The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

The purpose of this workshop is to describe the relationship between the language of thinking and learning to behave. Participants will learn about different ways to perceive behavior and how to use visual language interventions to help individuals pro-socially behave regardless of how impacted they might be cognitively. Behavior is a series of actions that others interpret and decide what meaning to assign which in turn helps an individual learn “how to behave”. The purpose of this workshop is to describe the relationship between the language of thinking and learning to behave. We will show how we use language function or thinking to assign pro-social meaning to behavior and how this assignment of meaning helps change a person’s perspective. We will showcase examples of how to provide mental pictures for children and adults and to help them visually see themselves in perspective taking and how the language of that thinking changes behavior. We will walk participants through different ways to perceive behavior, how to decide what is acceptable behavior, and how to use specific interventions to help individuals with ASD learn to socially behave in all areas of their lives including home, community, and the workplace regardless of how impacted they might be cognitively.

 The language of behavior offers children and adults several differing points of view about behavior so that the individual learns how language, thinking, and behavior interconnect. There are at least three points of views to consider when considering the meaning of a behavior: (1) the individual’s developmental level of understanding of language about how to behave, (2) the parent or family’s values that they express with language, and (3) the dominant expectation of meaning in the setting as assigned to behavior through language. Most educators, parents, and specialists are taught that to deal with behavior we must emphasize and eliminate unwanted behavior in order to develop more compliant or more appropriate behaviors.  Even though this type of emphasis creates a short- term level of desired behavior, it does not consider the relationship between behavior and thinking. Thinking allows an individual to make behavioral choices, to understand others’ behaviors in order to decide what society expects, to establish personal levels of social responsibility, to assign societal meaning to others’ behaviors so as to fit into the workplace, to be able to explain one’s behavior, to use higher order thinking in social interactions, etc. So, as an individual learns about the language of behavior, the individual develops more knowledge that not only improves behavior but changes the way he or she is able to think. Numerous examples through vignettes and case studies will be used. The presenters will incorporate information from several different philosophies about behavior, what methods work, what doesn’t work and why, as well as how to incorporate ideas from all the methods into prevention of unwanted behavior and intervention to create wanted behavior.

 Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to describe the relationship between the language of thinking and learning to behave.

Participants will be able to describe how language, thinking, and behavior interconnect in order to develop effective pro-social interventions.

Participants will develop an emerging awareness of how to use language to assign pro-social meaning to behavior to help change a person’s perspective.

Learning Objectives: