Vicarious Learning Blog

Observational Learning and Autism

More often than not, when discussing the relative strengths of direct participation vs observational/vicarious participation, active/direct participation is seen to be superior. In educational terms this makes perfect sense. In being an active participant one is able to use ones full senses to explore an environment or to ask personally relevant questions. This deepens the strength of the learning experience. However, learning also has a strong emotional component. One which can be overpowering for some individuals. In facing learning environments one pushes oneself beyond what is known, into a new unfamiliar territory. For people who are shy, insecure and low on self-efficacy such learning situations can be unpleasant and deeply stressful. In such cases the potential to learn is counteracted by social and emotional demands of the environment. One answer for such people is to provide them with the option for observational learning or vicarious learning. This allows then to remove themselves from the emotional component of the learning experience and ease themselves into this unfamiliar environment or situation. The Children Hospital Boston has an innovative language program exploiting the potential of observational learning. This seeks to provide people with behavioral difficulties such as those with autism and Asperger's a series of tailored video lessons from which to learn:

Our Observational Learning Project in the ALP focuses on developing materials to teach imitation, social skills and daily living skills (dressing, hygiene), as well as improving language and communication.

Posted at 05:03PM Jun 24, 2008 by Finbar Dineen in General  |  Comments[0]