A Key Cognitive Skill to Build in Individuals with Autism

When it comes to supporting learners on the autism spectrum, there are many different approaches and strategies to help them thrive. While individuals with autism have unique skill sets and strengths in many areas of life, there are also situations and skills that are often difficult due to differences in how the brain is wired. In our experience, there are a couple key skills that tend to be lower in individuals with autism, and building up these areas has been a helpful tool for many individuals and families.

Building Divided Attention & Switching Skills in People with Autism

One of the common struggles for people on the spectrum is struggling with multitasking or switching efficiently between tasks. But in reality, these things truly go hand-in-hand. Multitasking is actually a myth: your brain can only do one thing at a time. When you see someone who is good at multitasking, what that really means is that they’re very efficient at switching between the tasks that they’re attempting to do simultaneously.

For many kids and adults with autism, this quick switching is extremely difficult. They get hung up on one task and struggle to pivot to something else, or they get overwhelmed at various stimuli and struggle to separate them out and process them effectively. This is where divided attention comes in.

Divided attention is your brain’s ability to efficiently process multiple tasks or inputs in a short period of time. While it may look like doing two things at once, it’s often either quick switching (like we outlined above) or making one skill automatic while devoting focus to another task. Whichever mode your brain uses to divide its attention, when this skill is weak, it’s incredibly difficult to keep up with learning, conversations, reading, and so many other areas of life.

Hear more about building this key skill in individuals with autism from our executive director, Maureen Loftus:

Targeting Cognitive Skills That Are Essential for Learning and Life

Many kids and adults with autism have benefitted from targeting and strengthening the core cognitive skills that the brain uses for thinking and learning. Brain training is not a treatment or cure for autism; instead, it’s a celebration of each individual’s neurodiverse strengths, helping people grow and flourish where they are. 

Our one-of-a-kind training plans are a critical part of our approach to Brain Training. After all, no two people with autism think the exact same way or have difficulties in the exact same areas!

By customizing our training plans, we embrace the neurodiversity that characterizes autism. More importantly, this approach allows us to tailor brain training to each learner’s individual needs. Between 2010 and 2021, kids and teens with an ASD diagnosis improved learning and thinking skills by 3.2 years on average after brain training with LearningRx! During the same period, adult clients with autism made similar across-the-board gains in cognitive skills. While every outcome is unique and your results may vary, we’d love to connect with you about how supporting cognitive skills like divided attention and switching may be a powerful tool for your family.

Disclaimer: LearningRx partners with clients with autism by targeting and training cognitive skills used for learning and thinking. Please note that we cannot diagnose autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and brain training is not a treatment or cure for autism.