Sunday 25 March 2012

How Experience is a Splendid Thing!


How do we let a child know what a dog looks like? Well, by showing him a dog and by telling him that what he is looking at is a dog! However, children with autism may have difficulty accommodating the fact that dogs look differently or that there are many different kinds of dogs.  Showing the child pictures of different dogs may aid in accommodation of the idea that there are more kinds than that one dog he had been exposed to. Thus this brings us back to the importance of categorization- when teaching a child to categorize the different kinds of dogs (for example, big dogs vs small dogs or dogs of different breeds) facilitates the gathering and locking in mentally of information regarding dogs. 

As discussed in the previous post about choice making, information is crucial in the process of choosing. Not just children with autism or other special needs but all children and all adults – everyone – have to rely on their past experiences to retrieve what they know and like about something in order to choose what they prefer. 

Of course, it may be so much easier to make a choice when presenting the items in front of the child. However, the purpose of not presenting the items - if you remember from the previous post – is to encourage thinking. Furthermore, at times it is difficult to present the selection available or allowed within sight due to several reasons such as it is impractical to bring out the items from the pantry and playroom and line them up in front of a child whenever a choice has to be made. Furthermore we want to teach the child to initiate thinking and communication. Yes, a child may get tempted to try a piece of tasty looking candy or she may get excited over a cause and effect toy being demonstrated in front of her. But the real world is a place that, most of the time, demands people to rely on their past experiences to initiate choice making.  

Also, a child’s ability to make use of more complex language in making choices depends on their degree of exposure to various experiences. Think the difference between “I want biscuit” versus “I want to eat chocolate biscuit” or “I want ball” versus “I want to play basketball”.  Thus this leads us to the following formula – 

Experience →Thinking → Choice (motivation) → Language (Communication)

Simply put, positive experiences motivates a child to think on how to get the preferred item or activity that he wants and language is the common tool used to achieve that goal. In other words, experiences that are meaningful play a huge role in eliciting communication from a child whether he is verbal or nonverbal (understanding the fact that nonverbal children always have other options of communication available to them). 

There are so many reasons why we must conscientiously, purposefully and constantly expose our children to various new experiences. The above examples are just a few. It is time we as adults take more responsibilty and action in engaging our children with activities and information we often take for granted as we were growing up neurotypically. We must also not forget that taking time out to enagage our children with activities that create positive experiences helps in the cultivation of positive relationships between the adults and the children. Surely positive relationship is another key to increased positive behaviour towards learning!


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Till the next post, I wish you and your children all the best. :)


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