Family Issues Archives

Familiarity Breeds ... Learning and Growth
By Benjamin D. Garber, Ph.D.

In a world that values information processing, it’s easy to forget that we are ourselves the ultimate information processors. Even in infancy, the healthy human brain takes in a breadth and depth of data unparalleled by any pile of Pentium chips and does so largely without our conscious awareness. The secret to this triumph of gray matter over silicon lies not in processing speed or raw gigabytes of memory storage - certainly there are computers which are both faster and vaster than the human brain. The secret is a trick called habituation.

Unfortunately, nature or nurture (or both) sometimes conspire to disrupt an individual’s capacity to habituate. The result can be cognitive and emotional chaos: Odd relationships, constantly overwhelming feelings and serious impediments to learning. Understanding habituation may be one key to helping your child cope with what he may otherwise experience as chaos.

Habituation means familiarization. It is the process of recognition which allows us to unconsciously say, "Oh yeah, I know what that is" so that our limited mental energy can move on to something new. Habituation is what allows you to implicitly tune out the hum of your computer, the rub of fabric against your skin and even the sound of the kids arguing downstairs so that you direct your attention to these words.

If you were unable to habituate - unable to implicitly tune out the familiar - you would cognitively and emotionally drown in the flood of information which bombards your brain every moment and has done so since long before you were born. Think about it: You are constantly surrounded by an ever-changing panoply of colors and shapes, movement, texture, smells and sounds. If you had to pay conscious attention to every little sound and sight and taste and smell, you would never have a rational thought. Without the ability to habituate, the species could never have survived. It is our ability to cognitively digest the familiar and thereby free up our attention and energy to explore the unfamiliar that allows each individual (and by extension, the species) to learn and grow.

Autism and ADHD? To illustrate this idea, consider two distinct groups of individuals which may represent extremes along a continuum of habituation ability.

At one extreme, autism may be characterized by a relative inability to habituate. An autistic individual’s extreme difficulty with social relatedness, novelty and change may be in at least in part a failure of habituation. Theoretically unable to tune out what we otherwise dismiss as unimportant "background noise," the autistic individual finds the stimulation inherent in eye contact, social exchange and change overwhelming. Overstimulated, he engages in what appear to be repetitive and regressive behaviors (rocking, for example), behaviors which minimize the onslaught of stimulation by their very repetition and familiarity.

Individuals diagnosed with sensory defensiveness may be similar to the extent that they are relatively unable to "tune out" certain sensory input channels. Recognized most often by occupational therapists, sensory defensive children can often benefit from very aggressive OT interventions. Unfortunately, sensory defensive kids are often misdiagnosed by otherwise well-meaning professionals as oppositional and defiant, allergic or anxious, misunderstandings that can lead to stigma and interventions that often do more harm than good.

At the other extreme of the continuum of habituation may be the ADD/ADHD individual. The genuine attention-disordered child theoretically habituates to sensory input far more quickly than his peers. An environment that holds another child’s interest for hours might bore the ADD/ADHD child after fifteen minutes. He is likely to cope with his subjective experience of sensory deprivation by seeking new input. What looks from the outside to be over-activity and distractibility is actually this child’s effort to compensate for a built-in habituation difference.

Familiarity is an anchor when storms of anxiety threaten. With this basic knowledge of habituation, you can help your kids cope in a variety of circumstances.

When important change (divorce or relocation) or inescapable trauma (hospitalization or surgery) can be anticipated, you can use habituation to help your child muster his emotional energy well in advance. Do this by making as much of the event familiar as creatively as possible long before the event is due to occur. Use visual prompts (photographs and videotapes) and audio prompts (cassette recordings) and anything else that communicates the scent, texture or taste of what is to come next.

The young or immature child facing surgery, for example, will cope with the hospital stay better if he’s visited the hospital, met the doctors and nurses, drawn hospital pictures, bandaged injured dolls and slept in a hospital johnnie long in advance of the actual surgery. Familiarization with the incidentals of the hospital stay can make the entire experience more manageable.

Habituation can help children cope with handicaps. The challenges of growing up can be huge, all that much more so for a child coping with a handicap. Every child’s needs are different, but you can maximize the energy for your children for the physical, emotional and intellectual challenges they face by maximizing familiarity at home. You’ve succeeded when day-to-day life is routine and predictable, when questions like, "When’s my next meal?" and "Do I have to take a bath tonight?" and "Where’s the couch?" need not even be asked.

Be careful not to confuse familiarity with leniency. Every child needs clearly defined, individually tailored rules and contingent rewards and punishments. Easing off on this essential caregiving structure out of your own guilt or grief or your own fatigue is a disservice to your child. Your wish to "cut him a break" or "let it go just this once" actually decreases his sense of familiarity and increases his anxiety. If a rule is worth making in the first place, it must be worth enforcing every time.

Understanding your child’s habituation style can help you set a pace best suited to his learning at home, at school and among peers. Some children can absorb a great depth of information in a single, intense exposure. Others learn best when information is presented in smaller bits interspersed among other stimulating activities. Your child’s inherent learning style will vary with his overall health, fatigue, hunger and with his confidence in a given subject area. Experiment with how he learns best, using his boredom and avoidance as your cue. Wandering attention can mean that he’s had enough. It’s your signal to take a break and come back to it again later.

 

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