Cohesion

Executive Function

SOCIAL CHALLENGE

Making accurate guesses about what others are experiencing, thinking & feeling – Surprise, surprise!!

SOCIAL CHALLENGES

Difficulty choosing the most salient information

We ignore most of our environment and are picking up clues that tell us what to do next

Difficulty rating the best response & navigating subtleties

SOCIAL CHALLENGES

Issues with Executive FunctioningDifficulty planning & organizing tasks

Difficulty monitoring one’s own performance

Difficulty inhibiting inappropriate responses

Difficulty utilizing feedback

Difficulty suppressing distracting stimuli

MEMORY, THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING

EpisodicMemory

ExperienceSharing

RelativeThinking

Weakness for Students with ASD

Procedural Memory

InstrumentalInteraction

Absolute

Thinking

SOCIAL CHALLENGES

Literal Interpretation

Concrete – Black/White Thinkers

Decreased Flexibility

Deficits in Reading the Context

12

IMPLICATIONS FOR INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM PLANNING

Episodic Memory

Procedural Memory

SOCIAL CHALLENGES

Solve social situations through deduction & sequence rather than using inferential reasoning & formal logic

Social happens too fast

Different social currency

Let’s go shopping

Due to Context Blindness, processing style, and problem solving skills

ANXIETY & FATIGUE

Context Blindness

Stronger Procedur

al Memory

Increased Anxiety & Fatigue

TEACHINGCONTEXT VS. SKILL

SOCIAL SKILLS

Most children acquire social skills through learning that involves observation, modeling, coaching, social problem solving, behavior rehearsal, feedback, and reinforcement-based strategies (Gresham & Elliot, 1990).

SOCIAL THINKING-SOCIAL COMMUNICATION PROFILE (ST-SCP) (WINNER, 2011)

Flash Mob

FROM THE FOUNDATION

Making Impressions

What we do

What we say

How we look and dress

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

Intention Behavior Effect

Positive/Good Positive/Good

Negative/Bad Negative/Bad

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

+

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Intention Behavior Effect

Positive/Good Positive/Good

Negative/Bad Negative/Bad

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

+

--

BULLYING

Intention Behavior Effect

Positive/Good Positive/Good

Negative/Bad Negative/Bad

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

+

--

TEASING

Intention Behavior Effect

Positive/Good Positive/Good

Negative/Bad Negative/Bad

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

+

--

MISUNDERSTANDINGS

Intention Behavior Effect

Positive/Good Positive/Good

Negative/Bad Negative/Bad

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

+

--

UNSUCCESSFUL BULLYING

Specific type of aggression Physical Verbal Written Backhanded Psychological (isolation, rumors, intimidation, exclusion, non-verbal) Absurd Information

Behavior is intended to harm and have negative affect on another

Negative action gets immediate or delayed negative reaction

There is an imbalance of power

Carried out repeatedly &/or over time

WHAT IS BULLYING

Why do people choose to be a Bully? Power & Control Social Climber Revenge Anger Racial/Intolerance Entertainment

Perceived benefits of bullying Popularity Inclusion Illusion of Power

Provocative Victim

BULLIES

Education Code Section 48900

Assembly Bill 1156 – July 1, 2012

LAWS & BULLYING

Neurological differences in perceiving, processing and responding for individuals with ASD Cognition & Language Skills Context Blindness

Theory of Mind Executive Functioning Central Cohesion

Self Regulation – Emotionality Concrete Reasoners Literal Interpretations Stereotypic Interests &

Behaviors Resistance to Controls Obsession to Maintain

Sameness Extreme Withdraw

Motivations to Bully Power & Control Social Climber Revenge Anger Racial/Intolerance Entertainment

WHY IS MY CHILD AT RISK

WEBSITES

www. speakingofspeech.com www.school.askacop.org/schoolbullies.htmlhttp:/www.facs.pppst.com/bullying.htmlhttp:/http://www.nsteens.org/Videoswww.do2learn.com/sitemap/index.htmhttp:/www.changingminds.org/explanations/emotions/emotionswww.autism4teachers.com/autism4teachers_016.htmhttp:/www.pbskids.org/itsmylife/index.www.cfchildren.org/programs/ssp/ms/msvideo/http://www.cccoe.net/social/skillslist.htm

WEBSITES

www.cccoe.net/social/directorywww.jillkuzma.wordpress.comwww.thegraycenter.org/www.autismteachingtools.comwww.elearning.autism.net/visuals/main.php?g2_itemId=524http://www.aapcpublishing.net/ http://www.do2learn.com/JobTIPS/index.htmlhttp://9thplanet.org/index.htmlhttp://learninglab.org/life_skills/http://zunal.com/index-search.php?

t=5&key=bullying&sGradeLevel=100&sCurriculum=100

QUESTIONS