Tuesday, March 8, 2016

What's "Social Thinking?" (Autism Spectrum Disorder in Burnaby and Vancouver, BC)

I often start sessions asking the parents of adults I see to define , as they understand it, autism spectrum disorder or Asperger's Disorder as many call it. I then define it myself, decribing issues relating to "social thinking."

Hrre is what Michelle Garcia Winner says about social thinking:
"Social Thinking is what we do when we share space with others and when sending an email, sitting in a classroom, lining up at the grocery store, reading a work of fiction, watching a funny video clip, participating in a business meeting, driving in traffic, and a host of other daily activities that involve our social interpretation and related reactions.  We consider the context; take in the thoughts, emotions and intentions of the people with whom we are interacting and use that information to determine how we respond. How we think about people affects how we behave, which in turn affects how others respond to us, which in turn affects our own emotional internal and external responses. It's an incredibly complex process that most of us take for granted."

From https://www.socialthinking.com/Articles?name=Introduction%20to%20Social%20Thinking


My best example of social thinking is coming toa cross walk and looking, very briefly, for a second or two, at the face and eyes of the driver about to take the turn and making a jusdgement about them. Will they stop? Will they wait for me? Will they ignore the rules of the road? and thendeciding what to go...cross, or wait. These are the kinds of daily decisions we make by reading what is in other people's heads, and making social decision based upon their eye contact, facial expression, posture and any other social hints I might find in my view.

This kind of social thinking comes natuarally to most of us, but to those with high functioning autism, what use to be called "Asperger's Disorder," these decisions and this swift and non-verbal communication is difficult. Sometimes just slow. And over the years, as they have many social experiences that don't work out, were misread and lead to less than hopeful results, they often develop anxiety about social thinking, about taking action in social situation, and can become isolated and simply not develop appropriate skills as they grow.

an initial and critical component to interventions for children, teens or adults with autism spectrum disorder, ASD or Aspeger's, is to get an understanding of these basics. To know what ASD is well enough to describe it, recognize it, and then and only then do we move on to doing something about it....when and where we want to.

Michelle Garcia Winner describes Social Thinking interventions on the links below, and I invite you to go to those web pages and get an understanding yourself. In my own practice, where I see children, teens and adults for autism spectrum disorder diagnosis as well as treatment, I use Michelle's materials throughout the intervention process. She has an excellent set of curriculum materials for home and school, and this is a resource no parent or adult with autism should be without.

Vistit here website at www.socialthinking.com

Other articles that might be of interest include these:



For more information about my practice in Burnaby and Vancouver, where I see children, adolescents and adults for diagnosis and treatment, please visit my website at:


http://www.psychologists.bc.ca/users/jimroche

https://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/70682

I am a Registered Psycholgist in BC, and a member of the RASP list of ACTBC Behaviour Interventionists. Services to children and adolescents with ASD are often covered by BC Ministry funding.





 

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