Reflection 2 "Not Thinking in Pictures" and "Different Types of Thinking in Autism"

January 26, 2009
Arts in the Classroom

I find it difficult to say whether I agree or disagree with either author. At the end of “Not Thinking in Pictures” Donna Williams says “I don’t care what’s autistic or not, I care what works.” I would have to agree with her because no matter what the disability or ability, each student and individual learns differently. People tend to generalize the way certain disabilities learn ‘best’ because often there are similarities in the way they think and/or learn. However, it’s hard to label a disability with a specific learning style because every person thinks and learns differently

Williams did not think in pictures, she preferred gestural signing. A man diagnosed with ‘high functioning autism’ told her “that’s not very autistic.” Maybe to this man it wasn’t ‘very autistic’ but it also could be a way of thinking that this man may not have understood. I recently read an article about a student with cerebral palsy. She got offended because a non-disabled classmate told her “you can’t and don’t think like us.” Through multiple forms of communication the student with CP explained that everyone thinks differently and wanted to know ‘how a person can think like someone who is completely different than him or her.’

This topic relates to the articles because it shows that no one thinks exactly the same. We can’t generalize ways of thinking and link it to a learning ability or level. You can group and categorize but it is important as teachers to remember that not all students under that group are going to apply.

An important concept to remember is that visual thinking (or any type of thinking) can mean different things to different people. It may be equally beneficial to different students but used differently.