Thought I would share an article I ran across today that helps me in my thinking about integrating the autistic mind.... and guiding children to develop different areas of their brains for whole brain decision making.
This article and recent neuroscience research lead us away from the simplistic view described in The Whole Brain Child (before the authors wrote No Drama Discipline) that there is a right and left hemisphere controlling either creativity (right) or logic (left). The probable story we can glean from now having active MRIs (or functional MRIs) is that different experiences and tasks activate specific areas of the brain. When we are asked to solve more complex tasks or problems, more areas of the brain must be activated for solving that problem (e.g., logic, sensory experiences, past experiences) to then collaborate or interact together for full, creative, and sound decision making.
Our job, then, as parents with children with developing brains (or ones that may have more trouble with integrating regions) requires us to guide that process of integration.... leading us back to such books and parenting wisdom as No Drama Discipline for guiding children to better decision making.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/2013/08/19/the-real-neuroscience-of-creativity/
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Friday, November 7, 2014
Chapter 2 reflections: Your Brain on Discipline
"Neurons that fire together, wire together."
We can provide opportunities for childrens' brains to grow and connect in new ways that will better support more sound decision making - autism or not!
Chapter two is a great chapter for better understanding what is happening in the human brain, including those with autism. This chapter offers a very basic description of the areas of the brain and how they function. They also describe areas that may not function well, when they are still developing.
This chapter helps us understand that in typical development, the brainstem and limbic system (what the authors call the "downstairs brain"), are fully functional at birth. They control our automatic responses to keep us alive in the face of danger. They also ensure basics such as breathing, regulating our digestion, and sleep or wake cycles.
The cerebral cortex is responsible for the higher level thinking that helps govern our thinking, emotional, and relational skills for balance and to create meaning from our lives. This area of the brain begins to develop in infancy and childhood. This area of the brain is typically responsible for such activities as:
•Sound decision making and planning
•Regulation of emotions and body
•Personal insight
•Flexibility and adaptability
•Empathy
•Morality
We are still unclear as to whether areas of the brains of autistics are different structurally, but this certainly sheds light on the idea that there are concrete developmental reasons that children with and without autism may have difficulty with the higher level reasoning and decision making we often expect of them! Most likely, there are areas of the brains of people with autism which are more or less developed than others.
"When we know about the brain, we can guide our minds - how we pay attention, how we think, how we feel, how we interact with others - in ways that support solid, healthy brain development across the life span." pg 36
We are all familiar with times we, as adults, have lost control. We have moments when we do not make the best decisions and/or manage our own emotions to the level we would have liked or know to handle ourselves... and we are adults with fully functional cerebral cortexes (or "upstairs brains" as they call them in the book)! We need to remember, when guiding our children with and without autism, that not only are they human, they may not have full functionality of areas of their brains that govern that thinking.... and may not for several years to come.
Does this mean we lower expectations for behavior? Absolutely not. What that means is that we may need to act as a bit of a "stand in" at times for those areas of their brains to best support them in developing fully and optimally.
".... a child's developing brain is simply another reason we need to set clear boundaries and help her understand what's acceptable.... We need to help develop our children's upstairs brain - along with all of the skills it makes possible - and while doing so, we may need to act as an external upstairs brain along the way, working with them and helping them make decisions they're not quite capable yet of making for themselves." pg 39
Parenting or guiding a child from this understanding about the brain and its development, can help us have more compassion in those moments when our children are losing control and having trouble managing themselves. We become "stand ins" for the areas of the brain that are not yet functioning to their capacity.
That said, I know from my own parenting, that this takes a lot of patience and clarity in very tough moments when tempers are flared. How many moments have we all known exactly what NOT to say just as it is leaving our mouths!? Remember, no one is perfect. If you do hear it as it comes out of your mouth, you are that much closer to the time that you will stop, take a deep breath, remember to connect with the areas of your child's brain that are not functioning as well (usually areas that control and manage emotions)...
How this seems to play out interestingly with autism is that a child may say something very concrete and seemingly unrelated, like "I want Nemo!" when they are actually upset about something else. Word finding while also managing emotions, transitions, confusion is extra challenging for those on spectrum. Therefore, if you react to the "Nemo" request with either agreeing or disagreeing/not allowing... you are essentially staying with your child's trying to figure things out from a static/concrete perspective (or just certain areas of his brain). However, if you assume intent and respond to the child's escalated emotional state... by connecting with him on a physical eye level with touch (if acceptable to your child), slowing yourself down, and truly guiding his thinking to his emotional response vs. thinking that this item will solve everything... you are not only helping alleviate the moment but also helping to exercise areas of his brain that need support.
We can provide opportunities for childrens' brains to grow and connect in new ways that will better support more sound decision making - autism or not!
Chapter two is a great chapter for better understanding what is happening in the human brain, including those with autism. This chapter offers a very basic description of the areas of the brain and how they function. They also describe areas that may not function well, when they are still developing.
This chapter helps us understand that in typical development, the brainstem and limbic system (what the authors call the "downstairs brain"), are fully functional at birth. They control our automatic responses to keep us alive in the face of danger. They also ensure basics such as breathing, regulating our digestion, and sleep or wake cycles.
The cerebral cortex is responsible for the higher level thinking that helps govern our thinking, emotional, and relational skills for balance and to create meaning from our lives. This area of the brain begins to develop in infancy and childhood. This area of the brain is typically responsible for such activities as:
•Sound decision making and planning
•Regulation of emotions and body
•Personal insight
•Flexibility and adaptability
•Empathy
•Morality
We are still unclear as to whether areas of the brains of autistics are different structurally, but this certainly sheds light on the idea that there are concrete developmental reasons that children with and without autism may have difficulty with the higher level reasoning and decision making we often expect of them! Most likely, there are areas of the brains of people with autism which are more or less developed than others.
"When we know about the brain, we can guide our minds - how we pay attention, how we think, how we feel, how we interact with others - in ways that support solid, healthy brain development across the life span." pg 36
We are all familiar with times we, as adults, have lost control. We have moments when we do not make the best decisions and/or manage our own emotions to the level we would have liked or know to handle ourselves... and we are adults with fully functional cerebral cortexes (or "upstairs brains" as they call them in the book)! We need to remember, when guiding our children with and without autism, that not only are they human, they may not have full functionality of areas of their brains that govern that thinking.... and may not for several years to come.
Does this mean we lower expectations for behavior? Absolutely not. What that means is that we may need to act as a bit of a "stand in" at times for those areas of their brains to best support them in developing fully and optimally.
".... a child's developing brain is simply another reason we need to set clear boundaries and help her understand what's acceptable.... We need to help develop our children's upstairs brain - along with all of the skills it makes possible - and while doing so, we may need to act as an external upstairs brain along the way, working with them and helping them make decisions they're not quite capable yet of making for themselves." pg 39
Parenting or guiding a child from this understanding about the brain and its development, can help us have more compassion in those moments when our children are losing control and having trouble managing themselves. We become "stand ins" for the areas of the brain that are not yet functioning to their capacity.
That said, I know from my own parenting, that this takes a lot of patience and clarity in very tough moments when tempers are flared. How many moments have we all known exactly what NOT to say just as it is leaving our mouths!? Remember, no one is perfect. If you do hear it as it comes out of your mouth, you are that much closer to the time that you will stop, take a deep breath, remember to connect with the areas of your child's brain that are not functioning as well (usually areas that control and manage emotions)...
How this seems to play out interestingly with autism is that a child may say something very concrete and seemingly unrelated, like "I want Nemo!" when they are actually upset about something else. Word finding while also managing emotions, transitions, confusion is extra challenging for those on spectrum. Therefore, if you react to the "Nemo" request with either agreeing or disagreeing/not allowing... you are essentially staying with your child's trying to figure things out from a static/concrete perspective (or just certain areas of his brain). However, if you assume intent and respond to the child's escalated emotional state... by connecting with him on a physical eye level with touch (if acceptable to your child), slowing yourself down, and truly guiding his thinking to his emotional response vs. thinking that this item will solve everything... you are not only helping alleviate the moment but also helping to exercise areas of his brain that need support.
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