SSLD and Infantile Autism
Ka Tat Tsang, Ph.D. 2006
"Autistic symptoms" are actually functional, in that they are driven by bio-psychological needs of these children and can bring more predictable or pleasurable stimulation to them.
SSLD Understanding of Autism
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The child is unable to process information effectively due to neurological impairment, especially complex and multi-modal interpersonal signals. (biology and cognition)
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Inability to decipher and process information leads to feeling overwhelmed, perplexed, confused, and anxious (emotion)
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Withdrawal or disengagement as strategies for avoiding negative emotional experience (motivation and behavior)
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While other children can gratify various needs through social interaction, children with autism have to use other means such as auto-stimulation, control and manipulating objects, maintaining rigid order/pattern (motivation, behavior, environment)
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Through systematic learning, the child can master effective agentive, interpersonal and social strategies and skills. These will lead to need gratification, displacing the original symptoms.
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In SSLD, the child does not only learn specific skills (e.g., eye contact, verbal requests) but also learns how to learn - imitation, observation learning, and symbolically mediated learning
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SSLD learning is grounded in real life, involving people in the child's life world (parents, siblings, peers)
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Learning how to learn: emphasis on observation learning (including symbolic mediation) as the most important mode of human learning
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Focus on behavior, yet connecting it with the key domains of human experience and environmental realities
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Individualized and systematic learning of adaptive skills and strategies
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The child comes before the structure or system, which is used to facilitate the child's learning. We modify the structure to suit the child, not the other way around.
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Multiple contingency thinking: Program design takes into consideration of the child's circumstances and needs, developmental status,
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Comprehensive attention to all domains: biology, motivation, emotion, cognition, behavior, and environment
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Maximize opportunity, time, and space for learning
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Mobilizes family and people in the child's life,
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Empowering parents through parallel learning program
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Grounded in real life - minimizes the difficulty of learning transfer
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Pragmatism: Eclectic inclusion of other methods
