Tahirih Bushey M.A.C.C.C.
Speech and Language Pathologist
I want to credit Sheila Merzer (see acknowledgements) for making the dynamics of predictability clear to me. Once I understood this idea, so many things about teaching children with ASD became easier for me. I hope the discussion on this topic will help you too.
Predictability will be a factor in your child's learning--for better or for worse
Children with ASD love predictability. They need more predictability than other children in order to understand the world around them. Children with ASD may develop problem behaviors due to this intense need for predictablility. Parents who understand the need for predictabilty will learn to use the need for predictability to help their child learn. These parents will also learn how to avoid teaching their child to misbehave.
Children with ASD will do a lot of things in order to ensure predictability. They often want to play with toys that work predictably. They like to interact with people who behave predictably. They watch videos, and play with computer games because these are predictable after the first showing. They even look for and learn predictable visual patterns in the world around them, noticing things like letters, shapes and railroad tracks.
If you understand this concept and think about it, you will learn how to use your child's need for predictability to help your child learn new language skills, new social skills, and new academic skills.
You will also know how to avoid inadvertently teaching your child to use naughty behaviors in order to meet his or her need for predictability.
Eventually, you will even learn to use your child's love of predictability to help your child accept situations that are less predictable. If all goes really well, you will use your child's love of predictability as a route to enjoying novelty as well and becoming an increasingly flexible thinker. You will soon see how amazing it is to use the idea of predictability as a way to engage and teach your child!
Typical development
A young child who does not have ASD is naturally engaged in studying the behavior of family and friends in order to understand social intent.
If Mama makes a loud sound, her child looks at Mama's face to see her intent. The child figures out that a happy face means the intent of that sound was to express happiness. A sad face means the intent was to express sadness. Eventually, the child associates the loud sound with happiness or sadness or whatever seemed to be Mama's intent when she made the sound.
Thus, if Mama utters the words Oh Wow! with a happy face then the child comes to understand this phrase as an expression of happiness.
BUT if Oh Wow! is uttered with an expression of dismay, then the child starts to understand that Oh Wow! means something is not right!
Even if Oh Wow! is uttered both ways, then the child will begin to understand that this utterance could be used for both emotional states.
Learning social intent
The child with autism has much more trouble understanding social intent. A child may not understand the idea of social intent for quite sometime and so does not have the same clues to understanding the meaning of words that other children have. Language becomes much harder to learn and much easier to misunderstand even after it is learned!
The child with ASD may ignore Oh Wow! altogether or may try to understand what the sound means in another way. For example, the child with ASD may try to understand the order of events, noting whatever happens before or after an interesting sound like Oh Wow! and trying to memorize the sequence. If Oh Wow! comes right after Mom hits her thumb with a hammer, the child with ASD may want to take that hammer and hit Mom's thumb again to test out a theory that maybe there is a sequential relationship between the hit and the sound. The child wants to see if Mom says Oh Wow! but that same child may never even comprehending that this Oh Wow! indicated Mom was hurt and it may not serve as a clue to imagine Mom's pain. Certainly, if mom did this three times in a row (okay, this is just an example and nobody would do that) then the child with ASD will really want to get the hammer and whack at Mom's thumb--but not because this child dislikes Mom, only because the child is oblivious to Mom's pain and wants to figure out the relationship between Oh Wow! and hammers and mom--rather like a little scientist.
Well, nobody would do this, right? Except if the child with ASD happens to grab hold of baby brother and baby brother happens to cry. This could happen three times in a row and then the child with ASD is hooked on grabbing baby brother and yet again getting the predictable response of a loud cry.
So here is the moral of this story...
You need to save your predictable, interesting responses for things you want your child to repeat. Do not provide predictable responses to behavior that you wish to reduce or eliminate.
This is a very hard concept for most parents to believe - but if you watch what your child does, you will see that your child is often missing the social implications of situations while memorizing the sequence of those same situations. Your child really may not be able to read your intent, and may not be able to read the social implications rather only is able to see that B follows A in a predictable and interesting way.
For example, your child pulls a leaf off a house plant. You say, "No, that is a pretty plant, don't pull the leaves off." Even a stern voice, a loud angry voice, or a swat on the behind (not recommended but used to no avail by more than a couple frustrated parents) will not discourage your child from repeating a behavior in most cases. I know this because this exact story has been repeated in more than one household and related to me by baffled parents.
If you give a predictable response to a behavior, your response will function as a reward. It's like saying "Hey, that was nice. Do that again!"
It does not make things better if you get mad while making a predictable response. Children with ASD are more prone to imitate angry voices than neutral sounding voices. So, when your child hears an angry rebuke, he or she perceives this as very interesting! Your child may also start to imitate you. Now your child will not only do the very thing you were trying to stop, he or she will do it while yelling at you with an angry voice that sounds remarkably like yours! Here again, I have examples in nearly every child that I see, unless or until the child's parents start to understand what is happening.
This is so hard for many parents to believe that I will give another example. If your child climbs up on the back of the couch and jumps off and you say "No, no, no! Don't you climb up on that couch!" your child is more likely to climb up on the back of the couch because you said this only now will watch you to see if you will say this again. If you do, then that is just sooo cool! This is now a predictable game for your child. If you add a little time on a timeout chair, then the game has a new part. Your child climbs up, you yell, your child jumps, you put your child on the time out chair. This is getting better and better! From the child's perspective this is a route game.
Tell your child what to do and then show your child what to do.
Do not tell your child what not to do!
For more of this discussion, read Predictability II.
