| A child or adult with Autism or a Communication | | | | create more confusion and frustration as they may |
| disorder will have difficulties fitting into our extremely | | | | not be processed at the speed expected. This lag in |
| verbal world. These difficulties can create isolation | | | | processing time can create resistance, immature |
| from others and threatening walls of silence. However, | | | | behavior, odd play, tantrums or reluctance to |
| there is a specific sub group of people diagnosed with | | | | participate. As a result the normal teaching methods |
| these disorders who have a hyper-visual system. In | | | | that are based on processing incoming language can |
| these cases, when the visual system is harnessed, | | | | fail. |
| teaching communication becomes much easier. | | | | Sequencing & Associating |
| I Rode the Train, I Want to be an Engineer | | | | Visual people often use the brain's Associator to form |
| Hyper-visual people are experiencing visually when | | | | memories. They learn of a new idea and they relate |
| speaking. Their communications may appear to be | | | | that idea to their own knowledge base. The opposite |
| almost nonsensical rambling but in fact they are | | | | of the Associator is the Sequencer from the verbal |
| following a very logical pattern. The difference is the | | | | pathway. |
| pattern followed is visual rather than verbal. The | | | | The Sequencer is rigid and ordering, one sound |
| exchange below illustrates this point. | | | | following another to make a word, words produced in |
| I asked Mark, a college student, "How did you get here | | | | specific order to form grammatically correct |
| today?" | | | | sentences and ideas linked in order to make |
| He replied, I took the train in from Long Island. My family | | | | paragraphs. |
| went to the beach (Mark was seeing himself on the | | | | The Associator is time-independent and the |
| train but did not say this). Maybe I will be a engineer. | | | | Sequencer is very time based. Understanding |
| The reason I like engineering is that there are serious | | | | consequences depends on a time based |
| problems. (Mark was thinking about being a | | | | understanding of cause and effect. |
| transportation engineering and designing train tracks | | | | My son, Whitney, at age 4, wanted to jump off of the |
| and freeway intersections) I have always been good | | | | roof to fly like Superman, without understanding, from |
| in math. When teachers are difficult to understand. | | | | verbal reasoning, the danger involved. Whitney would |
| (Mark is seeing himself at school doing well except | | | | sit mesmerized watching Disney's Snow White as if |
| when the teacher is confusing and then associating to | | | | he were deaf. In fact, at times, I could scream in his |
| a video he watched about Einstein)Like Dr. Einstein- | | | | ear and he could not hear me even though all of the |
| There was an exhibit on Einstein at the history | | | | parts of his ear to brain physiology were judged to be |
| museum did you see it? | | | | normal. At these times his visual brain powered by his |
| Mark was attempting to answer my question but his | | | | associator were shutting down his verbal sensory |
| picture mind took him on quite a ride as one picture | | | | system. |
| blended into the next from the train- to a vacation to | | | | If the pictures drive the thought, children can appear to |
| an engineering career to Einstein, at the museum. The | | | | be oblivious to cause and effect. They may disregard |
| expected answer was "TRAIN". This very verbal | | | | threatened consequences. Often Mavericks feel that |
| illustration demonstrates how the visual pathway can | | | | they must complete the pattern to finish the thought |
| create leap-frog thinking-which to verbal people can | | | | they have developed through the associator before |
| seem like impulsivity. | | | | they can transition to the next idea. If the thought is |
| Instead of negotiating the world with verbal reasoning, | | | | disrupted the Maverick may hit a wall and resort to |
| a visual person often negotiates with patterns. As a | | | | talking with lines from a movie or echoing what was |
| result the "sameness of routines" becomes the | | | | said or get stuck like a broken record and repeat the |
| template to make sense of the chaos of everyday | | | | same thing over and over again. |
| life. We refer to these visual learners as "Mavericks." | | | | With the appropriate training, Mavericks can learn |
| We often ask Mavericks to adjust to changes in | | | | effective verbal communication. The teaching methods |
| schedule or adjustments in plans based on how we | | | | must first then harness the visual system first before |
| typically explain things - by talking. These words can | | | | moving forward to teaching communication. |