Learning occurs best through exploration and experimentation. 

​

Even though, as we work our way up through years of school, from primary to secondary and beyond, gaining study and memorization strategies, most of us learn most efficiently by experiencing ideas concretely: Hands-on learning.  

​

I can explain to you how to ride a bike. I can show you diagrams and videos of other people riding bikes. I can teach you the physics of motion and gravity and the forces that combine to make bike riding possible. But we can all agree that the only way to truly understand bike riding is to experience it for yourself. And the only way to ultimately gain the skill is through exploration and experimentation. In other words, you’ll probably have to fall down and get back up at least a few times before you get the knack. 

​

Passive Versus Active 

Yet, in our knowledge-based evolution of learning with digital devices like ipads and laptops, most children spend less time actively exploring and experimenting in concrete tangible ways and more time passively watching digitized information. Their learning…kinda. 

There’s no argument that it’s useful to have a good base-knowledge of facts.. to passively memorize mathematics for example, and to identify animals of the world by name. But to accelerate and enhance a child’s learning, there’s nothing that competes with hands-on active experimenting and exploration.  

​

Lovaas’ Limits

I think it’s unfortunate that some of the most prevalent autism therapy, in the form of Applied Behavior Analysis, restricts children’s experimentation in favor of memorizing rote patterns. 

​

Based on Ivar Lovaas’s seminal autism research, autistic students are taught extremely specific  “programs” of discrete learning. In fact, making mistakes (ie what I label as exploring and experimenting) is sometimes disallowed and stopped in the pursuit of what is called errorless learning. These autism approaches are ubiquitous and exist in the face of what naturalistic learning theory tells us (ie the way that children naturally learn best). 

​

Lovaas was a pioneer who brought autism into the spotlight. But his approach was incomplete. He overlooked some very powerful natural learning that could be enhanced and encouraged. 

​

The Best of Both

Maria Montessori, founder of the world-famous Montessori education method, arguably designed a more complete method than Lovaas. She used patterned activities with discrete goals like Lovaas did, but with the added power of giving her special needs students lots of time to experiment and explore on their way to the end goal. 

​

She allowed students to make mistakes. And lots of them, with the understanding that mistakes are a hugely useful learning opportunity on the way to mastery. 

​

Forty years after Ivar Lovaas’s seminal research, the ABA field that he founded is only just now discovering and recognizing the value of naturalistic learning in programs like the Early Start Denver Model and, my favourite, the Jasper Model.  

​

It’s clear that young children, including autistic children, can benefit from both. Time on their own to simply be creative through experimentation, without an adult agenda or goal, has been shown to lead to new learning for all children. And more structured adult-directed learning gives children a base of facts and knowledge that then matures their own experimentation and creativity. 

​

Stop to Smell the Roses

Outside of school and outside of autism therapy, parents spend most family time shepherding their children to and from activities, through meals, and necessary chores like shopping and cleaning. And in our rush to get through the To Do list, we mostly supervise our kids to keep up: “Don’t touch that”, “Don’t run in the store”, and “We don’t have time” are common things we repeat! 

​

But it turns out that you can accelerate your autistic child’s learning by allowing for more pauses, for them to explore things that motivate them along the way.

​

If your child stops to look in a store window, instead of saying “We don’t have time”, indulge in 60 seconds of looking with them. Stop to look in the window, show interest in what they see. Maybe it’s an object, maybe they’re watching another person inside, or maybe their own reflection in the window. There’s probably a learning opportunity in this moment. They may be open to you teaching them new vocabulary or to explaining something they’re watching. 

​

I call this Stopping to Smell the Roses - a saying that reminds us to slow down, pause, and take time to enjoy the journey. I believe that when we stop to smell the roses we not only enjoy more but we can learn more.  

​

The next time your autistic child is focused and motivated on something other than your To Do list, consider pausing with them. Plan to allow your child to explore more things they gravitate toward. In your rush to get to the next appointment or class, it’s easy to miss the learning opportunity when they bend down to look at a snail crossing the sidewalk. They may be looking up just as you are about to cross the road, and in haste, you pull them away from their focus on the bird in the sky or the flag flying above.

​

Weekends and vacation, when you have less of an agenda, are a perfect time to indulge your child’s interests and pace. 

​

One way to remember to give them this time during regular weekdays is for you yourself to be present with your surroundings. Look more closely at the grass and the trees. Listen more closely to the street sounds and conversations around you. In other words, turn off your mind-chatter and tune into your senses!  Many autistic children are hyper-tuned to their senses.

Be your child’s natural learning partner: When they pause to experience a sensation or to observe a detail, get down on their level and join in with their exploration. Explore alongside them. Show your interest. Model how to be attentive to a friend, and provide language and vocabulary to narrate some of their learning.

​

This week, stop and smell the roses!