Children with autism who learn something do not always do so in the same way as other children. In this article we will discuss how children with autism learn and develop and how this is different from an average child.

Children learn through imitation

Newborn babies can already imitate behavior. You may recognize it, sticking out the tongue or opening the mouth. Toddlers aged 12 to 18 months spontaneously imitate one to two new behaviors per day. Children with autism have problems imitating the behavior of others. Not that they don’t imitate; Sometimes they imitate the behavior of others very often and quite literally. Children with autism imitate as often as other children, but the quality of the imitations is different. The main observation is that imitation develops slowly in children with autism.

Children learn because they are curious

The urge to seek and discover new things and challenges is essential for cognitive and social development. Children with autism seem less curious and have less urge to explore. Children with autism tend to like familiar and predictable activities and places more because they know what to expect.

Children learn because they want to please others

A child does not always get the motivation to learn from himself. Children often learn something to please others (this is also called extrensic motivation). This is much less true for children with autism. They are more often motivated if they find it interesting themselves.

Children learn through encouragement

Everyone can use some encouragement, but especially young children need verbal and non-verbal encouragement in their learning process. They do not yet have sufficient self-knowledge to observe and assess their own behavior. Children with autism certainly need encouragement as well. We have to make sure that the child understands the encouragement. The child must see the connection between his behavior and the encouragement so that he can also learn something from it.

Children learn when they feel safe

A child with autism experiences and understands the world differently. The environment often finds it difficult to understand a child with autism. This causes a lot of frustration and stress. Not ideal conditions for developing and learning new skills. It is therefore important that the parenting situation is adjusted in such a way that the child with autism experiences as little stress as possible.
For the child with autism, the learning process must be adapted to his level, his rhythm and his needs. The learning method must be explicit and concrete. Children with autism can make progress regardless of their age or their intellectual level, but you have to set realistic expectations.

Cognitive problems in children with autism

Children with autism have cognitive deficits that prevent them from always understanding what you are trying to explain or teach them. They experience and process the information from the outside world differently. Characteristic are:

A lack of central coherence

Children with autism have difficulty putting the information into context or interpreting it correctly. There is often a great eye for detail, so that the information is processed fragmented and not into a whole.

A lack of ‘theory of mind’

They have difficulty recognizing and understanding the feelings and intentions of others and adjusting their behavior accordingly. In particular, adjusting behavior in response to the other person’s feelings is difficult for people with autism.

A shortage in executive functions

Children with autism have difficulty with the following executive functions, among others:
learning to plan, evaluate behavior, flexibility, problem-solving ability

A leap and bounds development

The development of children proceeds in leaps and bounds. They must have acquired certain skills before they can develop new ones. For example, a child must be able to grip a spoon before it can learn to eat with a spoon. Children may even show a relapse, but also make sudden progress in a certain area. All this is even more true for children with autism. They sometimes linger on the same level for a long time and then suddenly take a step forward. It sometimes happens that a child with autism suddenly masters a new skill without practicing it. Think of suddenly being able to cycle.

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