By Richard Finegan
It has frequently been observed that children on the autism spectrum tend to be concrete and literal thinkers who have difficulty with abstract concepts like inferring a character’s unstated motive. When reading fiction, the concrete thinkers will focus narrowly on the minute physical details and often miss the “big picture.”
Fernando’s red jacket flapped in the wind as he raced on his new bicycle down Maple Street. Ignoring the stop sign at the end of the block, Fernando ran straight into the side of a passing city bus. When he woke up he heard a siren and realized he was in the back of an ambulance.
The child with autism should have no difficulty telling you that Fernando’s jacket was red, and his bike was new. He probably would be able to report that Fernando ran into a bus.
Yet some may not recognize that the person in the ambulance is Fernando, because Fernando’s name is not stated in the last sentence, only the pronoun “he” is used (an example of anaphora). Children with autism frequently will not connect one sentence to the next, even within paragraphs.
While it may seem to us both obvious and critically important for the reader to recognize that Fernando is injured, the child with autism may make no such connections without coaching. They do not always think about the ramifications of coats flapping in the wind, bicycles speeding, and stop signs ignored. The visual image of a child’s body striking the side of a moving bus does not automatically come to them, or necessarily suggest to them an ambulance ride to the hospital, or worse.
Anaphoric cuing (about which there are several articles on this blog) teaches the child to stop when he gets to anaphora and ask himself who or what, or where or when or why questions to focus his attention on the meaning of what he is reading by identifying the referent words. The reader needs to think about who is waking up in an ambulance, and why. Was Fernando napping or was he knocked unconscious?
Inferring motive
A character’s motives may be similarly difficult for the child with autism to recognize, even when they seem clear to most readers.
Bob’ s favorite green Boston Celtics hat was missing from his locker! He looked up and down the hallway and spotted George wearing a green hat! Bob ran down the hall, shoved George against the wall, and grabbed the hat off his head. As Bob was walking away, he noticed that the green hat he was holding said Dallas Mavericks.
The child with autism might know that Celtic hats are green, might know Bob’s was missing, might know the hat George was wearing was green, and yet may be stumped by the question: Why did Bob shove George and take his hat? Since the text does not explicitly say that Bob suspected George of taking his hat, the reader with autism might not make this seemingly obvious inference.
How to infer state of mind, emotion, or motive from a character’s actions is something that must be taught patiently to young readers with autism. Often the teacher or aide must have to learn how to recognize themselves when they are inferring so they can guide the student to a similar inference.
What is most likely?
When a character is described as frowning and speaking loudly, we may infer “anger” without even being aware we made an inference.
Julia waited on the front porch of Elizabeth’s house for 15 minutes. When Elizabeth finally came outside, Julia frowned and asked loudly, “Can we go now?”
The concrete thinker, if asked, might surprise us with the number of other possible (if implausible) explanations for speaking loudly while frowning. They can always come up with fanciful scenarios (“maybe a caterpillar crawled in her ear“) which have no connection whatsoever to the text. They may need to be prompted to focus their thinking on what is most common and most likely under the circumstances of the story.
- What are the most common reasons why someone would do that?
- What is the most likely reason this character is doing that, considering what just happened to her?
Keeping track of details is a strength
When instructing a whole classroom of students, most of which do not have autism, on a long piece of fiction one may discover an advantage that many readers with autism have: they can often keep track of a surprising number of minor characters and minute details, even if they have difficulty connecting them.
A high school student with autism, having studied an abridged version of Romeo and Juliet for several weeks in class, was watching the Zefferelli film and laughed to himself when Romeo’s servant, Balthazar, passes a monk on a donkey while on his way to Mantua to tell Romeo of Juliet’s apparent death. “Friar John” the student said. Friar John was not named in the version of the play studied. The name was mentioned once in class weeks before.
I have also observed (to my surprise) that some children with autism are as capable as other kids of learning the meaning of idioms such as “nose to the grindstone” or “sick as a dog” or “hold your horses.” In fact, they may even recognize the humor in certain idioms, once they learn the meaning, that others more familiar with the terms may overlook. Drawing an absurd picture to illustrate a witty idiom may be great fun for these children.
