Learning With a Visual Brain in an Auditory World: Visual Language Strategies for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present parents and educators with perplexing symptoms. Even though the skills of children with ASD can range from very high to very low, they have similar underlying learning systems. Knowledge about these learning systems helps provide direction for choosing effective assessment and intervention methods for helping individuals with ASD learn to behave, to perform academically, and to become socially competent.This book is unique in that the authors are recommending strategies based on the language of the way individuals with ASD learn. Even though many scholars recognize that individuals with ASD use "visual" ways of thinking, most fail to realize that a visual mental language is different from the visual sensory system of seeing something.The book is divided into three sections. Section One (Chapters 1-5) is about the learning system. Section Two (Chapters 6-9) connects the learning of a child with ASD to how the child performs behaviorally, academically, and socially. Finally, Section Three (Chapters 10-15) provides intervention strategies for helping a person (child or adult) with the visual brain characteristic of ASD to fit into an auditory culture.The strategies are language-based and take into consideration the complexity of the underlying biological learning system. More

Carole Kaulitz, M.Ed.,CCC/SLP, is currently self-employed as a Speech-Language Pathologist/Autism Consultant. She has worked in many public schools systems over the past 32 years in a variety of roles related to working with students with autism spectrum disorders. Her expertise centers on developing a collaboration/consultation communication model for educators working with students with autism spectrum disorders of all ages and language/learning levels with a focus on visual strategies and social communication. Carole has extensive training in multi-methodologies related to autism, and has presented numerous workshops about Visual Learning Systems, Language/Learning Assessments, and Strategies for Learning with a Visual Brain to interested professionals and parents throughout the State of Washington and parts of Oregon and California.Carole lives in Washington State with Don, her husband of 32 years, and her son, David, and daughter, Sarah, who are learning to navigate the adult world.Dr. Ellyn Lucas Arwood, a speech-language pathologist, educator and special educator for the past 35 years. She began working with children with autism in 1972. Shortly after that, she engaged in application research for children who would be diagnosed today as having autism spectrum disabilities. In 1975, she began her doctoral work with a dissertation in speech for children with autism spectrum disabilities, referred to as emotionally disturbed children in the era. Since then she is the author of five textbooks; numerous articles, chapters, and monographs, Dr. Arwood began using drawing with nonverbal students in 1971, developing it into drawn pictures, event-based pictures, cartoons and flowcharts. More