It may sound pretentious to try to answer this question, and it truly is. There are so many unknowns regarding the Autism Spectrum that it's very daring to pose this question, attempting to sketch out what really happens with language development in this disorder.
The theory is very clear, but not so clear when we analyze what actually happens with the language acquisition process in this type of child. We know that these are children with significant social difficulties, overstimulated by the amount of information they receive from simple social interactions. Isn't it crazy to pose challenges in the midst of stressful and anxious situations where the child has no resources and expect successful results? How can we approach learning the most difficult social and communicative aspect of language in such a hostile social context?
Don't children really learn language spontaneously? How many times have nonverbal children, "without language," come to our consultations and start saying colors in English, reproducing dialogue from animated movies, singing songs from videos... They naturally choose a source of learning through videos, songs, and always through repetition. A medium in which they autonomously develop language skills that later become socially functional in other contexts.
Returning to the textbook theory... aren't our children visual, auditory, non-social, and with a mathematical, systematic, and orderly learning style? This is the starting point where the VICON Method was born. We boldly took a gamble and focused on this gap to analyze it and find not one path, but multiple paths to develop a method that successfully produces language in cases where other methods have fallen by the wayside. An audiovisual, musical, and intensive tool.
VICON method uses:
- The Image.
- The Video.
- The Music.
- Sign Language.
An essential aspect is that it avoids visual overstimulation by timing images, transitions, and verbal and nonverbal messages to ensure they are clear, concise, and noninvasive. It follows systematically hierarchical phases from the foundation through all stages of language development to the most complex conversational skills, guiding the child visually with techniques specifically designed for autonomous and functional language development in a spontaneous and individualized manner.
If they can't even learn the way we teach them
We will teach in the way they can learn.
(OI Lovaas)
Cristina Oroz Bajo
Co-founder of the VICON Method