Marcia Hamilton, M.A. CCC/SLP Ventura 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

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 Context Blindness 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 Functioning  Difficulty planning & organizing tasks  Difficulty monitoring one’s own performance  Difficulty inhibiting inappropriate responses  Difficulty utilizing feedback  Difficulty suppressing distracting stimuli

MEMORY, THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING Episodic Memory Experience Sharing Relative Thinking Weakness for Students with ASD Procedural Memory Instrumental Interaction Absolute Thinking

SOCIAL CHALLENGES  Literal Interpretation  Concrete – Black/White Thinkers  Decreased Flexibility

Deficits in Reading the Context 12 IMPLICATIONS FOR INSTRUCTION AND PROGRAM PLANNING A BCD A B 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 Procedural Memory Increased Anxiety & Fatigue

TEACHING CONTEXT 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) High Nuance Challenged Social Communicator (Includes SASC and WISC) Mild Emerging Social Communicators (ESC) Moderate Challenged Social Communicator (CSC) Low Significantly Challenged (SCSC) Flash Mob

Relationships Thoughts - Perspective Taking Social / Emotional Regulation FROM THE FOUNDATION

 Making Impressions  What we do  What we say  How we look and dress SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

IntentionBehaviorEffect Positive/Good Negative/Bad SOCIAL INTERACTIONS + --

IntentionBehaviorEffect Positive/Good Negative/Bad SOCIAL INTERACTIONS + -- BULLYING

IntentionBehaviorEffect Positive/Good Negative/Bad SOCIAL INTERACTIONS + -- TEASING

IntentionBehaviorEffect Positive/Good Negative/Bad SOCIAL INTERACTIONS + -- MISUNDERSTANDINGS

IntentionBehaviorEffect Positive/Good 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  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. speakingofspeech.com         

WEBSITES           search.php?t=5&key=bullying&sGradeLevel=100&sCurriculum= search.php?t=5&key=bullying&sGradeLevel=100&sCurriculum= 100

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