Identity development
The three pahese of the Davis Autism Approach are:
- Individuation
- Identity Development
- Social Integration
Identity development is the second phase. A person's identity is recognised as a product of their thoughts, actions and behaviours. A person's identity develops continuously all through their life as new experiences become knowledge, modify their behaviour and way of thinking. It is widley accepted by psychologists and educationalist that there are stages of natural cognitive development . The way an autistic person thinks and behaves suggests that some of these concepts are missing or not developed. This leaves autistic behaviour often appearing inflexible, situation specific and inappropriate. Therefore it appears that they are unable to learn from life's lessons.
The Davis Identity Development progamme has identified all the necessary concepts that allow a person to learn from their experiences and so develop more sophisticated and mature ways of behaving. The programme gives autistics a cognitive structure for learning that will allow them to mimic the normal process of developing a real understanding of life's everyday events. In turn, this will lead to them having more control and responsibility for their own actions and behaviour.
