Here is an article by James D. MacDonald, Ph.D./CCC of Communicating Partners.
This is a very interesting insight and he has granted us permission to reprint it on our blog.
Hi all, I am on a strange sleep cycle so this came to me tonight. Many
parents want their child to learn and perform facts, to get ready for
school. Many programs for autism and other late talking conditions focus on
teaching facts and skills thinking that 'cognition'-
comes first. Parents often seem more interested in their child knowing the
colors and numbers than in taking turns and playing and communicating with
sounds. Being social seems less important than knowing things for school.
This memo asks which comes first cognition or social life?
As you may know Communicating Partners focuses on getting a child social
before getting him ready for school. I hope this will help clarify why we do
that.
QUESTION. Which comes first cognitive learning or social learning?
We have been told that our son Sean, needed to be trained to learn
cognitive skills like numbers and colors for school and to reduce his
"autistic" habits and become compliant before he will be come social and
communicative.
Why does Communicating Partners begin by helping a child become social
first?
Answer:
There are many heavier answers to this question , but sometimes a
light one is the strongest. We begin by helping a child become social
because it is the most enjoyable thing to do with a child. We and you get
something personal and intimate when we get a child to "see" us and really
respond and care. So , if enjoying your child and finding ways for him or
her to enjoy you is at all important, then getting your child social is
just a lot more fun than teaching him for school.
And,now my more serious but less exciting answers:
First, because that is the way child develop and learn. Most scholars in
child development agree that the key to learning in daily life is by
socially interacting with people the child is attached with and who act and
communicate in ways the child can do. In fact it is now evident that a child
will learn more of what he needs to be included in the social world from
frequent daily interactions spontaneously than he will from intensive
drilling on facts and skills for school. Making a child a successful
student does not make him less autistic in real life and less isolated from
society. Early and intensive social relationships are needed for that.
A second critical reason to begin by helping a child be spontaneously social
is that the more directive and intensive academic and compliance approaches
can have the effect of discouraging the child from being social and learning
what he needs at the natural movement. Such a child can easily become
dependent on his teacher or trainer and not learn how to socially learn on
his own. Then he becomes a student who knows what others think he should
learn but he does not learn what he needs to effectively navigate his own
interpersonal world. I know children with autism who perform, and answer
very well but are at a loss in daily interactions where his real life
learning must take place.
A third reason for our focus of social learning first is that we and others
have been very successful with many children and families in reducing the
time that children are isolated from society. Both our research findings and
our clinical reports from families show that many children with autism can
become social when their families enter the child's world responsively and
nurture who they are becoming rather than distrusting their social potential
and trying to make them into compliant students learning a set curriculum
rather than an individualized life.
A fourth reason for our focus on social learning first is that it is
something that anyone in the child's life can do. Treatment is no longer
limited to trained and paid persons, but is available to anyone interacting
daily with the child. Children clearly can learn in every interaction if it
involves two features: one, something the child can do, and something the
child is internally motivated to do, and three, something the child can use
in daily life.
A fifth reason is that ,contrary to the belief and practice of many, most
children diagnosed on the autism spectrum can become much more social and
genuinely communicative than they are. Observation of many children with
autism reveals that very little attention is usually given to seeing if ,
indeed, the child can socialize with persons who actually enter his world
of sensation and action.
James D. MacDonald, Ph.D./CCC
Communicating Partners
website: www.jamesdmacdonald
(614) 447-0768
