Keywords

ASD, visual structure, education, visual supports

Abstract

World renowned animal scientist and autism self-advocate Temple Grandin said, "People on the autism/Asperger spectrum have uneven skills. They are often good at one type of learning and bad at another. Educators need to work on building up the area of strength." She explains that three cognitive areas of strength are those who are visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, and word thinkers. Visual thinkers are more inclined to think in pictures rather than words. They may excel in graphic design, industrial design, animation, geometry, or trigonometry. Pattern thinkers have abstract visual thoughts where they can see patterns and relationships between numbers. These students may be good at engineering, math, or computer programming. Word thinkers may seem to know every fact about their favorite topic and may be successful in journalism or technical writing (Grandin, 2009).

Original Publication Citation

Dyches, T. T. (21). Provide visual structure for students with ASD. The Utah Special Educator, 33(2), 34-35.