Ep. 112 - Autism in Context for True SEL, with Peter Vermeulen, Ph.D.

BIG PICTURE Social Emotional Learning Podcast

Peter Vermeulen, Ph.D., doesn't feel there's much value in ‘defining’ people on the #autism #spectrum by describing their difficulties around social interaction, communication, patterns of behavior, etc., etc. - because he sees all those elements as #consequences of having brains that work in #autistic ways. Conversely, he's written that autism can only be defined in terms of perception and cognition…and only in the context of how an autistic brain experiences the world. JUST THAT, RIGHT THERE opens doors for more empathetic and respectful interactions with our autistic children, family members, students and neighbors.

Peter is not so fond of the term 'neurotypical.' See if you agree with his reasoning... (I did. Surprised?)

AUTISM in CONTEXT - from neurodiversity to neuroharmony:

https://petervermeulen.be/autism-in-context/

A short video that clearly explains autism in context: https://videos.files.wordpress.com/21y5fGDp/autism-as-context-blindness-introduction_hd.mp4

Resources:

The Autism‐Good‐Feeling‐Questionnaire is an informal assessment tool. It’s aim is to give educators, caretakers and other professionals ideas to increase the well‐being of people with an autism spectrum disorder. Here’s a link to a free, English version: https://petervermeulen.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/autism-good-feeling-questionnaire-peter-vermeulen-english.pdf

Some inspiring presentations by Peter shared on YouTube:

Peter Vermeulen at Good Autism Practice Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbrVfIlCfJA

Autism and Happiness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRXdJ3XFKUE

Autism as Context Blindness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEP_QJnN1bU

An upcoming webinar with Peter Vermeulen, titled “Autism and the Predictive Mind: A new and refreshing look at autism”

Many ideas about the autistic brain are based on conceptions about the human brain that are outdated. The computer as a metaphor for the brain, with its input, processing and output, has been very useful in the past, but seems to be incorrect in the light of recent discoveries in brain science. A Copernican revolution is going on in neuroscience and it will change our ideas about the brain significantly. The brain is not working like a traditional computer: the brain is guessing more than it is computing. The brain does not work in a stimulus-response way. The brain predicts the world and it does so in a very context sensitive way. This is known as the predictive coding account of human information processing.