How do I know what type of thinkers my students are, so that I can incorporate strategies in my lessons that would help their thinking style?
“The way I see it” article by Temple Grandin talked about how the thinking patterns of individuals with ASD are noticeably different from the way in which “normal” people think. There are visual, verbal and logic, and music and math thinkers, and depending on their thinking style different learning strategies will work for them. It is important to build on each student’s strengths and to use teaching strategies that are associated with that student’s basic pattern of thinking. So if a student is a visual thinker, like Grandin, they will learn better with hands-on strategies and pictures rather than with patterns like a student that is a music and math thinker. It is important to keep in mind what type of thinkers you have in your classroom, because not every student with ASD is a visual thinker or a verbal and logic thinker. So to be able to have every student learn and be successful in your classroom one has to keep in mind what type of strategies would work with each type of thinker. This way we will not put emphasis on what the student “can’t do”, but rather on what the student can do and what strategies work best for that.
The article “Not Thinking in Pictures” by Donna Williams was very different from Grandin’s article because it explained that she was not a visual thinker and could not relate pictures to text. She instead used gestural signing (not signing that needs to be interpreted). For her gestural signing was like thinking in movement/in experiences, so she was able to relate words and pictures to actual experiences. I think Williams’ article is very important because it shows that we as teachers shouldn’t assume that all students on the Autism spectrum are the same or think the same. I thought Williams’ last line of her article was crucial: “At a conference recently, a man diagnosed with 'high functioning autism' remarked, you use signing. I said, 'yes'. He said, 'that's not very autistic'. I said, 'I don't care what's autistic or not. I care what works'”. I think this is an important statement because it shows us that we don’t always have to use and follow “what’s autistic” or “what’s supposed to work for people with autism”, but that we should try different approaches and see what works for the individual person, rather than what’s supposed to work for everyone who has autism.
