Self-regulationĪn individual with autism’s information processing differences also impacts on their ability to self-regulate. The National Autistic Society (UK) have published a thorough information sheet on the various uses of visual supports. They have the potential to promote independence, build confidence and raise self-esteem. Visual schedules build on children with autism’s strong visual learning and thinking style and help them to understand and meet expectations. Providing and encouraging the use of visual organisational tools can help to counter the challenges presented by self-management difficulties.

“I cannot hold one piece of information in my mind while I manipulate the next step in the sequence.” Temple Grandin This difficulty with “generalisation” is common among people with autism. These difficulties are compounded by problems encountered with drawing on knowledge gained from prior experiences in order to plan their response to a situation. Others may have difficulty maintaining their attention on required tasks, or organising their thoughts and actions. Some people with autism may have difficulty with complex thinking that requires the ability to make swift connections between different trains of thought. For example, keeping track of due dates for assignments and bringing the required materials for each class can be challenging for many school-aged children with autism. This is likely due to the increase in demands and expectations of independence and self-management that typically occur during this period. Executive functions in the middle yearsĮvidence suggests that impairments in executive functions experienced by people on the autism spectrum are particularly noticeable during the years of transition between childhood and adolescence. For individuals with autism, it can be like the air traffic control room is finding it difficult to understand messages, to organise and prioritise them and to initiate an appropriate response. Just as air traffic controllers enable many planes to use an airport without colliding, so Executive Functions equip us with the ability to remember, focus, plan and respond appropriately to multiple “messages” in our environment. The role of Executive Functions can be compared to an air traffic control room. hold several things in our short term (“working”) memory.Executive FunctionĮxecutive functions are an important set of skills that let people plan, organise and complete tasks.

Differences in these areas account for many of the observable characteristics of autism. Three concepts that help explain how an individual with autism processes information are Executive Function, Weak Central Coherence and Theory of Mind. In order to understand how a person on the autism spectrum experiences the world it is important to understand how he/she processes information.

Weak centeral coherence theory