Bottom-Up
Thinking and Learning Rules
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Individuals
on the autism spectrum learn to form concepts by grouping many specific
examples of a particular concept into a virtual "file folder" in
their brain. There may be a file folder labeled "Dogs," full of many
mental pictures of different kinds of dogs - together, all those mental pictures
form a concept of "Dog." A person on the autism spectrum may have
many of these virtual file folders in their brain - one for each different
concept (rudeness, turn-raking, street safety, etc.). As a person grows older,
they create new file folders and add new pictures to the ones in their old file
folders.
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People
on the autism spectrum think differently from non-autistic, or
"typical" people. They are "bottom-up," or
"specific-to-general" thinkers. For example, they may need to see
many, many different kinds of dogs before the concept of dog is permanently
fixed in their mind. Or they may need to be told many times, in many places,
that they must stop, look, and listen before crossing the street before the
concept of street safety is permanently fixed in their mind. People on the
spectrum create the concepts of dog, street safety, and everything else by
"building" them from many specific examples.
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Non-autistic,
or "typical" people think in a completely different way. They are
"top-down thinkers," or "general-to-specific" thinkers.
They form a concept first, and then add in specific details. For example, they
already have a general concept of what a dog looks like, and as they see more
and more dogs, they add the details of what all kinds of different dogs
(poodles, basset hounds, dachshunds, etc.) look like. Once someone tells them
to stop, look, and listen before crossing the street, they know to do this at
every street, in every neighborhood.
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Bottom-up
learning can be used to teach both very concrete and more abstract concepts
ranging from basic safety rules to reading comprehension. In this article I
will give examples starting from the most concrete concepts and finishing with
more abstract ones. All concepts, regardless of the level of abstraction, MUST
be taught with many SPECIFIC EXAMPLES for each concept.
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To
teach a basic safety rule, such as not running across the street, it must be
taught in more than one place. This is required to make the safety rule
"generalize" to new places. It must be taught at the street at home,
at streets near the school, at the next-door neighbor's house, at streets
around grandmother's house, or Aunt Georgia's house, and when the child visits
a new, strange place. The number of different specific examples required will
vary from child to child. When I was little, I was taught turn-taking with a
board game called Parcheesi. If my turn-taking lessons had been limited to this
game they would not have generalized to other situations, such as taking turns
with my sister to use a sled or a toy. During all of these activities, I was told
I had to take turns. Turn-taking in conversation was also taught at the dining
room table. If I talked too long, Mother told me I had to give someone else a
turn to talk.
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Using
many specific examples should also be used for teaching number concepts. To
achieve generalization, a child should be taught counting, adding, and
subtracting, with many different kinds of objects. You can use cups, candies,
toy dinosaurs, pens, Matchbook cars, and other things to teach the abstract
idea that arithmetic applies to many things in the real world. For example 5 -
2 = 3 can be taught with five candies. If I eat 2 of them, I have 3 left. To
learn concepts such as less and more, or fractions, try using cups of water
filled to different levels, cutting up an apple, and cutting up cardboard
circles. If you only used cardboard circles, the child might think that the
concept of fractions applies only to cardboard circles. To teach bigger versus
smaller, use different-sized objects such as bottles, candies, shirts, blocks,
toy cars, and other things.
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More
Abstract Concepts
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To
move up a degree in the abstractness of concepts, I will give some examples for
teaching concepts such as "up" and "down." Again, you must
use many specific examples to teach these concepts.
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The
squirrel is "up" in the tree.
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The
stars are "up" in the sky.
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We
throw the ball "up" in the air.
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We
slide "down" the slide.
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We
dig a hole "down" in the ground.
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We
bend "down" to tie our shoes.
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To
fully comprehend the concept, the child needs to participate in the activity
while the parent or teacher says a short sentence containing the word
"up" or "down." Be sure to vocally emphasize the concept
word. If the child has difficulty with verbal language, combine the word with a
picture card that says "up" or "down."
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Recently
I was asked, "How did you comprehend the concept of rude behavior or good
table manners?" Concepts that relate to judgments or social expectations
are much more abstract for a child, yet they can still be taught in the same
way. When I did something that was bad table manners, such as waving my fork in
the air, Mother explained to me - very simply and without a lot of verbal
chatter - that it was bad table manners. "Temple, waving your fork in the
air is bad table manners." She used many naturally occurring teachable
moments, helping me connect my action to the concept "bad table
manners." She did this matter-of-factly and kept the message simple and
consistent. Learning many specific examples also worked when she taught me the
concept of rudeness. When I did something that was rude, such as belching or
cutting in line, Mother told me I was being rude. Gradually a "rude"
concept formed in my brain from the many specific examples.
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Reading Comprehension
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Many
children on the spectrum can decode and read, but they have problems with
comprehension. To start, focus on the very concrete facts, such as characters'
names, cities they visited, or activities they did, such as playing golf. This
is generally easier for the child to comprehend. Then move on to more abstract
concepts in a passage of literature. For example, if they read, "Jim ate
eggs and bacon" they may have difficulty answering the multiple-choice
question: "Did Jim eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner?" Teach the child
to break apart the question and scan his or her brain files for information
that may help with comprehension. For instance, I would search through the
files in my brain for pictures of meals. A picture of eggs with bacon is the
best match for breakfast compared to lunch and dinner pictures.
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These
more abstract concepts and associations don't develop quickly. The child will
need to add more and more information into his brain computer before he can be
successful with abstractions. This data comes from experiences, which is why
parents and teachers need to give the child lots and lots of opportunities for
repetitive practice on a concept or lesson. I would start to learn this sort of
concept only after a teacher had explained many different stories to me.
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Temple
Grandin "The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism &
Asperger's" (2011)
