Autism as Context Blindness

by Peter Vermeulen PhD, Brenda Smith Myles PhD (Foreword by)

Overview

Dr. Vermeulen has produced a brilliant work that demands attention. Autism as Context Blindness provides a unique glance into the minds of individuals with autism. A Mom’s Choice Award winner, Autism as Context Blindness provides a unique glance into the minds of individuals with autism. It is simple but groundbreaking. 

Application of Vermeulen’s insights will help autistic people to better understand what causes their challenges. While we have become increasingly familiar with the term autistic thinking, how the autistic brain works is still misunderstood. In this book, inspired by the ideas of Uta Frith, the internationally known psychologist and a pioneer in theory of mind as it relates to autism, Vermeulen explains in everyday terms how the autistic brain functions and highlights the impact of not using context spontaneously. Full of often humorous examples, the book examines context as it relates to perception, social interaction, communication and knowledge. The book concludes with a section on how to address contextual sensitivity—a skill vital for successful functioning. Due to the far-reaching consequences of context blindness, this book is a must-read for those living and working with somebody with autism. Dr. Vermeulen’s insights regarding context blindness deliver fresh perspective on how individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) perceive and respond to their environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937473006
Publisher:	Future Horizons, Inc.
Publication date:	05/04/2012
Pages:	421
Sales rank:	570,709
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Peter Vermeulen, PhD, is an internationally respected lecturer/trainer in the field of autism and has written several books. In 2019, Peter received the Passwerk Lifetime Achievement Award for his more than 30 years of work in the autism field in Belgium.

He trained as a counsellor and educator, and has worked for many years with autistic children. At present he is Autism Consultant and Lecturer at Vlaamse Dienst Autisme, where he edits a bi-monthly magazine Autisme, and a freelance lecturer and trainer. He also works freelance at the Department of Psychology and Pedagogical Sciences and the Department of Sociology at the Universityof Leuven. He has published extensively on autism.

Read an Excerpt

It is not my intention to present a new cognitive account of autism, certainly not at a time when there are reasonable arguments to give up on a single explanation of autism. With the hypothesis of autism as context blindness, I want to stress the importance of context and its role in the subcognitive processes affected in autism. This subcognitive account should be seen as supplementary to the existing cognitive accounts of autism. The next-to-last chapter in the book provides details about the relationship between context blindness and the three main cognitive theories of autism.