COMP 190
Class #9 - February 11, 2003

• Discussion of Autism
  • Definition: Autism is a mental disorder originating in infancy that is characterized by self-absorption, inability to interact socially, repetitive behavior, and language dysfunction.
  • Monique discussed 3 principal impairments associated with autism:
    1. Social Skills
       • Individuals with autism seem to be in withdrawal. They have a lack of desire to communicate, as can be seen by their avoidance of eye contact and their extraordinary shyness.
       • This is thought to be caused by an under-developed 'mental-center' of the brain.
    2. Language Development
       • People with autism do not tend to initiate conversation. They also have difficulty understanding those words that they cannot picture in their minds.
       • They can understand simple words, but anything more complex confuses them.
    3. Creativity
       • Children with autism seem to lack the creative nature that drives other children. Often, they mindlessly imitate the sounds they hear, a behavior known as echolalia.
  • Autistic individuals seem to ground what they are thinking about in pictures. Their only non-visual thoughts are of music (according to a woman who "came out" of her autism to write about it). They get stuck on particular characteristics and have a tough time grasping concepts.
    • Monique used an analogy with cars. Autistic individuals might observe a car and learn to think of that object as being a car. However, when shown another car with different characteristics, they might not be able to make the correlation that this object is also a car, since it is not exactly the same, and those characteristics that were considered by them to be unique to a car might not be present in every car.
  • Some individuals with autism show a genius in one area. This case of autism is known as Asperger Syndrome.
  • The challenge with autism, according to Ms. Moore, is to find a bridge between visual and verbal thinking. People with autism seem disinterested in the human world. They lack the motivation because of this lack of interest.
  • Much remains unknown about this disability. For example, some studies have shown that students with autism have everything they need to develop the skills associated with the imparements listed above. Causes of the disorder remain uncertain. Researchers have not been able to find anything consistent in the brain of autistic individuals. The most supported opinion is that autism is genetic from birth. However, some individuals contend that common vaccines given to children damage their brains, leading to autism. Regardless of the cause, this disorder is a fairly young one in terms of research. Autism was not given its own label until the year 1943, and before that time, autistic individuals were considered to be mentally retarted.
• Monique has worked in the field of behavioral psychology, were she met a young boy with autism named Nicholas. When she met Nicholas, he was only 4 years old. At that time, he was mute, showed no signs of interest and displayed no particular cognative gifts. She described her initial experiences as being "like teaching ABCs to Ragedy Ann". One day she was trying to get Nicholas to play with some Lego blocks, but thought she was having no effect. She diverted her attention for only a little while, and when she looked again, Nicholas had constructed the castle on the Lego box, block-for-block. He had memorized the structure. This experience sparked Monique's interest.
• Teaching Those With Autism
  • In 1987, a study showed that 47% of children age 3 to 5 could be cured within 2 years, if they took part in 40 hours of therapy a week. The study showed that those who were capable of "pulling out" of their autism performed the same on IQ tests and their teachers and fellow students were unable to tell a difference in them. However, waiting lists for treatment are long, and the requirements of treatment are not practical.
  • Behavioral Therapy: teachers break skills down and teach them systematically. This method requires the teacher to figure out what the student is interested in and to motivate the student to listen using these interests.
    • Ms. Moore showed us a video of a little boy named Jake who was on a nearly 24 hour therapy schedule. His ordinary living was broken down such that everything was repeated over and over. He was eventually able to reconnect with the world, and he is now indistinguishable.
• Monique earned a degree in communications at Georgetown University, where she developed a software pilot program. This program accentuated on the differences between visual and verbal thinking.
  • Realizing that computers decrease social anxiety that would normally be present in one-on-one interaction, her master's thesis focused on a computerized approach to assisting those with autism. She wanted to use patterns that seem to work well with autistic individuals, such as music and spinning. She also focused on formal features that assisted the presentation of her work, such as zooms and sound effects.
    • Monique studied computer assisted learning versus the behavioral approach by using a program that encouraged autistic children to learn certain words. She found that thier focus was maintained 97% of the time with the computer compared to 67% of the time with behavioral approach. Moreover, 80% of the time, students wanted to keep on learning after their session was over with computers, compared with 0% in the alternative method. When later reviewed, she found that those how had used the computer remembered 5 out of the 6 words they were taught, while only 2 words were remembered by those using the behavioral approach.
• Our class ended with a discussion of ways in which we might use computers to aid instruction of autistic individuals. Some suggestions included allowing students to choose their rewards, incorporating humor, and using UNC's projection technologies to draw attention to the face.