Reflection #2

In the article “Autism-The Way I See It” Temple Grandin describes the different ways people with autism think. She says that although all people with Autism are detail-oriented, they tend to have visual thinking, music and math thinking, or verbal logic thinking. By recognizing these different learning styles, Grandin suggests that we can use student’s strengths to increase the amount they are able to learn. Although I think Grandin makes some valid arguments, I believe that everyone learns differently, and that this cannot be limited or contained to people with autism, or to any three ways of thinking. I think that learning occurs in such a variety of ways that we need to teach in the hopes of making learning possible for as many students as possible.

I love taking pictures, maybe I'm a visual learner too!

            Donna Williams provides statistics that show how visual thinking is not exclusive to people with autism, and she disputes Grandin in her article “Not Thinking In Pictures,” by claiming that many people with autism do not think in pictures. She says that there are all kinds of learners. Some people use kinesthetic thinking, some use aural/musical thinking, and others use logical/mathematical thinking. Williams uses her own experience to express the struggles she encountered as a person with autism trying to learn to how to process language. She eventually discovered that using gesture as a tool to understand the world helped her overcome many of the learning barriers she faced. Although she seems to feel very strongly that Grandin’s theory of visual thinking is close-minded and incorrect, both authors make similar points, even if the details of their arguments are slightly different: Everyone learns and thinks in different ways, and we need to try to understand these differences and find ways to break through learning barriers and support students who learn in a variety of ways.  But can we create a classroom where all learning styles are valued? Can we provide a high enough level of differentiation so support every student, or will someone always be left out? It seems that with such a wide variety of learners, encompassing every learning style into one lesson could be quite a challenge.

One of my summer camp students,
she seems like a kinesthetic learner, at least at the moment!