Coursera - Autism Spectrum Disorder - Week 3 - December 27, 2020

Patterns of Strengths and Weaknesses

• concept of theory of mind
• how the lack of or delay in theory of mind can play into the various social and relationship challenges experienced by many on the autism spectrum.
• What are the Strengths and Weaknesses in School Subjects?
• autism is a spectrum disorder. 
• there is wide variability of symptom expression and wide variability of functioning and support required by individuals across the spectrum. 
• While there is this wide variability seen across the autism spectrum, we do tend to see specific patters of strength and weakness associated with this disability. 
• Some of the characteristic strengths of individuals on the autism spectrum include their ability to memorize and recall different facts and information. 
• ability to follow concrete rules and procedures and their ability to make use of different visual learning and visual information. 
• typical patterns of weakness across the autism spectrum. 
• weaknesses in flexibility and the ability to organize, manage time and in the ability to work within groups and other situations that require social communication. 
• weaknesses in auditory processing and the ability to make use of verbal information. 
• challenges in the ability to generalize skills learned in one context into different or novel contexts and situations. 
• patterns of strength and weakness demonstrate themselves across the different academic domains.
• in the area of reading, we often see strengths in phonics and decoding as well as site reading, because these require qualifications of letters, sounds and specific words. 
• weaknesses in reading comprehension, synthesis and being able to recall the most relevant information from a passage. 
• The patterns of strength can often mask the weaknesses. For example, child may be a very fluent reader and have a high vocabulary and this may mask the deficits that they have in reading comprehension. 
• It's important when we're assessing the academic needs of a child with autism that we look very closely at reading comprehension and pay attention to difficulties that the child may have in answering why and how questions. 
• patterns of strength and weakness can also be seen in the academic domain of writing. 
• Often, children with autism will show strengths in grammar, punctuation and spelling as these are skills that a child could easily memorize the rules and procedures for doing. 
• The patterns of weakness are often associated with the legibility of the writing, as well as the organization of ideas. Patterns of strength and weakness can also be seen in the area of mathematics. 
• Often, children with autism are very good at calculation and memorizing math facts but they may show weaknesses in the area of concepts and the real world application of math. 

What are the Strengths and Weaknesses in School Subjects?

Dr. Mundy is the director of Educational Research at the UC Davis Mind Institute...he Lisa Kapp endowed chair in Neurodevelopment and Education and a professor in the school of education and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. In 2009, the National Institute of Mental Health granted Dr. Mundy funding to develop a collaborative multidisciplinary social attention virtual reality lab for researchers on social attention, learning and academic development in school age children with autism. 

• In 2012, the Institute for Education Science provided four years of funding to allow his research group the opportunity to conduct a longitudinal study of the factors that impair or facilitate school based learning in elementary and secondary students with autism.
• One of the main findings so far is when we look at younger children. 
• elementary school children eight to 11 
• secondary students 12 to 16. When we look at the younger children with autism
• there are about 1 in 1.6, 1.4 grade level behind in reading comprehension
• the notion of deceleration in development. Oftentimes with these children with autism, they don't keep up. It's not like they're losing skills. It's just that the other groups are going ahead faster and that's what looks like what's happening in terms of reading comprehension here. 
• Kids with ADHD show the same effect, but not nearly as robust or strong in effect
• And the kids part of the reason these kids look like their falling behind more is that kids in secondary school go accelerate froward at least many of them do
• One learning area for high functioning children with autism is in reading comprehension about I'd say, five to seven other papers were available before we had these data that was strongly suggestive of this, but they didn't quite capture it like this.
• in terms of high functioning children with autism that there's a relationship between their reading abilities and how well they do on math problems solving, word problems.
• when we look at children with autism age, symbolic working memory and story memory affect writing. Whereas for the ADHD samples, storing memory, but it's not symbolic working memory and then in the TD sample neither working memory or age were related to writing. S
• Matt Zajack from University of Santa Barbara. He's a graduate student, he's very clever. He's tireless, he's working all the time on it. And the progress is very good, but very slow in developing really accurate writing measures.

What are the Strengths and Weaknesses in Processing?

• patterns of strength and weakness related to processing, including attention, memory, and other executive functions. 
• patterns of strength and weakness show up is in their ability to attend. 
• there's a strength in the ability to focus and sustain attention particularly on a preferred task. deficits is in their ability to divide or shift their attention between different activities. 
• may be a result of some of the sensory differences or challenges that an individual on the autism spectrum may be experiencing. 
• The pattern of weakness and attention may also be demonstrated with an inability to shift from one problem solving set to another. 
• The patterns of strength and weakness as they apply to memory include strengths in their ability to rotely memorize different pieces of information. 
• The pattern of weakness is often in working memory. 
• Working memory is the ability to hold on to one thought or concept while continuing to process or think about something else. It's required in the manipulation and organization of ideas. 
• Working memory is essential in many problem solving situations. 
• when we're prioritizing, we have to be able to think about and hold on to not only what we have to do but also the timeline, and the potential outcomes of doing versus not doing the items on our to-do list. 
• Working memory is a component of executive functioning where we also see patterns of strength and weakness in individuals with autism. 
• One of relative patterns of strength in the area of executive functioning for individuals on the autism spectrum is their ability to inhibit certain responses. 
• weaknesses in organization, planning, prioritizing and with flexibility.
• Sometimes homework can be overwhelming because there's so many different things to keep track of. 
• A simple strategy like a homework folder can be really helpful in organizing work. On the inside of this folder, you'll see on the left side is labeled To Do. And on the right side is labeled Finished. Also, on the right side is a reward that your child can earn after homework is completed. The simple strategy is to place all of the work that needs to be done on the left side, the To Do side.
• For older children, it can also be helpful to color code, with different colors representing different subject areas. The homework folder can match the color of the book cover, and that way, it helps with material organization.

What is Theory of Mind?

• define and describe the concept of Theory of Mind 
• One of the hallmark characteristics of autism spectrum disorders is a lack of or a delay in the development of something called Theory of Mind. 
• Theory of Mind is the recognition that other people have thoughts, ideas, and feelings that may be different than our own. 
• Research has indicated that this is an area that's consistently delayed and sometimes even absent in individuals on the autism spectrum. 
• Theory of Mind, or a lack of Theory of Mind, impacts one's ability to show empathy, to take other people's perspectives, to predict and interpret the behaviors, as well as the intentions, of others. 
• In a typically developing child, between 18 to 24 months of age, we see the emergence of knowledge of the self. 
• the child will be able to recognize himself in the mirror, he'll engage in symbolic play, simple acts of altruism also are shown, such as giving a toy to another child. 
• There's reciprocal cooperation with others, such as sharing and simple turn taking. Child might also make linguistic comments about the failure or success of self-generated plans. 
• Mastery smiles occur upon the completion of a difficult task, and the use of mental state terminology is used to refer to their own desires. I want, mine, you do, yours are some examples of this. 
• develop an understanding of something called false belief. Between the ages of three and five, children begin to understand that beliefs are individual mental representations. 
• They also understand that someone else may hold a belief that differs from their own. 
• This ability can be demonstrated when using false belief tests, such as the Sally Anne test, a test that normal kids are expected to pass when they're five years old.
• Simon Baron Cohen and his colleagues in 1985 tested 20 children with autism spectrum disorders on this false belief task and found that 80% of the children on the autism spectrum failed to appreciate Sally's false belief and said she would look in the box. 
• typically developing children, children with language impairments, and children with Down Syndrome were able to succeed on this task. 
• Having a lack or delay in the development of Theory of Mind impacts individuals on the autism spectrum in many ways. 
• The inability to take perspective and put themselves in the position of another person often results in negative social consequences. For example, the individual might make a comment about something new or different about a coworker. Such as, you cut your hair, and then proceed with their own personal thoughts or beliefs about that change. I liked it better the other way. While this may be their opinion or a fact based on the fact that they don't much like change, making that comment to the co-worker without thinking about how it would make the co-worker feel could have some negative social consequences.
• Another common challenge when there's a lack or delay in Theory of Mind is the inability to recognize that other people may have different solutions to a problem or a challenge that's presented. This can be a challenge because the individual with autism may think that there is only one right way, their way. You can imagine the social complications in doing group projects that this might create.

How can Strengths and Passions be Leveraged?

• using strengths and passions can be an effective strategy for helping shape learning, interactions, and even careers. 
• While restricted and repetitive patterns of interest tend to be a common issue or challenge faced by many on the autism spectrum, oftentimes this can actually be an asset. 
• intense passions and interests can be seen as an asset if we use them in order to be able to shape learning, interactions, and even careers. 
• Dr. Temple Grandin, was able to turn her passion for animals into a highly successful career. As a doctor of animal behavior, a professor at Colorado State University in the Animal Sciences, and a consultant to the the animal livestock industry.
• Temple Grandin talks about differences in the autistic mind, and how to develop those strengths and talents.
• The thing about the autistic mind and the Asperger mind is it tends to be a specialist mind. 
• Good at one thing, bad at something else. 
• We have too much emphasis on the deficits, and not enough emphasis on building up the strength area. 
• we should focus on strengths. 
• With individuals on the autism spectrum, that means to make things more visual. 
• To use their desire and adherence to rules to support the situation. 
• To infuse and incorporate their passions and their interests in every learning opportunity possible. And to keep our social expectations reasonable for a person who may lack higher degrees of social cognition and social understanding.

Summary

In this module, you learned about the typical patterns of strength and weakness often observed among those on the autism spectrum. You learned about additional research taking place at the UC Davis MIND Institute. And heard an inspiring message from Temple Grandin about developing and using strengths and passions to facilitate careers. The aim of this module was to familiarize you with these common patterns so that you can use this understanding as a springboard, selecting strategies and skills that are strength-based.

Suggested Activity (Optional): Watch HBO Documentary "Temple Grandin" (2010)

Quiz

Attempt 1: 80%

Attempt 2: 100%