Critical Thinking Skills for Children with Autism
Critical thinking is an important skill our children need to learn. It enables a child to generate the ability for a higher level of conceptual thinking and appropriately solve problems in their everyday life.
Children with Autism may lack the ability to appropriately communicate their feelings or sometimes tend to engage in repetitive ways of rigid thinking and repetitive behaviors. When they are faced with challenges, moments of frustration occur when no clear expectations are provided to our children regarding their daily schedule, and the activities they are required to engage in throughout the day.
It is important to understand our children while equipping them with the skills needed to think critically (i.e., Executive Functioning and Problem-Solving Skills) by teaching them:
- Be more open-minded, less rigid, and more flexible in adapting to their environment.
- Give them opportunities to learn creative mind thinking through play and leisure time.
- Identify problems and proper solutions, based on the intensity of the given problem.
- Understand their emotions and the likes/dislikes of others.
- Provide them with visual support to clarify expectations such as schedules and decrease verbal interactions during challenging times.
Applied Behavior Analysis is “the process of systematically applying interventions based upon the principles of learning theory to improve socially significant behaviors to a meaningful degree, and to demonstrate that the interventions employed are responsible for the improvement in behavior”- 1968 Baer, Wolf, & Risley.
It is okay for our children to make errors, however, as caregivers and parents, we should create learning opportunities for our children, give them the emotional support they need and model proper responses.
For more information on how to manage aggressive behavior and proper communication, connect with us by sending your messages and questions to hello@azinsitute4autism.com or contact us directly from our contact page.
