Education for those on the Autism spectrum: A problem of translation

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Education for those on the Autism spectrum A
problem of translation?

• Overview
• Background facts
• What is different about the ASD view of the
  world?
• Social understanding
• Non-social difficulties
• Psychological style
• Concluding thoughts

Dr Francesca Happé, Institute of Psychiatry,
Kings College London f.happe_at_iop.kcl.ac.uk
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Background facts

• 1 of the population may have an autism spectrum
  disorder (ASD)
• Diagnostic criteria Social impairment,
• Communicative impairment,
• Rigid/restricted behaviour and interests
• Includes autism, atypical autism, Aspergers
  syndrome
• Aspergers is part of autism spectrumbut mild
  autism is misleading
• Increase in numbers probably due to better
  recognition (still many grey cases never
  diagnosed?)
• What makes the differences between good and poor
  outcome?

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Aspergers view of prognosis

• Hans Asperger regarded the condition as akin to a
  personality
• trait, with good prognosis (in contrast to
  classic autism)
• special clear-sightedness
• in favourable casesexceptional achievements
• helplessness in the matters of practical life
• Obeying only spontaneous impulses and never
  paying attention to
• social demands may well lead to
  originality but will also lead to learning
  failure
• their closest relatives or spouses find them
  difficult to get on with
• work performance can be excellent, and with this
  comes social integration
• Asperger emphasised surprisingly good outcome for
  many young people, given the right help
• This knowledge determines our attitude
  towards complicated individuals of this and other
  types. It also gives us the right and the duty to
  speak out for these children with the whole force
  of our personality

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What are the obstacles to learning?

• A problem of translation between two different
  worlds?
• What neurotypicals do, say and value often
  seems nonsensical to those with ASD syndrome
• What people with ASD do and say often puzzles
  those around them
• Mutual misunderstanding leads to anxiety,
  frustration, low self-esteem, anger or depression

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What is different about the ASD view of the
world? I. Social understanding

• Theory of mind recognising others thoughts,
  beliefs, desires
• putting yourself in another
• persons shoes
• Mind-blindness may explain e.g. social
  interest but difficulty, over-literal
  communication, apparently callous behaviour

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• Neurotypicals learn through social interaction
• orient to others eye gaze, pointing, etc
• interested in what others find interesting
• infer thoughts/feelings behind actions
• imitate others actions
• Paying attention to and learning from others
  becomes second-nature

• People with ASD are typically less interested in
  others
• may look less at faces (dont look and listen)
• interested in what they find interesting
• not motivated by social rewards
• interaction may be puzzling/frightening
• Figuring out what others think/feel is hard work

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Understanding emotions

• Reading minds and empathising may be
• distinct abilities
• Difficulty knowing what others are feeling
• is NOT the same as not caring about others
  feelings
• Our study of callous/unemotional traits showed
  these are unrelated to ASD severity although a
  double hit can occur

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What is different about the ASD view of the
world? II. Non-Social difficulties

• Many people with ASD have difficulty
• planning ahead
• controlling impulsive behaviour
• shifting between tasks
• dealing with the unexpected
• Often it is difficulties with practicalities of
  life that limit integration, even with very high
  intelligence

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What is different about the ASD view of the
world? III. An eye for detail
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Extraordinary eye for detail in ASD

• Superior abilities include
• skills in music, maths, art...
• excellent memory for facts...
• jigsaw puzzle and other spatial skills...
• Perfect pitch, attention to details (miss the
  whole?)
• Distress at tiny changes?

Research on special abilities in typical or ASD
children f.happe_at_iop.kcl.ac.uk
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Eye for detail and learning?
Whats cow?
Reading a story or reading a list?
What does the person with ASD see?
Teaching zooming out?
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Concluding thoughts

• The ASD learner sees the world in a very
  different way
• Cant assume high intelligence understanding
• Mind-blindness is a major challenge to social
  integration
• Anxiety hampers learning - and may be hard to
  recognise
• Process of translation can we respect the
  difference?
• Challenging children, vulnerable children,
  valuable children

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