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Autism

This is a link to an article, appearing in Sunday's NY Times, about working with autistic teenagers. I was struck by the description of a new approach to working with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) called D.I.R./Floortime (developmental, individual differences, relationship approach). The article states, "... it is an approach that encourages students to develop their strengths and interests by working closely with one another and with their teachers." This reminded me of Professor Grobstein's definition of mental health, which entailed, in part, working with people's strengths to develop them and shape meaning around those things rather than altering perceived "deficiencies." The article contrasts this model to the model of A.B.A. (Applied Behavior Analysis), which is a reward and punishment system that rewards children for completing certain tasks or modeling certain behaviors. While, it seems this system has been embraced by many, it is also something that may stifle the strengths of an individual, in the sense of inhibiting the story-teller in some way. The article states, too, " The essence of Floortime is that a person learns best when self-motivated, when an inner drive sparks the acquisition of skills and knowledge." Perhaps, this kind of learning teaches the child that their own story is valid rather than requiring the child to learn a new story that may be incompatible with their story-teller's reconciliation of information...

If tacit knowledge, instead, receives a message that behavior is "valid" and not "weird" or needing correction, does the story-teller "relax" and engage in the world with less reticence?