Guided Demonstration and ProLoQuo2Go

A few nights ago, Jman and I were on the couch late in the evening. I pulled out the ProLoQuo2Go and navigated around to produce the message, “Good night. Let’s go to bed.” Jman watched what I was doing, and agreed with the thought. We got up and got ready for bed.

The next night I went into Jmans’ room to say good night to him, and he took the iPod and punched In, “Good night. Let’s go to bed.”

One of the important things we learned from our days of formal RDI was Guided Demonstration. So often we parents of autistic kids try to get our kids to do something, to perform. Often though, we expect them to perform before they have any idea what they are supposed to do. One aspect of autism is that they are very bad at reading someone else’s mind, knowing what they are thinking or expecting or intending. And so we often expect the child to do something for us, but we fail at helping them know what it is they are supposed to do.

Now consider that most folks on the spectrum have anxiety issues, related in part to the fact that they can’t read other people’s minds very well. When they do try to join in, they often make mistakes, and they have enve more trouble trying to fix those mistakes or recover from them. Often it’s easier to just avoid joining in at all, especially when no one seems to be particularly aware of or helpful about your challenges. The person on the spectrum is expected to join in, to play a part, but for a variety of reasons related to autism, they don’t know what they’re expected to do, and it’s quite stressful.

With Guided Demonstration, the Guide (adult/parent/teacher/person with a clue) can first model for the apprentice (child/learner/person needing a clue and security) without placing any expectations or pressure on the apprentice to perform or to even join in. Many people, not just those on the spectrum, like to watch someone else before trying something new themselves, or prefer to have an example or a model to work from, even if their final creation turns out completely different from the sample. For someone who doesn’t easily read minds or intentions and who probably has performance anxieties too, ismply modeling for them without immediate expectations can create a sense of safety that not only enables them to learn, but also ultimately invites them to join in when they feel ready to try (as opposed to demanding that they join in before they feel ready to try).

So, all that to say that rather than teaching or expecting Jman to say good night with (or without) the ProLoQuo2Go, I simply modeled for him one way to do it. I let him look on while I navigated through the screens, and he watched. In addition, what I modeled was contextually appropriate at the time—it really was time to go to bed. Later, when he was ready to use his new info himself, he voluntarily and spontaneously used the iPod to tell me good night.

I should also add that following his good night message to me, he backed up and explored some of the other greetings preprogrammed on the “Hi, Bye” page of ProLoQuo2Go. Those were not directed to me, as was the good night message, as evidenced by his body language. When he was just exploring on his own, he wasn’t making the somewhat subtle eye and body orientation changes that would indicate he was addressing me. Instead, he was intrigued by his discovery of when and how to use the ‘good night’ greeting, and was now studying the other options on the greetings page, pushing the buttons and reading and listening to the responses, perhaps considering when those other greetings might be useful in the future or why they didn’t apply to going to bed.

Guided Demonstration works well no matter what activity or lesson you’re hoping to help your child learn. It gives the child the opportunity to safely observe and prepare before having to risk his own performance. It increases his chances of joining in successfully. It increases his feeling of safety and security with you. Trust is essential to helping your child with autism. We’ve been intentionally using Guided Demonstration for a long time now with James. In the case of saying, “Good Night” with the ProLoQuo2Go, he picked it up very quickly and subsequently used it for himself very quickly. Granted, he already was familiar with both pecs and with navigating through ProLoQuo2Go in general, and he was familiar with the context/routine of going to bed. When it’s an entirely new activity and he has no context or foundation upon which to build, we have to do more demos, more scaffolding, backing up to lay useful foundations. Guided Demonstration preceded Guided Participation and is one way of slowing down in order to go faster.