Autism and Understanding

The Waldon Approach to Child Development

Walter Solomon, Chris Holland, Mary Jo Middleton

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781446209240, 9781446209233
• eBook ISBN: 9781446291641
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

[The authors] provide a detailed breakdown of the scientific underpinnings of Waldon?s theory in language accessible enough for parents and rigorous enough to satisfy the informed researcher/practitioner.  
 - The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Daniel S. Posner, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Icahn School of medicine at Mt Sinai, New York, NY


The author sets out an approach based on Dr Geoffrey Waldon?s philosophy of the development of understanding, which centres on helping children learn-how-to-learn.

The book includes:

- The inspirational and well documented story of the author?s son, diagnosed at two with autism and as ?basically sub-normal?, now a successful professional with a wife and child.

- An introduction to Geoffrey Waldon?s theory and working methods.

- Testimony from parents and teachers, covering autism and a range of learning difficulties.

This book does not offer a ?miracle cure? for autism, although the author aims to counteract the prevailing view that autism is a lifetime condition. The author demonstrates that with the appropriate intervention, children with autism - and other special needs - can gain a fuller understanding of the world and learn to take a constructive and contributing place in it.

Teachers, therapists, doctors, parents and special interest groups will find this book an important and potentially transformational read.

1

Early Days 1968–1972

‘Does he know he’s in a different garden?’

In this chapter we trace Robert from birth, through the suspicion that he was not developing in a typical manner; to a series of documented visits to his GP and various specialists; and to the start of his lessons with Dr Geoffrey Waldon.

Walter

‘Does he know he’s in a different garden?’ asked Hannah¹ as we sat in the shrub-filled garden of her Knutsford home one glorious summer’s day in early September 1971. Robert was three and a bit, and had thoroughly inspected and flushed all the toilets in the house, and unrolled as many rolls of paper as he could get hold of; and he was now running happily in circles round and round the lawn. He was talking, but not making much sense, and it was clear that this good-looking, sturdy little boy had started life on a different track.

I was present at the birth except for the final moments of the forceps delivery and I will never forget the gynaecologist’s impatience as he waited for the anaesthetist to arrive. It seems as though we waited for ever with him saying: ‘Where is he?’ ‘Tell him to hurry’. But born he was, marginally underweight, which meant a week’s stay in an incubator. But he and Pamela came home on schedule and I will never forget the pride of that day.

Robert was such a good baby. We thought we were blessed. He rarely cried. He went to sleep without complaint. He allowed us to enter and leave his room without protest. Of course these were signs but we were new young parents and did not know what to look for or what we were looking at. He walked late, talked late and failed to create the normal affectionate bond between mother and child. I so well remember Pamela hugging and kissing him and thinking the relationship somehow awkward and unnatural but did not understand that this was her response to Robert’s seeming indifference to her.

In actual, and terrible, fact he gradually became a nightmare child. He screamed, he had tantrums, he ignored us. He was happy when he was alone, squinting sideways at the world or looking through his fingers, spinning a large multicoloured top, or splashing in the paddling pool. But he never intereacted with us, was never able to make any normal human contact. It was as if we, his parents, were just inanimate objects in his incomprehensible world.

Robert was our first baby and it is hard to express the anguish of having such an unresponsive, seemingly so unloving, child.

In another garden I had dropped in to see friends. Their nine-month baby clutched me, looked into my eyes and made my heart break. Home I sped to Pamela to describe the feeling and to express my fears.

Pamela

The first few months sped past. At three months he was sleeping through the night and was a model baby. His day was filled with feeding, bathing and playing. I spoke to him all day long, read stories to him, took him shopping and filled his days with a bounty of goodies. He grew and was content.²

By the time Robert was nine months old I had begun to make friends and I invited a friend over with her six-month-old baby girl. Two things stood out very clearly from this encounter. The little girl behaved incredibly well, whereas Rob screamed nonstop. But the most significant thing was the way this young six-month-old child reacted to her mother and the environment. Not for one instant did the baby’s eyes leave the mother’s face. There was constant eye and body interaction and to my amazement the baby actually put up her hands asking to be carried.

I asked Judy³ if she thought that my nine-month baby was unusual as he had never displayed any reaction to me, but rather treated the world as of no concern or interest to him. He just spent hours watching his hands out of the corner of his eyes, looking at the ceiling continuously and rocking. He was getting to be rather an expert rocker and could move his cradle all over the room.

She replied that yes, Robert was rather unusual, and perhaps it would be a good idea to take him to the doctor. I was astounded. I had asked the question expecting her to say: ‘Don’t be silly. All first babies are different yet all first mothers are impatient’.

The family doctor at nine months

The next day I was at the doctor’s. After waiting a lifetime, during which I repeatedly told myself that I was wasting his time and my money, but all the same wanting to be reassured that there was nothing wrong, we were finally ushered into the surgery.

‘What appears to be the problem with young Robert?’ Dr Casson asked.⁴

‘Well’ I began, hesitating to find the right words and trying to control the emotions that were building up, ‘I just want to make sure that Robert is developing normally’ and I recounted the worries that had arisen after the Judy episode.

‘It is always wrong to compare babies’ said the doctor, ‘they differ enormously at this age, but let’s be looking at the young man’.

With this I handed Robert over and watched with anxiety as the doctor performed the routine test for reflexes, gave him a very thorough work-out and finally put him into an adjacent room and, leaving him safely on the floor, closed the door. Robert was as happy as a lark and when Michael (Casson) sat down with me he was beginning to look concerned. ‘Well he appears to be perfectly fine health wise; however it is unusual for a nine-month child to be so happy in a room on his own’. At this stage Michael retrieved Robert who seemed oblivious to all events.

‘Why don’t you play with him, stimulate him more, and bring him back at 12 months and we will see how he is doing.’

This was going to become a repetitive phrase ‘Play with your child, Mrs Solomon’ – what the hell did they think we had been doing? – ‘and bring him back in x months’. However, I did not know that now; for this was the very beginning of my journey, and I was thinking in terms of a weekend in gaol rather than a life sentence.

Winter in Hale is a dreary time and the winter of 1968/9 was no exception. I would wrap Robert up warm, swaddle myself in rainproof gear and pram-push young Solomon all around the area. We visited the local farm, spoke to the cows, fed the ducks and stroked the ponies. We visited the local Fire Station where the firemen would indulge me and to Robert’s delight sound the piercing bell. We shopped, we read, we played, and we swung. I brought sand into the house so that we could play in it and of course we had water play. I built with bricks, I painted and drew, in fact I did just about everything I could think of.

And what did Robert do? Well he did enjoy playing with his coloured beakers. He loved the swing, and he enjoyed running his fingers through the sand and water. For the rest of the activities I do not know. He screamed a good deal and otherwise appeared superciliously indifferent. He ate well but made no attempt to feed himself. Still I reassured myself that all adults I had ever met could feed themselves, so why not Robert. And with this logic I comforted myself.

One year old

At 12 months⁵ I was back in Michael’s surgery. He did the same checks and routine tests and asked me if I had noticed any difference.

‘He appears not to listen to me’ I began rather hesitantly.

‘Let’s arrange for him to go to audiology and test his hearing’ he said.

‘Robert is not deaf.’

‘He does seem to have a hearing problem though. He does not respond to speech and he makes very few baby sounds.’

‘That is true’, I conceded. ‘OK – let’s give it a try’.

Walter

So we were referred to the Department of Audiology and Education of the Deaf at the University of Manchester. Pamela took him for a hearing test (12/06/69) and the report says:⁶

This most interesting little boy was seen here for a test of hearing … the possibility of peripheral deafness can be ruled out… It was interesting to see that he did not show any interest in speech when delivered at quiet or raised intensities. Affect in this child also seemed to be absent.

Robert was referred to the Lecturer in Educational Psychology in the department who we saw about two weeks later.

Educational psychologist (15 months)

The educational psychologist’s report⁷ from that meeting on 26 June 1969 stated that:

It seems that Robert is not going through the normal mother/child reciprocal relationship. At this time his play is reasonably constructive and I was able to establish that he is well past the permanence of an object stage. He passed some Gesell Adaptive items at or near his chronological age, i.e. 15 months Cube/Cup item, 56 weeks Form Board, 52 weeks Cup/Tower, 52 weeks Releases Cube. Other examples of motor and adaptive behaviour place him nearer the 40/44 weeks level. In view of the well known poor predictive validity of sensori-motor testing at this early age it is not possible to say more than that present testing excludes severe sub-normality.

His parents are intelligent and tense, Mrs Solomon is particularly stressful. I have given them advice about the best way in which to handle Robert’s developmental needs. At the present time he shows no understanding of speech and does not imitate gesture. A rating on the Sheridan scale places him at a six month level in respect of laughing, and screaming when annoyed. He is not at this level in terms of vocalisation or showing any evidence of response to different emotional tones in his mother’s voice. The possibility of additional problems consequent upon parental reactions to his retarded development must not be ignored. [my emphasis.]

I have advised Mr and Mrs Solomon to read Bowlby’s Child Care and the Growth of Love. I have given them advice about suitable play material. They are going to keep a developmental record for me and I have expressed my willingness to see Robert at intervals of three months until, at least, the diagnosis is relatively clear.

Although we did not see this report at the time, we came away with the clear impression that the psychologist believed his lack of affect was, if not caused by, then certainly reinforced by our failing to bestow enough love and attention on Robert. Most paediatricians and child psychologists had been influenced at that time by the writings of Bruno Bettelheim whose thesis was that the mother failing to bestow sufficient love and attention on the child caused much of child disturbance. ‘Refrigerator Mothers’ was the in-vogue phrase. This was absolutely not the case. No one could have tried harder to connect with and no one could have given more love to any new baby than Pamela. It was hurtful, damaging and distressing. No wonder that in his notes four days later Michael Casson states: ‘T [telephone conversation] with mother. Psychologist at Audiology seems to have upset her and I tried to reassure her.’⁸

Meanwhile Michael Casson had referred us to a senior consultant paediatrician at the Duchess of York Hospital for Babies in South Manchester. We met him first on 12 July 1969 and our GP refers in his clinical notes to a report which he received on 6 August 1969 which says: ‘Report from Paediatrician. No organic abnormality. Suggest condition is psychological due to stresses within the family’. This report appears to be missing from the records. I also remember a report (missing from the records) stating ‘Robert is an odd looking child’ which may be the same one.

Consultant paediatrician (1 year 8 months)

The paediatrician’s report⁹ following his second visit on 17 November 1969 states:

The mother seems very satisfied with his progress. He is now playing with her, recognises and appears to want her as he comes around dragging at her clothes. He walks quite well. Speech: somewhat difficult. He copies sounds and makes other meaningless sounds of his own. Comprehension is difficult to decide. He never asks for anything by name nor does he point to anything. He never asks for food nor cry for it. He does not seem to be worried as to whether he gets it or not. He is exceptionally placid. His mother provides other children to play with him and he is not at all aggressive towards them and does not protect his toys from their depredations. Comments: there has been quite a considerable improvement in this child’s behaviour and physical development. His emotional state has also altered and this was well shown when I started to examine him. He objected quite actively in the same way as a normal child. The mother certainly has a better appreciation of the problem than in the past and spends a great deal more time with him, which I am sure is the reason why he has improved.

– Here we go again. It was the mother’s fault for not spending enough time with him in the past!

The paediatrician carried out a Gesell Developmental test with Robert three weeks later (9 December 1969) and reported on 22 December:¹⁰

I observed him closely at Rodney House¹¹ which has a large reception area where the child romped around, played well, was happy and interested in everything around him. Clinically he did not behave like an autistic child. Details of the test were as ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• About the Authors
• Author’s Preface
• Foreword
• 1 Early Days 1968-1972
• 2 School Years 1972-1987
• 3 College Years, UK and Israel 1987-1998
• 4 Work and Marriage 1998-2011
• 5 The Waldon Theory of Child Development and the Waldon Approach
• 6 Centres Influenced by Geoffrey Waldon
• 7 Case Studies of Children on the Autistic Spectrum
• 8 Not Only for Autism – More Case Studies
• 9 Functional Reading: A Special Orientation of the Approach
• End Notes
• Bibliography
• Index