Perspective Taking

1. Perspective Taking Autism spectrum and related disorders involve a problem of social perspective taking – How we see and understand something.

2. A Problem of Social Perspective Taking Could Involve … • Failure to understand that others have different thoughts and opinions about things. • Intolerance for another person’s opinion, even a teacher’s. • Inability to understand another person’s point of view. • Difficulty with social compromise. • Difficulty understanding concepts like “sharing” and “taking turns.”

3. A problem with social perspective taking can appear to be oppositional behavior.

4. Social Perspective Taking • Is neurological in nature. • Is a social skill that might require direct teaching and practice. • If a student has difficulty with social perspective taking and that difficulty leads to challenging behavior, it makes sense to create an educational goal to teach the skills needed to take another person’s perspective.

5. Lack of Perspective Taking in SchoolMay be reflected in thoughts/attitudes like the following: • Homework seems repetitive and redundant. • Why can’t I make up the rules? Why is the teacher the boss? • Why should I care about Suzie’s feelings? • I would rather eat Eddie’s lunch than mine. • Who cares if I pick my nose? • Why would I want to share? • People confuse me!

6. Ideas for Helping With Perspective Taking • Add social support to teach the nature of perspective taking • Practice drills reading faces • Use and develop social Stories • Practice 5-Point Scale ratings • Be tolerant of the student, who might initially seem rude or selfish. Discuss the difficulty with the IEP team.