Booking Form

Thinking and Autism

A Lecture by

Kate Sliver and Andrew Grainger

of Autism Initiatives

GlyndwrUniversity, Wrexham

22nd June 2010

(13.00 pm to 16.00pm)

Please reserve……………place/s on this workshop at a cost of £45 for professionals, £10 for parents (refreshments on arrival) and return to

Autism Cymru, Conference Office, c/o Thomas Simon62Newport Road, CardiffCF24 0DF

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A map and directions will be forwarded with confirmation of places

Cancellations must be made in writing to Autism Cymru’s Cardiff Office at least 2 weeks prior to event at which point the fee will be refunded minus cancellation fee of 25%. (If cancellation is received less than two weeks prior to event a 50% cancellation fee will be charged!)

Thinking and Autism

People often refer to the ‘triad of impairment’ when discussing autism, suggesting that people with autism have weaknesses in the areas of social communication, social interaction and social imagination. Difficulties in communication are well documented. Difficulties in social interaction are often evident in people with autism, but the concept of ‘social imagination’ is more difficult for people to recognise and for people with autism to relate to. It may actually be a misleading concept, as some people with autism feel that their imagination may function well for them within their own area of interest. Having worked with people with autism for many years, Kate Silver (Director of autism practice at Autism Initiatives) has learned that difficulty in using thinking skills in a creative way is often at the root of many difficulties experienced by people with autism. She has found that it is often more useful to consider ‘thinking skills’ in place of ‘imagination’, particularly creativity and flexibility of thinking and to understand that it is often difficulties in the area of thinking that causes other difficulties.

They recognise that people with autism have many strengths and that defining autism using ‘impairment’, as in the ‘triad of impairment’ may be clinically useful, but it can be disempowering for people with autism. Strengths include the ability to learn and to follow routines, the ability to learn facts by rote especially where the facts relate to a particular interest and the ability to have very clear expectations about how things ‘should be’ so for example, to keep everything in a certain place. These skills appear to be related to what may be referred to as ‘rigid patterns of thinking’ or ’thinking in a straight line’.

While these rigid patterns of thinking underpin these strengths, they may also be the root of some difficulties. For example, weaknesses in communication, such as interpreting language literally and failing to recognise ambiguity, because the straight line pattern of thinking means that people see things in only one way. These same patterns of thinking may be at the root of some social communication difficulties such as finding it difficult to see another person’s point of view or to work out what a person may do next. Some people with autism are described as having ‘challenging behaviour’. This usually means that people exhibit behaviour which other people find difficult to understand or manage. Listening to people with autism has taught Kate that often difficulty in communication or in thinking flexibly may lead to ‘challenging behaviour’. Following an incident people have said to her ‘I had no choice’. They may say that they wish that it had not happened, and the fact that they felt that they had no choice makes the situation particularly difficult for them.

Within Autism Initiatives, they have a focus on development of thinking skills. They aim to support all people to make meaningful choices at a level at which they can experience success. They also support people to learn the skills of problem solving, planning and organising and developing awareness of their own skills as a ‘thinker’.

In this workshop, Kate will discuss further the benefits of developing thinking skills and share some of the approaches that they use at Autism Initiatives and talk about how these have been helpful to people.

Kate is a Speech and Language Therapist. She has 25 years experience in working with people with autism from pre-school to adulthood. She has worked alongside parents, teachers and other professionals in mainstream schools, special schools, houses and day services. Kate is currently Director of Autism practice at Autism Initiatives UK, responsible for numerous innovations in policy and practice. Kate has a particular clinical interest in the use of thinking skills to support communication. Kate is the author of ‘Assessing and Developing Communication and Thinking skills in People with Autism and Communication Difficulties. A Toolkit for Parents and Professionals’, published by Jessica Kingsley in 2005.

Andy Grainger is the Director of Services for Autism Initiatives UK, with over 15 years of working alongside people with an autism spectrum condition; Andy has led the development of services for people with an ASC, informed by the latest research into the condition. As a trained person centred plan facilitator, he has long been interested in how people with an ASC respond to the process, questioning whether accepted generic tools actually ‘captures’ what is important to a person now and in the future.

Working alongside Kate Silver the organisations Director of Autism Practice, Andy and Kate, convinced that people with an ASC are disadvantaged within the process have developed a specific process, ‘What I Need’, which reflects the person within the process and how that person’s autism affects them.

Andy and Kate presented this process at the World Autism Congress, where it was enthusiastically received.