教育日誌コミュのUnderstanding The True Message Behind A Word

I often witness that many ASD students have a difficulty understanding the true meaning behind a word when they have conversation with other people, especially joke, sarcasms, irony, and metaphors, etc. It is important for ASD students learn non-verbal communications, which help ASD students better understand the true message behind a word.

Tennen-kun lives in a school dorm and has two roommates. One day, Tennen-kun arrived a little late for our meeting, but it was just 5 minutes late. Tennen-kun usually is on time with our appointment. I said jokingly, "You were late for our meeting." Tennen-kun apologized for being late. I explained him that he is always on time so was surprised that he was a little late, but it's not a big issue. He then explained me why he was late. The morning, Tennen-kun saw his roommate was failed down in the kitchen with mowing. His roommate somehow could not stand up. Tennen-kun asked his roommate, "Are you ok?" His roommate replied, "I'm ok." However, his face looked very sick and his voice was soft. His true meaning behind the word was that he was not ok. But Tennen-kun thought his roommate said ok so decided to leave him. Tennen-kun did not think through what his roommate was doing. After Tennen-kun left his roommate, he run into his another roommate who found that their roommate was not doing good. Tennen-kun's another roommate asked him, "Why you were leaving him alone there? You were a very cold person." Tennen-kun did not understand why his roommate was mad at him. Tennen-kun tried to explain his roommate that their roommate said he was ok, so he left him there. However, his roommate could not still understand Tennen-kun.

After Tennen-kun stopped by my office, he asked me what he did wrong. I explained the true message behind his roommate saying "I'm ok, but not ok." When I asked Tennen-kun, "So when you tried to ask him if he is ok, how his face looked like? How about his voice? Did he look happy or sad?" Tennen-kun replied, "He did not look happy." I replied, "Then he probably would need some immediate help. Did you ask if he would need some help?" Tennen-kun replied, "No I didn't. I should have asked him." We discussed it would be always helpful to observe people's non-verbal communications such as gestures, tone of voice, and facial expression to figure out the true message behind a word. We discussed some other similar situations and showing some of the pictures that can be very confusing to ASD students, such as a situation that a person is crying with smile at the graduation ceremony and an angry person saying "I'm fine" during the argument with someone, etc.

After our session is done, Tennen-kun decided to apology to his roommates for his action.