Autism and the Seeds for Change

Functioning Fully in Life

Today I want to look at the concept of change. Change being ‘something becoming something else’. 

Change can be one of the biggest challenges for those with autism as we saw with the little girl in the 'broken cheeseburger' story. However it is an essential part of our daily life, which needs to be understood. Without having the basic understanding of change, there is no foundation to understand before/after/cause and effect and without that we find ourselves with the inability to plan and predict. 

Change is a natural law it is something that is around us all the time - it is happening all of the time, whether we are involved in it or not. Can you imagine how chaotic life would seem if you did not have an awareness of this concept? It would feel as if you were living in a random set of events of which you had no control over and no idea of what could happen next or why it happened. 

One of the earliest concepts we do in the Davis Autism Approach is to look at change quite simply being ‘something becoming something else’. For example: the burger was whole now it is cut into two pieces, the cup was full and now it is empty; the weather was fine and now it is raining. We explore these ideas by making them in plastalina clay giving a real life example on the table to talk about and explore. Then we can look at it in the environment. At this time we do not explore the how or why it happened, that comes later. Now we just look at change... you will be surprised how simple but powerful this concept can be.

For more information on functioning fully in life with autism go to www.davisautism.com

Seeing with your imagination!

Where did the idea come from?

See the round pizza-like clay on the desk? It started there. The idea of seeing-thought that is!

My friend sliced a section from the bottom of the pizza then cut it into mini-slices, also on the desk.

At first glance I thought we were having a lesson in fractions. (and it definitely could have been!)

The creative sauce just kept flowing; he added piece, after triangular piece, to the central hunk of clay. In a flash, the former pizza-like shape transformed into a cartoon figure.

"Ever hear of Lilo and Stitch?" he asked before he was right back into his imaginative work.

As he shaped the clay a steady procession of figures paraded across my desk. Some existed only briefly before they were mashed-up, others stuck around for a radical transformation.

Hummm. What to make...I know!

See the ball of clay in my friend's hand? It didn't stay round for long!

To be clear, this wasn't a lesson in clay therapy.  We were actually working on the Davis Identity Program and were transitioning from the concept of Perception (what you see) to Thought (what you think).  Earlier we'd looked at things around us.  Sometimes we saw things the same way, sometimes differently--like the sky outside on the cloudy day.

Then the figures began.

"Where did you get your ideas for your figures? I asked"

"Some from cartoons. Some of them come from my imagination." he told me.

Stay tuned! Here's the beginning of thought!

From there I began to understand that the central idea for the characters came from more than one source. His ideas started with imaginary creatures from books, movies and cartoons but I also saw how he changed them in a flash to the next figure.

When I asked if these could all be part of the imagination, he said no.

"No. Once you make something for real, then it's not imagination anymore." he said.

And so I began to understand his idea of what real-imaginary-thought was as he worked the clay.

The line-up of characters across my desk that began with the frog were to showcase thought.  Next we'll add a model of self, with a thought-bubble showing just what he was thinking about but for now I want to leave it to your imagination to think about seeing-imagination.

For more information on the Davis Autism Approach go to:

www.onpointlearning.org
http://www.davisautism.com/what_daa.html

There's a price to pay when we force employees into roles that highlight their weaknesses.

"While we're busy trying to fix ourselves and others, we often minimize or completely overlook our most powerful asset--our strengths."

"Strengths are a person's innate talents, things they do well naturally. Every person has them, and when identified, nurtured and channeled appropriately, they can have a dramatic effect on job satisfaction and bottom-line performance."

"Indeed, research suggests that the most successful people start with a dominant talent and then add skills, knowledge and practice into the mix. In other words, we stand a greater chance of success if we build on our authentic selves--who we already are--beginning with our innate strengths."

"Perhaps even more significantly for employers, a powerful connection exists between employees' levels of engagement and the extent to which they maximize their strengths on the job." 

"But as BBN found out, there's a price to pay for trying to force employees into roles that highlight their weaknesses and don't play to their strengths."*

Yes, the selection above was written about business. But I ask you: doesn't it make sense to follow these same principles in education? If using your strengths translates directly to success in business wouldn't the concept of using our strengths in learning also apply? 

Do you know a visual-spatial learner? (We could also use the terms hands-on-learner, picture-thinker, dyslexic or dyslexic-like learner here as well.) 

Dyslexics have a magical talent, a mysterious power that can be launched at any given moment. But from minute to minute that talent may seem to disappear at will; seemingly vanishing into thin air! Their ability to read from a book that they truly love and are highly interest in can be wonderful, while at the same time they can barely lift the cover of a book they're not interest in. (Forget about asking them to read from the uninteresting book!)

If you've ever tried to teach a child who is a strong picture-thinker how to read you know exactly what I'm talking about! Picture thinkers can tell you word-for-word what they read when it's about their favorite subject. But the same person has no clue about what they read, when expected to read something that's not interesting to them.  

My husband reads any material -fiction or non-fiction- and reads it easily, when it's about something he loves, like computers...stuff I know nothing about. That's about it, though. Outside of that area he is basically a non-reader. 

Couldn't we say that the goal in educating someone is to provide them with an opportunity to be successful in life?  By giving someone the tools they need to continue acquiring necessary information wouldn't we be supporting their quest for self-sufficiency?

The other day I assessed a six year-old. He can write in cursive, mentally compute multiplication facts accurately and build Lego projects designed for children more than twice his age. He's six! Here's what his mother, Michelle, had to say: 

The theory is that the same dis-orientation that allows him to see in 3-D prevents him from reading & writing in 2-D.  The remedy is to re-orient the mind’s eye.  How complexly simple is that! As for my son, he gets to meet with Cathy to talk about his imagination and play with clay.  He thinks it’s kind of cool.

Simple. Yes, let's make it simple for picture-thinkers to learn how to read. 

Going back to the Forbes article, the last statement "...there's a price to pay for trying to force employees into roles that highlight their weaknesses and don't play to their strengths." 

This applies to learning as well.  Michelle nailed it when she said we'd talk about imagination, playing with clay, and that it is pretty cool!

*http://www.forbes.com/2011/04/27/employer-employee-focus-on-strengths-not-weaknesses.html

For more information on OnPoint Learning and the Davis methods go to http://onpointlearning.org/

"You're wasting my time," and 'Where's my swimming suit?'

Swimming suits, cake, dyslexia. They go together, right? YES! At least that's a recent discovery of mine!

I thought I was prepared for the assessment one day a while back. Little did I know that I would have to depend on the quiet, intuitive feeling I've learned to listen to, to save me. That feeling was the first thing that greeted me as I moved into the lobby to greet my client and his mother. 

I did the usual first-time-meeting thing, keeping in mind the words of former Davis Workshop Presenter Gerry Grant, to make sure you greet the child well, as I stepped into the lobby to welcome mother and child on this day.

I introduced myself and was about to give them the business center tour when...

"I want to go home. This is wasting my time."

...abruptly interrupted me. 

Up to this point my ability to understand my new friend's words had been a bit difficult, but "I want to go home, you're wasting my time" came through loud and clear!

"Okay, at least he's being honest" I thought to myself.  I flew into ad lib mode balancing humor and the intention to move on, and we did, move on that is! Humor won out, though, at that point. 

Once we were settled into my office I posed the question:

"If I handed you this pencil, which hand would you write with?" I asked.

"Both hands." he said. 

Not only were those words said with lots of emotion but he shot another "You're wasting my time" look at me. Out of the corner of my eye I could see his mom shake her head, indicating his statement wasn't correct.

"Thank you! Now, if you had your choice would you like to eat cake or pizza?" I next asked.

Another look flew at me! But happily he answered me with "chocolate cake WITH white icing."

Whew, saved by the cake!

The suggestion of cake with scrumptious fluffy, white icing caused both of us to have a lovely image of cake floating through our minds!

But the assessment? After all, this young man was here to be assessed for a Davis Dyslexia Correction Program. What would you expect at this point? If you guessed the assessment was a bit difficult I could see why you'd have that response.

What happened were things could not have gone better! As the assessment concluded I told him to keep his eyes closed as long as it felt comfortable. He did. When his eyes fluttered open a few minutes later he calmly looked around the room, carefully surveying the scene.

Gone was the 'let me out of here' agitated look.  Instead, the door to his imaginary world had been flung open and I was greeted with the feeling of a vivid world inside his imagination.

Instead of a person who couldn't wait to go home, before me now, was someone who couldn't wait to start working!  

I asked him questions like did he have a problem, was there something he wanted to get better at.... He went into detail explaining things he wanted help with --reading, math, focusing. But I had one more question: 

"Would you like to work with me?" 

I followed his eyes as my words sifted and shifted through his mind.  He paused. Silently he glanced upward, then casually to his right. He muttered and sputtered sounds that were not audibly understandable and with an awkward pause he said, 

"...um...no."

Case closed? I was quickly thinking about what direction to go when he calmly interjected-- 

"I didn't bring my swimming suit!" 

"Your swimming suit?" I asked, dumbfounded. 

"Yes, I don't want my mom to have to travel back and forth from our town. We need to stay at the hotel across the road and I didn't bring my swimming suit, so I won't be able to swim."

My goodness! 

What a transformation.  The masterful concepts of the Davis Perceptual Abilities assessment had not only magically fulfilled its job but had transformed this child into a cooperative soul. 

Now he was going to stay...but we have to have a swimming suit!

I remembered the intuitive thought that had quietly drifted into my mind as I'd first approached him in the lobby and knew that it had been right on. 

For more information look at www.dyslexia.com or www.onpointlearning.org  

Dear Aunt Marge...deep into my mind, see I got a treasury...

I dive deep into my mind, see I got a treasury; That float through my head like a sweet melody...

Vincent van Gogh's drawing (to the left), on his book of drawings and paintings, sent a sweet melody to me recently when I decided to bring it home (it's been in storage at my dad's for years!)

...faces that are woven in the fabric of my consciousness...-Talib Kweli, Memories Live Lyrics

The person in the center of this picture has been forever woven into the fabric of my consciousness. She was, she is, and she forever will be my childhood hero -her name was Marjorie Phillips Greener; AKA: my Great Aunt Marge. Van Gogh's book was something she purchased at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. I know because she lovingly wrote these details inside the book, after her Temple University European tour in 1962.  The tour brought together Aunt Marge's love for music and her love of art as she toured the great museums, churches, art galleries and universities of Europe. 

When my decorating gene spontaneously revved up the other day, I flew into high gear with ideas for that van Gogh book. After I spun through a few pages I quickly landed on painting #94. Hmmm...Number 94 looked strangely familiar. Without hesitating, I cruised into the next room to find a print that hangs on my den wall. I didn't know exactly what I would find.  Were there similarities? 

Not only were there similarities between #94 and the picture on my wall, they were the same (with a color shading difference)!

Unbelievable! The picture back cover of a Reader's Digest that I'd saved for some 30 years had recently been designated to a glass frame in our den.  I'd saved it because -well, maybe it was the coloring, or the impressionist painting style, or because it caused a sweet melody to float through my mind? 

Over 50 years ago Aunt Marge bought that van Gogh book; about 30 years ago I found van Gogh's painting on the back of a magazine; today they've come together! 

#94 Peach-tree in bloom,
Arles, France, 1888.

Aunt Marge is still a superstar to me. To this day her laughter easily plays in my mind's ear. I can still sense her mannerisms and the cheerful you-who she'd whistle upon arrival. 

I still have an empty Elizabeth Arden lotion bottle of hers filled with pennies, a flute-a-fone she gave me, the memory of learning Do Re Mi forward and backward while helping her teach one day, and of singing lyrics from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The Sound of Music and Disney's Mary Poppins to her friends...but most cherished of all I have her sweet memories that float through my mind more often than you could even imagine.  

Marjorie Greener was music director and educator for a large school system, which she earned after getting a Master's Degree in Music Education from Northwestern and Western Illinois Universities. Impressive, especially for a woman in the 1950's and '60's but none of that really mattered to me. Aunt Marge earned my respect and honor through the love she unselfishly gave to so many. 

What *Sir Ken Robinson said recently brought all of Aunt Marge's work to mind...

I believe that the arts should be on an equal footing in schools with the sciences, humanities, languages and physical education....

So here's to the Aunt Marge's of this world who weave sweet memories and melodies into the fabrics of our lives and consciousness's.  And to all the great teachers, parents, aunts and uncles, moms and dads, grandmothers and grandfathers, sisters and brothers...who bring us their insight into this world through the arts, sciences, humanities, languages, physical education...


*Sir Ken Robinson, PhD, is one of the internationally recognized leaders in the development of education creativity and innovation. He has received numerous honorary degrees from universities, and many awards from cultural organizations and governments, all over the world. He was knighted in 2003 by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the Arts.