Multimodality and SEL in Autistic Learners
It is essential to begin this article by acknowledging that every learner with ASD is unique and may face varying challenges and accommodations that must be considered. Please note that this article does not aim to provide a comprehensive overview of every aspect related to individuals with autism. Rather, it serves as a resource to promote awareness and offer insights into the topic and is grounded in both empirical research and anecdotal evidence.
First published online November 12, 2023
Kelsey Tilley
Keywords: autism; multimodal learning; social-emotional learning; inclusive education; student-centered; Waldorf education; neuroeducation
In this article, we will explore Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and its potential for autistic students when paired with a multimodal design approach in a private educational setting. Breaking down and tailoring the essentials of SEL and the hands-on approach of multimodal methods, we highlight their combined strengths for engaging and supporting autistic learners. By sharing possibilities of how it can be used in the learning environment, readers will see how this hybrid can encourage communication, self-awareness, and social skills, offering a tailored educational journey that accepts and supports diverse learners.
Are traditional teaching methods falling short for autistic learners? Discover how multimodal methods can elevate Social Emotional Learning to new heights of effectiveness.
Factors to Consider When Teaching SEL to Autistic Students
There are many factors that may need to be considered when teaching SEL to an autistic student. Autism may present differently in varying degrees in different students and each student should be considered individually when creating and tailoring curriculum. Regardless of how autism presents in the student or the comorbidities that they may be facing, students can benefit from a supportive, patient, open, flexible, and understanding approach. That being said, I will discuss some common aspects that can present challenges when teaching SEL to children with autism.
Alexithymia
Alexithymia is a comorbid condition that can accompany ASD and other conditions, but its complex relationship with these conditions is not yet fully understood. Currently, Alexithymia is defined as a condition characterized by difficulty identifying and describing ones emotions, limited emotional awareness, and analytical thinking. In other words, people with alexithymia have difficulty labeling their own emotional states as well as those of others. They may struggle with vocalizing their emotions, picking up on social cues, and tend to think more literally, focusing on external factors such as factual information. Some studies suggest that up to 40-65% of autistic individuals may experience symptoms of alexithymia at varying degrees. Research on this is ongoing and continuing to evolve. It would be beneficial for private educators to understand the nuances of alexithymia in students and can lead to tailored support, enhancing students' academic and social experiences, and empowering them to thrive. For further insights on alexithymia and its impact on education, please refer to my article Alexithymia & Autism Education.
Atypical Sensory Processing
Sensory experiences among autistic students can be different than their peers. It may vary greatly and can be considered as an autistic trait. Hypersensitivity, also known as sensory sensitivity, is characterized by an increased response to sensory stimuli. For example, an autistic student might be bothered by the buzzing of fluorescent lights or humming of electrical equipment, which most people do not notice. In contrast, hyposensitivity, means some might have a reduced sensitivity, such as not noticing their body’s response to ambient temperatures or hunger. In addition, there are those who are sensory-seeking, actively pursuing specific sensory experiences like the sensation of spinning, flapping of hands or the texture of certain materials because it helps emotionally regulate them.
Communication Challenges
Communication challenges in those on the spectrum can present itself in various ways including idiosyncratic speech, which involves unconventional language use including unusual use of tone and pauses in speech. Some might also experience selective mutism, in which the student is silent in certain social situations, or speech delays. They can also appear to have a pedantic speaking style, in which the student uses overly formal, detailed, and literal speech. Such challenges can complicate the process of SEL instruction, potentially impacting their ability to engage, interact, and internalize key social-emotional concepts and practices.
Executive Functioning Challenges
Executive dysfunction in autistic students can present challenges in managing tasks that require planning, initiating, organizing, and completing activities. This cognitive difficulty can make daily routines, transitions, and unexpected changes particularly difficult for them. This can lead to autistic shut downs and meltdowns. When learning, it can impact their engagement and they might struggle with organizing their thoughts during discussions, planning responses in interactive scenarios, or following through on multi-step activities. As SEL often relies on introspection, interacting with others and sequential learning, executive dysfunction can pose barriers, making it essential for educators to employ adapted strategies to support these students effectively.
Analytical Thinking
SEL teaches abstract concepts such as empathy, gratitude, and mindfulness. Many autistic individuals, being analytical thinkers, may find these nuanced ideas challenging if they prioritize factual information. For instance, they might focus more on the facts of events and the changes in routine rather than understanding the emotional reasons behind these changes. Mindfulness, with its emphasis on being present, might be understood mechanically, like focusing on breathing, but its broader purpose could be harder to grasp. Educators need to give clear examples, visual aids, and diverse scenarios to make these abstract concepts more accessible.
Embracing the diversity of autistic experiences, from sensory sensitivities to distinct communication styles, is key to fostering genuine understanding and support in education.
Importance of SEL for Autistic Students
SEL is an educational method that strives to teach social and emotional skills such as self-awareness, building positive relationships and making responsible decisions. SEL instruction for autistic students will inevitably look different than that of allistic students and should be adapted to reflect their unique needs, challenges, and strengths. Many autistic students face difficulties in understanding social cues, reading emotions, picking up on social norms, and managing overwhelming and sometimes confusing feelings.
Essentially, integrating SEL into the educational framework of an autistic student's learning environment offers potential coping tools, supports their communication through accommodations, and provides strategies to help them navigate social and emotional situations.
Adapting SEL Instruction to Autistic Individuals
Self-awareness
Autistic individuals may experience and process emotions differently compared to allistic individuals. Emotions for them can be more abstract and challenging to identify and label. Due to delayed processing, emotions might be identified and understood later, leading the autistic person to backtrack or struggle with regulating emotions in real time. Additionally, they may have difficulty with recognizing and controlling their own facial expressions and vocal tones which are important aspects of communication. Sensory stimuli may also affect them differently, with some being overly bothersome and others providing comfort.
Educators can promote self-awareness in autistic individuals through SEL instruction by concentrating on essential skills such as helping them recognize and understand their own emotions, vocal tones, and facial expressions. Additionally, they can foster self-advocacy skills, highlight the significance of allowing extra time for emotional processing, and guide them in effectively communicating their needs.
Self-management
Autistic individuals can have trouble understanding and controlling their emotions and need support in soothing themselves when feelings overwhelm them. Organizational skills, managing their time, and staying on task can be difficult. Learning self-care and independence is important but challenging without appropriate guidance and support.
Educators can promote self-management by focusing on skills like developing coping strategies for intense emotions and overwhelming feelings. They can teach students practical techniques like breaking down tasks into smaller, more manageable steps, aiding in organization, and time management. Emphasizing self-care practices, including mindfulness exercises can also be helpful in equipping them with the tools they need for effective self-regulation.
Social Awareness
Autistic individuals might find it hard to understand social cues like facial expressions and body language, leading to confusion and misunderstandings in social situations. Factual information is of the utmost importance to them and often times, it is given more weight than the opinions of others. This can be viewed by their allistic peers as lacking empathy. Making and keeping friends can be challenging, as it involves complex social skills like communication and learning and following social norms and rules. They may also have difficulties with knowing who to trust and can find it challenging to discern trustworthy behaviors and intentions in others due to difficulties in interpreting social cues.
Educators can effectively teach social awareness to autistic children by focusing on key skills such as helping them understand and respond to social cues, like facial expressions and body language in a personalized, less overwhelming environment. They can work closely with the student to tactfully balance considering facts and opinions. This involves teaching them how to weigh factual information and various opinions, understanding the importance of both in different contexts. They can provide personalized instruction on social norms, rules, how to discern trustworthiness and provide examples of safe behaviors through role-playing exercises.
Relationship Skills
Autistic individuals often encounter challenges in building and maintaining friendships. They may find it challenging to navigate the intricacies of sharing and turn-taking, which are fundamental aspects of reciprocal social interactions. Additionally, the process of forming friendships often requires nuanced communication and social skills that autistic individuals may need specific help with such as reciprocity. Offering individualized feedback and support tailored to their unique needs is crucial in guiding them through these aspects of social interaction, helping them to foster meaningful and lasting relationships.
Educators can encourage strong relationship skills in autistic individuals by teaching sharing and turn-taking, reciprocity, and providing structured opportunities to practice these skills. By offering tailored feedback and support, they can guide these individuals through real-life social scenarios, effective communication techniques, and understanding social cues.
Responsible Decision-Making
Autistic individuals might face several challenges when it comes to responsible decision-making. They may require support in problem-solving, particularly in breaking down complex situations into more manageable parts and understanding the potential outcomes of different choices. Some autistic children might show atypical responses to fear-inducing situations, either under-reacting or overreacting, due to differences in sensory processing, delayed processing, or emotional regulation. This can greatly impact the decision making process and may require guidance.
Educators can teach responsible decision-making to autistic individuals by helping them break down complex situations, understand choices and outcomes, and manage their unique responses to stress or fear.
Touching Briefly on Multimodality
Multimodal learning occurs when learning is implemented through multiple modes or channels of communication and sensory experiences. The field of multimodality, also known as "modes of meaning," has received significant contributions from scholars such as Gunther Kress, Theo van Leeuwen, Mary Kalantzis, and Bill Cope. This interdisciplinary field of study has been embraced by various disciplines, including linguistics, psychology, communication studies, and education, demonstrating its wide-ranging applicability and influence. The main modes of learning are:
Linguistic: Including spoken and written language
Visual : Such as images, spatial arrangements, and typography
Audio: Including sound, music, and spoken word
Gestural: Body language, facial expressions, and other physical movements
Spatial: The organization of objects and people in space, and how that arrangement contributes to meaning
What Are the Potential Benefits of a Multimodal Approach for Students with Autism?
While it's unrealistic to assume that supporting an autistic student through SEL education will completely eliminate the challenges they face, I propose that integrating SEL through a multimodal design approach that includes synesthesia of the modes has the potential to improve their social and emotional skills. Additionally, this approach could reduce the impact of these challenges on their educational experience. This could lead to improved interactions with teachers and peers, more effective emotional regulation, and heightened engagement in the learning environment.
Building on this premise, I'll now pivot to breaking down the unique benefits that may arise from a multimodal approach to SEL for autistic students. While each autistic child is different, and has different sensory needs, incorporating SEL through multimodal learning supports the child’s learning by experiencing it in different ways. Using different modes of meaning in combination not only supports the child in diverse ways but also reinforces each mode's effectiveness by encoding the information in different parts of the brain.
Neuroeducational Evidence
Neurologically, the brain has specialized regions for processing various types of information. For instance, the visual cortex processes images, the auditory cortex handles sound, the somatosensory cortex manages touch, and the parietal lobe is responsible for spatial recognition, among other functions. When we learn through multiple modes, we activate different parts of the brain, which then collaborate through interconnected neural pathways. This interconnectivity improves recall because a cue in one sensory mode can trigger a memory that's encoded in another.
Presenting information through various modes can distribute cognitive load by engaging different regions of the brain, potentially reducing overall strain. Depending on a child's learning style, this can be tailored to best suit their needs. When the cognitive load for an autistic student exceeds their processing capacity, it can lead to meltdowns, shutdowns, selective muteness, stimming, and so forth. Such reactions can disrupt the learning process and environment. Therefore, educators should strive to recognize the signs early, provide appropriate accommodations, and foster a supportive and inclusive learning environment that caters to the diverse needs of all students.
Personalized Support
A multimodal approach offers flexibility which is important when teaching any child but especially important for teaching an autistic child. If one method isn’t effective or is causing distress, educators can shift to another modality, encouraging emotional regulation & preventing barriers in the learning process. An educator who is able to smoothly transition between the modes according to a student’s needs will be more effective. Thus, it is helpful to be aware of common signs of overstimulation and distress in autistic students. This can be different from student to student and is not limited to but can include stimming, withdrawal, selective muteness, facial expression changes, etc.
What might this look like? Imagine you're teaching the autistic child about emotions using the audio mode, perhaps by singing a song together about feelings. If you notice the child becoming quiet, unresponsive to prompts and disengaged, it's important to first check in with them to identify any potential barriers causing this behavior. If the cause seems to be overstimulation from the audio input, consider transitioning to the visual mode. For instance, you could switch to an activity where you paint different emotions and invite the child to join you in expressing feelings through art. You can incorporate the audio mode in a different way by saying to the child, "When you paint with me, it makes me happy," and then paint a happy face. As well as showing a happy facial expression on your face (gestural mode).
Improving Emotional Communication
Identifying, understanding and articulating internal and external emotions can be a complex and difficult process for some autistic students. Utilizing multimodal methods in teaching SEL not only caters to diverse learning preferences but also enhances communication skills. Recognizing and leveraging these modalities helps provide tools that students can use to communicate and engage deeply with SEL practices.
For instance, when a student becomes overwhelmed, identifying and articulating emotion can become significantly more challenging. This may lead to withdrawal and a reduced capability, or even a complete inability to communicate altogether. In these cases, the visual mode can be employed to support the student by using colors and pictures to help them to communicate their emotions.
“Social and emotional skills are similar to other academic skills in that the initial building blocks are elaborated upon over time and can be combined to address increasingly complex situations that children face.”
Supports Sensory Input
By leveraging a multimodal approach, educators can deeply engage students through hands-on activities that stimulate various sensory pathways, enhancing their understanding and memory retention. Recognizing that many students, especially those who stim, may have distinct sensory preferences that help regulate their autonomic nervous system, this approach not only supports SEL but also accommodates a student’s sensory needs. As a result, the learning experience becomes more enjoyable and memorable for the child.
For instance, an educator can incorporate sensory bins or sensory tools for tactile input, dance for proprioceptive input, music for audio stimulation, and so on and so forth. Alternatively, they can reduce or eliminate sensory inputs that cause distress like bright lights or loud sounds in the learning environment.
Safe Environment to Explore Emotions & Social Life:
Autistic children can benefit from a controlled and safe environment in which they can freely explore and express their emotions and social situations. It's important that they have a trusted individual to guide and support them without judgment. Educators can begin this journey by introducing a modality that the student is already comfortable with, such as the visual mode. As the student gains confidence, other modes can be gradually introduced, always ensuring the pace aligns with the child's comfort and readiness.
Teaching the Whole Autistic Child
It is imperative to emphasize that education will look different from individual to individual, taking in consideration not only the autistic child’s strengths and challenges but also what developmental stage they are in. I lean into Rudolf Steiner's "Head, Heart, and Will" theory to help determine a child’s developmental stage. For further insights on Waldorf Education and how I use it to inspire my methods, please refer to my article Waldorf Inspired Education & Autism.
In this section, I will primarily focus on the first stage, referred to as "will," and the second stage, "heart," as these are the areas where my expertise and experience predominantly lie.
The First Stage: Will (hands/doing)
From birth until around the ages of five to seven, children are in the first pivotal stage of development as outlined by Steiner. The primary internal force being developed during this period is will. This is especially evident in two to three-year-olds, who begin to assert their independence and express themselves. This stage may look different for an autistic child. At around 12-18 months, a typical child might engage in imaginative play, mimic those around them, and begin to say their first words. In contrast, an autistic child might line up toys, prefer solo play, and experience speech delays. Alternatively, some autistic children exhibit symptoms of hyperlexia, where they can read complex texts at a remarkably young age.
The Second Stage: Feeling (heart)
In the second stage, the primary developmental focus shifts from doing to feeling. This stage begins with the loss of baby teeth at around seven years old and lasts until puberty between twelve to fourteen years old. Typically children in this stage start to actively seek friendships. However, autistic children can struggle with these dynamics and may need additional support. Children in this stage of development naturally have less control over their emotions and can lead an autistic child to getting overwhelmed and experiencing meltdowns or shutdowns. This can be confusing and overwhelming and result in the loss of friendships, isolation, and bullying. Educators should take this into consideration, especially if the child is partially verbal, nonverbal, or has alexithymia. They should provide adequate support and protection.
Special Interest & Stimming Inclusivity
Special interests and stimming are both emotional regulators and I have found that embracing them in the educational process, rather than opposing them has yielded more effective results and should be considered when teaching the whole autistic child. Masking and suppressing stims or special interests can be stressful and exhausting. When students don't have to, they are more capable of channeling their focus and energy into other aspects of their educational experience.
Prolonged stress from trying to suppress natural autistic tendencies can impair cognitive functions such as attention, concentration, memory retention, and processing speed. Additionally, it can lead to difficulties with confidence, anxiety and depression. To learn more about special interest inclusivity and how I embrace them in the learning environment, please refer to my article The Role of Special Interests in Education.
“The heart of the Waldorf method is that education is an art—it must speak to the child’s experience. To educate the whole child, their heart and their will must be reached, as well as the mind.”
Incorporating a Multimodal Approach into SEL Curriculum
There are various ways an educator can employ the five modes of meaning to teach autistic children who are in the first and second stages of development. In providing a basic overview, it's important to clarify that this guidance is not exhaustive. It is designed to be flexible, allowing for adaptations and modifications to suit each child's unique needs. Educators can also combine two or more modes of meaning when applicable to make it a more enjoyable, effective and memorable experience.
There are many interactive activities in the five modes that an educator can engage an autistic student student in that can aid in SEL instruction.
Linguistic Mode
Storytelling can be a powerful medium in the to show different aspects of friendship, sharing, or managing emotions. Fables, folktales are great mediums of storytelling that can be used.
Songs and rhymes are a great opportunity to introduce new habits or routines and to teach about emotions.
Visual Mode
Comic strip conversations are a great option to help in breaking down social situations, especially conversational concepts that the child finds challenging.
Picture cards with minimal writing and a situation broken down sequentially can be useful in teaching autistic children the sequence of which events happen.
Color coding emotions using different colors to represent different emotions can be incredibly effective in aiding in the teaching and expressing of communicating difficult emotions especially when they become overwhelming.
Task analysis strips can be implemented to teach and practice conversational skills, break down the steps of daily routines, and aiding in planning out transitions between tasks
Emotion flash cards can be integrated into the SEL curriculum and providing an opportunity to visualize different emotions and discuss how they feel, why different emotions may be triggered and how to manage them.
Painting and coloring can be an enjoyable and effective medium to teach about emotions by creating emotion masks, emotion color wheels, or painting what a character in a story might be feeling.
Audio Mode
Guided sound meditation can be an effective option for teaching students breathing and relaxation techniques while playing soundscapes in the background. This can be adapted into a guided imagery meditation where the educator walks the student through a relaxing beautiful scene (or tailored to their special interest) whilst describing the sensory sensations that they would experience.
Tone of voice recognition can be taught by demonstrating tones associated with emotions and encouraging the student to mimic certain tones. A game of guessing the tones can also be played once the student has gained some confidence in recognizing them. The difficulty can be adapted as the student progresses.
Gestural Mode
Dance and movement is an option that students can be encouraged to express their feelings like jumping for joy when happy or stomping their feet when angry. Slow dance movements and mimicking the motion crying can be used to express sadness. While twirling and jumping can be used to express happiness or excitement. This also can serve as sensory input regulation.
Facial Expressions associated with the different emotions can be taught to the student. Mirrors can be an aid used to show the student their own facial expressions.
Role Play can be used to give the child a safe space to practice skills that they are learning.
Spatial Mode
Spatial games can be played to help teach responsible decision making where the student needs to make choices to proceed through a game mapped out on the floor and the student reaches the “destination” where the outcome of their choice is revealed.
Body Mapping where the student makes a physical representation of their body on paper and trying to identify where they have sensations in different parts of their body like anger or happiness.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a multimodal approach in teaching Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) with synesthesia of the modes offers significant benefits due to its flexibility and capacity to be adapted to support an autism inclusive learning environment. It incorporates visual, auditory, gestural, spatial, and linguistic elements and makes the learning experience more inclusive, engaging, and effective. By making use of these modes, educators can enhance understanding and retention of SEL concepts all the while supporting their students. There are many more ways that educators can adapt this method than mentioned in this article and educators should adapt and expand it according to their student’s specific needs.
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