In the post just above this one, I mentioned the idea that a parent could focus on things that a child can control - like praising a child for his/her efforts made rather than focusing on areas out of a child’s control (like praise for his/her intelligence ). Focusing on things out of the control of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders, given the various difficulties that such conditions can bring in dealings with the world, can lead to a state of ‘learned helplessness’ …
…One cognitive theory that has been researched extensively is the reformulated learned helplessness model. Seligman (1975) defined helplessness as “the physiological state that frequently results when events are uncontrollable”. The individual learns that responding is independent of reinforcement and comes to believe that action is futile. The reformulated theory of learned helplessness hypothesises that when people perceive lack of control and find themselves helpless, they implicitly or explicitly ask why they are helpless. The casual attributions they make regarding this lack of control influence whether the helplessness entails self-esteem and generalises across situations and time.Specifically, support was found for the reformulated theory of learned helplessness with adolescents diagnosed as having Asperger Syndrome. The participants seemed to blame themselves for a negative event or outcome, considered the cause to be consistent over time, and also generalised the cause across situations …
Attribution is a concept in social psychology addressing the processes by which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events. Attribution retraining focuses on modifying learners’ thoughts concerning why they have succeeded or failed on a task. Below is an example of an attribution retraining systematic procedure which is designed to influence an individual’s perception concerning the cause of his performance…
…Is the issue internal or external in locus? Is the issue stable or unstable? Is it controllable or uncontrollable? Situation: Shawn does well in most of his subjects at school except for math. When his parents question why there is such trouble with math he explains that there is nothing he can do about it because he has just “never been good at it and that will never change.”Child Response: By analysing Shawn’s response we can see that he has essentially learned to be ‘helpless’ when it comes to math. Through his experiences he has decided he has no natural skills or talents in math and will have to live with it. He has closed his mind to any possibility for change which certainly does not support positive progress and can become very depressing for him.Another Possible Explanation: If Shawn’s teacher and parents got together with him, perhaps they would find that there is a specific area of math that causes him more difficulty, a learning disability or attention deficits that cause him trouble during class. Arrangements could be made for a tutor or special accommodations that would allow him to find more success and a sense of control over his outcomes. Shawn would see possibilities for controlling the situation and then build on small successes until he gained confidence in his ability to achieve moderately well in math.
(sources: Tony Attwood - Author of The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome - Attributional Style and Depression in Adolescents with Asperger Syndrome ; Supporting problem-solving skills | Autism Support Network )