Years ago I took a graduate school class in Animal Behavior.\u00a0\u00a0 The study of animal behavior had made great leaps forward in the decade before, after pioneer students of animal behavior learned how to analyze animal behavior in detail.\u00a0\u00a0 The study of human behavior lagged badly…it’s now catching up, but still bedeviled by the very assumptions we were taught to avoid when studying animal behavior.<\/p>\n
All behavior, we were taught, is meaningful–it means something, it communicates something about the subject.\u00a0 Probably not what you first think of, either.\u00a0\u00a0 For instance, most of us interpret behavior in terms of a critter’s conscious intent:\u00a0 we think of a cow or a horse or a small child as “stubborn” when they don’t do what we want.\u00a0 We may think they’re “trying to make me mad.”\u00a0\u00a0 In autistic terms, we fail to demonstrate a theory of mind–the understanding that reality, to the other person or animal, is not necessarily our reality.<\/p>\n
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When I first began reading studies of child development and psychology, in order to help our autistic son, I realized just\u00a0 how bad the interpretations of child behavior were (as then published.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A lot of it was a simple binary–behaviors were normal or not.\u00a0\u00a0 A child building a tower with blocks (if he said it was a tower) was normal.\u00a0 A child lining up blocks in a row (if he didn’t say he was pretending to make a train) wasn’t.\u00a0\u00a0 A child pushing a toy car was normal; a child turning it upside down and spinning the wheels was not.\u00a0\u00a0 The behavior of autistic children was routinely described in the literature as “random” or “meaningless”–terms my professor in grad school would not allow us to use.\u00a0\u00a0 (The cow cropping various plants in a field is not exhibiting “random” behavior–we had to do “bite analysis” and find out what the cow was really doing.\u00a0\u00a0 Nibbling grass and weeds convinces the student that a cow likes contrast, just as we do in a meal…a little sour, a little sweet, a little tangy…there are patterns, relating both to the relative abundance of the different forages and to the cow’s preferred rhythm–three bites of this, one bite of that, two bites of something else, three of the first…)\u00a0 In other words, behavior is full of meaning, and looking at the context in which the behavior occurs helps tease out that meaning.<\/p>\n
Infant and child behavior reveals what is working, as well as what is not working, in that child’s neurology.\u00a0 If the child orients to red, for instance–walking around the room looking at, and touching, red things–then you know the child can see red as distinct from other colors.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If the child can recognize a cow in a field–but not in a photograph–that indicates something unusual in visual processing. \u00a0\u00a0 (Our son could recognize clear line drawings of objects, but not photographs of those objects: color photographs were the last he learned.) \u00a0 By careful observation (tedious but necessary) you can map the sensory and sensory-processing strengths and gaps, and also the cognitive level for each component.<\/p>\n
Behavior is a response to something–internal or external, and often both.\u00a0\u00a0 Repeated behaviors are the result of repeated inputs…if a child has a meltdown at 6:30 pm every day,\u00a0 something is happening at that time every day.\u00a0 What?\u00a0\u00a0 A certain noise?\u00a0 A certain level of tension among family members (including fear of another meltdown at 6:30…)?\u00a0\u00a0 Someone arriving home, or leaving?\u00a0\u00a0 The dog comes inside for its dinner?\u00a0\u00a0 A level of hunger?\u00a0\u00a0 A performance demand (such as “go wash your hands for supper”)?\u00a0\u00a0 Whenever behavior forms a pattern, something is sustaining that pattern–changing the behavior requires changing what sustains it (and retraining, but first fix the trigger.)<\/p>\n
In general, people (like animals) repeat behaviors that are positively reinforced, and decrease behaviors that are negatively reinforced…but it may be difficult to define what a positive reinforcement is, for someone whose sensory processing is not average.\u00a0\u00a0 A big smile or loud “Attaboy!” may be a negative reinforcement for a child who cannot read facial expressions or understand tones of voice….and thus produce the opposite result from what you’d expect.\u00a0\u00a0 Again, careful, detailed observation will reveal what that individual finds pleasurable…it may be a touch, or a soft word, or a certain piece of music, or a specific toy or object to hold.\u00a0 Food is often used as a reinforcer, but that has its limits and its long-term bad results, too.\u00a0 The more you know about what an individual finds pleasant, the more varied reinforcements you can provide.<\/p>\n
A constant temptation is imputing negative motivation–assuming an undesired behavior is done on purpose, to annoy or defy.\u00a0\u00a0 It may be–but more often, with autistic children especially–something else is going on.\u00a0 The child is experiencing stress he\/she can’t handle (doesn’t know how to handle), or is in pain (including from something that wouldn’t bother you),\u00a0 or is being asked to perform at a level he\/she is not yet able to reach, etc.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just as a crying infant isn’t crying to annoy the parent (though a half hour of crying will bring most parents to a high level of adult frustration), and a good parent will consider reasons the baby may cry–tired, hungry, wet, dirty, colic–so an older autistic child is likely to have reasons for undesired behavior that fit a younger child’s model.<\/p>\n
The obvious behaviors–talking or not talking, hitting or\u00a0 not hitting,\u00a0 doing as told or not doing as told–are easy to see (though the context may not be), but the little behaviors are just as important.\u00a0\u00a0 The unconscious body language and facial expressions of an autistic child are much the same as with a nonautistic child–just used in different circumstances, because they are relaxed and happy less often.\u00a0\u00a0 Adults are often not good at reading children’s faces (many adults aren’t good at reading adults’ faces–persons of high authority, for instance, have been shown in research to be unable to recognize common expressions, whereas persons at the bottom of the social\/economic ladder can–because they must to survive.)\u00a0\u00a0 Adults routinely ignore\/deny obvious signs of distress–“You’re not really frightened!” and “Of course you’re having fun!”–because it’s convenient for the adults (who have the power.)<\/p>\n
With the nonverbal, in particular, it’s important to notice the outward signs of inward emotional state–relaxation vs. tension,\u00a0 a “real” smile vs. a nervous smile, confusion, anxiety, worry, fear in varying degrees, excitement\/anticipation,\u00a0\u00a0 glee.\u00a0\u00a0 Posture and gait reveal emotion too.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Keeping in\u00a0 mind that every behavior means something–is a form of communication–the study of an individual’s behavior moves away from a sterile determination of Normal or Abnormal.\u00a0 Instead,\u00a0 the details of behavior in context suggest not just what is “wrong” with someone, but what is working, so that a plan of action based on strengths can be made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Years ago I took a graduate school class in Animal Behavior.\u00a0\u00a0 The study of animal behavior had made great leaps forward in the decade before, after pioneer students of animal behavior learned how to analyze animal behavior in detail.\u00a0\u00a0 The study of human behavior lagged badly…it’s now catching up, but still bedeviled by the very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,10],"tags":[16,13,7,47],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-socialization","tag-behavior-analysis","tag-communication","tag-sensory-processing","tag-socialization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.speedofdark-thebook.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.speedofdark-thebook.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.speedofdark-thebook.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.speedofdark-thebook.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.speedofdark-thebook.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.speedofdark-thebook.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31,"href":"http:\/\/www.speedofdark-thebook.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.speedofdark-thebook.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.speedofdark-thebook.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.speedofdark-thebook.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}