When you read or hear about a condition such as Asperger’s Syndrome, it is common to come across technical and medical words that have little meaning to most people. Sometimes a common word is used in association with Asperger’s yet its relevance might not be known. A little while ago the Foundation commissioned a psychologist to do some research and as part of that process they produces a glossary of terms related to Asperger’s Syndrome. So if you are ever muddled or confused about a phrase someone has used, have a look in this glossary and hopefully we can help to straighten things out.
NOTE: Like all information on this website the following is copyright to the Cloud 9 Children’s Foundation and is not to be reproduced without permission.
Glossary of Terms and Information About Asperger’s Syndrome
AFFECT Fluctuations of mood are frequently observed in children and adults with Asperger’s syndrome. Changes in mood can be observed in several variations: giggling or weeping for no apparent reason, absence of emotional responses or reactions to danger, excessive fearfulness or generalized anxiety.
AGITATION See Psychomotor Agitation.
ANXIETY As with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and panic attacks, anxiety and anxiety attacks have been argued to be a natural outgrowth from the ritualistic, perfectionist characteristics of Asperger’s.
ASPERGER’S SYNDROME A condition at the more able end of the Autistic spectrum. Essential features of Asperger’s are severe and sustained impairment in social interaction and the development of restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, and activities. There are no clinically significant delays in language, cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behaviour (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood. Unlike people with ‘classic autism’ who often appear withdrawn and uninterested in the world around them, many people with Asperger’s syndrome try hard to be sociable and do not dislike human contact.
ATYPICAL AUTISM Presentations that do not meet the criteria for Autism because of the late age of onset, unusual symptoms, or symptoms that do not meet the diagnostic criteria (see below) for diagnosis.
AUDITORY INTEGRATION TRAINING (AIT) was developed in response to the theory that the sound sensitivity and consequent behavioural disturbance in autism could result from hearing disturbances. AIT involves the child/adult wearing earphones attached to a machine with a variety of auditory filters that allow the sound emitting from the machine to be modified for individuals. The machine filters and amplifies specially selected music as necessary and sends the music to each ear independently. Although not widely available, some research suggest that structure listening and AIT appears to help in reducing sound sensitivity in many, but not all, children who are sound sensitive. AIT is also called the “Tomatis Method” and “Auditory Stimulation”.
AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER A complex developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them. The term autistic spectrum is often used because the condition varies from person to person; some people with the condition may also have accompanying learning disabilities, while others are much more able with average or above average intelligence. Despite the wide-ranging differences, everyone with a disorder on the spectrum has difficulty with interaction, social interaction and imagination.
AUTISM The essential feature of Autism or Autistic Disorder is the presence of markedly abnormal or impaired development in social interaction, social communication and imagination, together with a very restricted range of activity and interests.
BACKWARD CHAINING Many daily living skills involve children learning a sequence of actions, which are often broken down in small steps to help the child learn. Backward chaining is a process where the child is helped to complete the last step of a sequence only, at first. For example, in teaching a child how to put on a T-shirt, the T-shirt is put on, but the child is left to pull it down (initially with the physical prompt of an adult’s hand over theirs). Once the child can do this step unaided, they are gradually taught more steps until finally no help is needed.
BROAD AUTISM PHENOTYPE Characteristics that are qualitatively similar, but milder than those that define autism – social and communication deficits and stereotyped, repetitive behaviours are present, but have less detrimental impact. These characteristics show familial aggregation in families with a member or members with Autism.
CAUSES OF AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS The exact causes of Autistic spectrum disorders are still not known, but research shows that genetic factors are important. Autism is not the result of emotional deprivation or emotional stress, or parenting style. In some cases, Autistic spectrum disorders may be associated with conditions affecting brain development, such as maternal rubella, tuberous sclerosis, epilepsy and encephalitis.
CHILDHOOD DISINTEGRATIVE DISORDER Also on the Autistic spectrum, this disorder is a marked regression in multiple areas of functioning following a period of at least two years of apparently normal development.
CLUMSINESS Clumsy body language is sometimes seen in Autism and Asperger’s, but motor clumsiness is not a necessary part of the picture in all cases of Autism.
COMMUNICATION Verbal : See Language Non-Verbal: Non-verbal communication problems you may see in Autism include: poor eye contact, posture, limited or inappropriate facial expression, clumsy body language, difficulty adjusting physical proximity and limited use of gestures. Nonverbal aspects of communication can be significantly different in Asperger’s syndrome. Non-verbal communication may be exaggerated, completely absent, or may appear to contradict verbal content. Children and adults also find it hard to understand non-verbal signals from others, including facial expressions.
CONCRETENESS See mental rigidity.
DAILY LIFE THERAPY (HIGASHI) Daily Life Therapy is a programme that aims to provide autistic children with a systematic education through group dynamics, modelling and physical activity. There are Higashi Schools in the UK and the USA.
DEPRESSION In adolescence or early adulthood, individuals with Autism who have the intellectual capacity for insight may become isolated and depressed in response to the realisation of their serious impairment. Symptoms or signs may include significant changes in appetite (decreased or increased appetite), behaviour or sleeping patterns. People with Asperger’s often want to be sociable and are upset by the fact that they find it difficult to make friends.
DESENSITISATION Some sensory integration therapists believe that it may be possible to reduce tactile defensiveness be gradually exposing the child with an Autistic disorder to touch in a way which is safe and enjoyable to them.
DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA Diagnostic criteria are often used to help with diagnosing an individual within the Autistic spectrum and other conditions. All people with an Autistic spectrum condition have difficulties with social interaction, social communication and imagination. This is sometimes referred to as the triad of impairments, each of which must be present to meet the criteria for diagnosis: 1. Social interaction (difficulty with social relationships, e.g., appearing aloof and indifferent to other people). 2. Social communication (difficulty with verbal and non-verbal communication, e.g., not really understanding the meaning of gestures, facial expressions or tone of voice). 3. Imagination (difficulty in the development of play and imagination, e.g., having a limited range of imaginative activities, possibly copied and used repetitively). In addition to this triad, other diagnostic criteria include repetitive behaviour patterns and a resistance to change in routine.
DIAGNOSTIC INSTRUMENTS Several instruments exist which were designed to assist with detecting autism, with variable reliability and validity. The most popularly used and reliable of these is the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (Schopler, Reichler & Renner, 1988) which is a 15-item structured interview and observation instrument for use with children over 24 months of age. It indicates the degree to which a child’s behaviour deviates from the age-appropriate norm, and it distinguished the degree of autism. The Parent Interview for Autism (Stone & Hogan, 1993) is designed to obtain diagnostically relevant information from parents of young children suspected of having autism. Other examples are the Autism Behaviour Checklist and the Behavioural Rating Instrument for Autistic and Other Atypical Children.
DIETARY INTERVENTIONS Supporters of this type of intervention argue that certain foods or combinations of foods can have an aversive or beneficial effect on Autism. It now seems that some people with Autism may suffer a metabolic disorder causing them to be unable to completely digest certain foods. For some children, a special diet, such as eating no grain, wheat or diary products can help. Such children may be helped by going on what is known as a gluten (grain or wheat) and/or casein (diary) free diet. For others, taking vitamins, such as Vitamin B6 and magnesium is beneficial.
DRUGS There is no drug that can cure Autism. However, some drugs can be used to help associated problems such as sleeping difficulties, hyperactive behavior etc.
DYSPRAXIA Sometimes also called Developmental Co-ordination Disorder, Dyspraxia is often referred to as a disorder of gesture. Features of dyspraxia consist primarily of abnormal motor behavior such as difficulties with balance and co-ordination, limited gestural motor tasks, clumsiness, and difficulty with fine motor tasks. Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia refers to an intelligible or atypical speech production. Children and adults with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder often show several signs of both verbal and motor dyspraxia. Dyspraxia in children is often compared to and contrasted with adult acquired apraxia.
ECHOLIA A parrot-like repetition of a word or phrase just spoken by another person. This echoing is apparently senseless and without meaning.
EDUCATION This is thought to be one of the best ways of helping children with Autism and there are a number of methods of teaching that can help. Some children attend special schools where teachers are specially trained in teaching children with Autism, whereas other children attend mainstream schools.
EGOCENTRICITY Egocentrism is a bias toward interpreting events from your own (ego’s) point of view without taking into consideration alternative (other people’s) perspectives. Between the ages of about 5 and 12 years a child’s tendency to be egocentric usually declines which can increase the effectiveness of communication as children are able to consider the views of others, anticipate how others will behave and develop skills at negotiating social interactions with peers. Children with Autism however, often do not experience the normal developmental decline in egocentricity, which in turn limits the above communicative and imaginative abilities.
EMPATHY Empathy is the ability to understand how only people are feeling and to identify with the likely emotions. Developing empathy involves several processes: recognizing the emotional state of another person; perspective taking; having a similar emotional response; and acting on it (e.g., expressing sympathy). People with Asperger’s often have difficulty expressing or feeling empathy because of not being able to complete one or more of these processes involved in developing empathy.
FACILITATED COMMUNICATION At times controversial, FC is used as an alternative means of communication for people with no, or extremely dysfunctional speech. The FC facilitator normally supports a client’s hand, wrist or arm while that person uses a communicator to spell out words, phrases or sentences. Use of FC with people with autism is centred on the notion that many of the difficulties faced are due to a movement disorder, rather than social or communication deficits.
GENETICS Although the exact causes of Autistic spectrum disorders are still not known, research shows that genetic factors are important. Twin and family studies clearly support genetic factors as important in Autism, but linkage analysis studies indicate that many genes may be involved.
GRAPHOMOTOR DEVELOPMENT Those fine motor skills associated with handwriting and drawing.
HOLDING THERAPY An approach to behavior management which involves forcibly holding and hugging the autistic child until they stop resisting. Holding Therapy was primarily used in the 1980’s, but has since declined in popularity because of the large amount of evidence that it is extremely distressing, aversive and stressful for the child. It is now believed by a majority of people with, and working with an Autistic disorder, that the most effective management approach is a non-aversive one that does not use punishment or physical restraint, and reduces stress and anxiety.
HYPERACUSIS Excessive auditory sensitivity.
HYPERLEXIA A precocious ability to rote – read at an early age. Can be a common feature of the learning profile in Asperger’s syndrome.
IDIOPATHIC LEARNING DISABILITY Idiopathic means a disorder of unknown cause.
IMAGINATION While they often excel at learning facts and figures, people with Asperger’s find it hard to think in abstract ways. This can cause problems for children in school where they may have difficulty with certain subjects such as English or creative writing.
KANNER SYNDROME Also on the Autistic spectrum. Sometimes referred to as ‘classic autism’.
People with Asperger’s tend to have average or above average intelligence and so generally have fewer problems with language than classic autism. People with autism often speak fluently, although their words can sometimes sound formal or stilted. Vocal characteristics can be very different in children with Asperger’s syndrome, whose voices may sound rather flat, due to monotone, robotic phrasing and inflection patterns.
Figurative Language Despite having good language skills, people with Asperger’s syndrome may sound over precise or over-literal. Jokes can cause problems as can exaggerated language and metaphors, e.g., a person with Asperger’s may be confused or frightened by a statement like “she bit my head off”. Receptive Language Although people with Asperger’s may speak very fluently, but they may not take much notice of the reaction of people listening to them; e.g., they may talk on and on regardless of the listener’s interest and may appear insensitive to other people’s feelings. Typically language is understood and used very literally, and while they often excel at learning facts and figures, Asperger’s children and adults find it hard to think in abstract ways. Pragmatic Language Pragmatic or conversational language skills are often weak because of problems with turn-taking, unsociable comments, interrupting, a tendency to revert to areas of special interest, or difficulty sustaining the “give-and-take” of conversations. Communication is sometimes described as “talking at” others, e.g., monologue on a favorite subject that continues despite attempts at others to interject comments.
LOVAAS The LOVAAS method is an early intensive behaviour therapy approach for children with autism and other related disorders. It is both a clinic based and home-supported based programme, with (now) an emphasis on positively reinforcing learnt skills with food, a toy, and gradually moving through to more social and everyday reinforcers such as hugs and tickles. All skills are broken down into small tasks that are achievable and taught in a very structured manner, accompanied by lots of praise and reinforcement.
MANUAL DEXTERITY This area of movement skills involves the ability to use both hands, for example – learning to dress, eat with utensils, tie shoelaces. This may also extend to the co-ordination of feet and legs as in learning to ride a bicycle. Manual dexterity can be difficult, limited or absent in Autism.
MENTAL RETARDATION The relation between autism and intellectually handicap has been a source of confusion for a long time. Many have noted that the intellectual impairments in people with Autism resemble the limitations of intellectually handicapped people. Compared with intellectually handicapped people however, individuals with Autism have more intellectual strengths – which can be above average in some areas – and a wider spread between their skills and deficits. Gross motor skills of autistic children also tend to be stronger. Intellectually handicapped children however, generally have better social and communication skills in relation to their overall developmental levels. The relationship between autism and intellectual handicap has been clarified more recently with the acknowledgement that autism can and does co-exist with other disabilities – the most common of which is “mental retardation” (current estimates of co-morbidity are 70%).
MENTAL RIGIDITY Thinking patterns can be very rigid in Autism. Concepts are viewed as black or white, with subtle variations very difficult to understand. For example, a specific number can be “few” in some situations, but “many” in another situation, it is all relative. This way of interpreting information is extremely challenging to individuals with Asperger’s syndrome. The egocentric features of Asperger’s also contribute to mental rigidity, as situations tend to be seen from their perspective only.
MIND BLINDNESS An inability to pick up social cues and nuances (e.g., facial expressions).
MONOTROPIC INTEREST SYSTEMS People with “monotropic interest systems”, including individuals with autism, have their attention fixed on isolated objects which are viewed as though through a tunnel, separate from the surrounding context.
MOTOR SKILLS / MOVEMENT Motor skills can be divided into two broad categories. Fine motor skills consists of activities such as writing with a pen/pencil, doing up buttons and eating with utensils. Gross motor skills involve the coordination and development of larger activities such as kicking a ball, running, swimming and jumping. To varying degrees both fine and gross motor skill development can be impaired in children with Autism.
MUSIC THERAPY Supporters of music therapy argue that music can stimulate and develop more meaningful and playful communication in people with Autism. Music therapy is led by a trained musician, and most rely on spontaneous musical improvisation, where the therapist uses percussion or tuned instruments, or their own voice, to respond creatively to the sounds produced by the child/adult, and encourage the child to create his or her own musical language.
MUSICAL INTERACTION THERAPY (MIT) has been used with Autistic children at certain schools to reinforce speech-language therapy, rather than used on its own. MIT differs from music therapy in that the musical interaction therapy practitioner is not required to be a musician.
OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD) Has been argued to sometimes be a natural outgrowth from the ritualistic, perfectionist characteristics of Asperger’s for some individuals.
OPTIONS SON-RISE PROGRAMMEME This programme uses an interactive approach to early intervention – emphasizing the importance of developing a relationship and communication between the child and parents. The programme is child-centered: the child is not judged and their behaviors are not seen as good or bad, rather the child is seen to be doing the best he/she can. The Son-Rise philosophy encourages the parent (or therapist, instructor of facilitator) to “become the student of the child’s world, observing, learning, assisting and supporting the child’s development in a loving and non-judgmental environment”. Parents are trained and then set up and manage the programme in their own home. Options Son-Rise programmes are especially popular in the UK and USA>
PANIC ATTACKS As with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and anxiety attacks, panic attacks have been argued to be a natural outgrowth from the ritualistic, perfectionist characteristics of Asperger’s.
PERSEVERATION The tendency to repeat a certain phrase or activity despite other’s attempts to interrupt, other’s disinterest or fatigue. Perseveration can be seen in Autistic people – particularly in the routines and ritualistic behaviour that often characterizes the Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS (PDD) Disorders characterized by severe and pervasive impairment in several areas of development: reciprocal social interaction skills, communication skills, communication skills, or the presence of stereotyped behaviour, interests and activities. Autism and Asperger’s both fall under the category of PDD as does Rett’s disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and PDD – not otherwise specified (NOS).
PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED A diagnosis of PDD-NOS (also called atypical Autism) may be made when a child does not meet the criteria for a specific diagnosis, but there is a severe and pervasive impairment in specified behaviors.
PHYSIOTHERAPY Can be helpful to suggest strategies to improve gross-motor coordination.
PICTURE SYMBOLS Not all children with Autism learn to speak, or they can only speak one or two words. It is therefore important to teach alternative forms of communication. One method that is increasingly being used is the Picture Exchange Communication System or PECS for short. This involves the child showing or pointing to a card with a picture. For example, if the child is thirsty, they can point to a picture of a cup. Gradually, the child learns to build up a sentence from cards, e.g., I want a drink. Alongside this, some children also learn to ask for what they want verbally.
PRAGMATIC DEFICITS See Language: Pragmatic Language.
PREVALENCE The prevalence of Autism is approximately 1 per 2000 people, the prevalence of Autism and Asperger’s together is 1 per 1000 people. Although it is not known why, boys are affected more than girls. For Autism the sex ratio is four males to one female, for Asperger’s syndrome, the ratio is nine males to one female.
PROCESSING The ability to accurately attach meaning to stimuli. Can be impaired in some Autistic children and adults.
PROSODY Often a flat or unusual tone, that can present as a ‘foreign accent’. Prosody means that there is a lack of vocal inflection, and a lack of varying pitch and volume levels, rate, rhythm and inflection.
PROTO-DECLARATIVE POINTING This type of pointing is to declare an interest in something as opposed to proto-imperative pointing which is used for requesting something. Proto-declarative pointing is deficient in children with an autistic spectrum disorder.
PSYCHOLOGY Psychologists can be helpful in both assessment and therapy of the autistic spectrum disorders. A psychologist may need to monitor emotional stability and provide counselling and education (information) services as needed if the child or adult becomes overwhelmed or frustrated.
PSYCHOMOTOR AGITATION Excessive motor activity associated with a feeling of inner tension. The activity is usually non-productive, repetitious and consists of behaviour such as pacing, fidgeting, wringing hands, pulling of clothes and an inability to sit still.
PSYCHOMOTOR RETARDATION A visible generalised slowing of movements and speech.
REPETITIVE ACTIVITY / BEHAVIOUR Restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities are one of the defining features of Asperger’s. These can be shown by at least one of the following: · An encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus. · Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, non-functional routines or rituals. · Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements). · Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects.
RETT’S SYNDROME Also on the Autistic spectrum, Rett’s syndrome is the development of multiple, specific deficits (e.g., loss of purposeful hand movements replaced with repetitive hand movements) following a period of normal functioning after birth, usually beginning between the ages of 1 and 4 years. To date, only occurs in girls.
RITUALS People with Asperger’s often prefer to order their day according to a set pattern. Any enforced or perceived disruptions to their self-imposed rituals can cause anxiety or distress.
ROUTINES For people with Asperger’s syndrome, any unexpected change in routine can be upsetting. Examples of routines used by Asperger’s children include: an insistence on following an identical route to school each day; a lengthy bed-time ritual; or the repetition of a sequence of odd bodily movements. Also see Repetitive Activity / Behavior.
SELF INJURIOUS BEHAVIOUR Self-injurious behavior such as head banging and finger or hand biting are among the most extreme and frightening of the behaviors accompanying Autism. These occur in less than 10% of the Autistic population, but can be the most difficult to control or suggest a remedy for.
SEMANTIC PRAGMATIC DISORDER Semantic Pragmatic Disorder was originally used to describe a developmental language disorder, affecting two aspects of communication: “semantics” and “pragmatics”. It belongs within the autistic spectrum and has the same underlying triad of socio-cognitive deficits as high functioning autism or Asperger’s. Partly because of the argument that “semantic pragmatic disorder” is not an appropriate diagnosis, but merely a descriptive term for the nature of communication difficulty found in verbal people with autism, the term is no longer used.
SENSORY SENSITIVITIES Under- and over-responsitivity to sensory input are common in Autism; some children resist being touched while others ignore sensitivities like pain. Specific sounds or tastes fascinate many Autistic people.
SLEEP PROBLEMS Problems with sleeping behavior are frequently observed in individuals with Asperger’s. Sleep problems often resolve themselves by adolescence, but can be difficult prior to then. Staying up all night is among the most difficult of the ongoing problems that parents face with young Autistic children.
SOCIAL COMMUNICATION / INTERACTION Social characteristics you may see in a child with Autism include: · Communication concerns - doesn’t respond to his/her name - doesn’t point or wave goodbye - appears deaf at times - used to say a few words, now doesn’t - doesn’t follow directions - No babbling by 12 months - No gesturing by 12 months - No single words by 16 months · Social concerns - doesn’t smile socially - seems to prefer playing alone - has poor eye contact - is not interested in other children - tunes people out - is very independent - is in his/her own world - does things ‘early’ · Behavioral concerns - tantrums - hyperactive/oppositional/uncooperative - has unusual attachments to toys - is oversensitive to certain textures or sounds - has odd movement patterns
SPECIAL INTERESTS People with Asperger’s often develop an almost obsessive interest in a hobby or collection. Usually their interest involves arranging or memorizing facts about a specialist subject.
SPECTRUM DISORDERS Autism is a spectrum disorder which means that the symptoms and characteristics of Autism can present themselves in a wide variety of combinations from relatively mild to severe. Although Autism is defined by a certain set of behaviors, children and adults can exhibit any combination of the behaviors in any degree of severity.
SPEECH LANGUAGE THERAPY (SLT) can be very useful for Autistic children with a speech impediment, limited or no speech skills.
SPELL SPELL is an acronym for Structure, Positive, Empathy, Low Arousal, and Links. It is the method of intervention used by the National Autistic Society (NAS) in the United Kingdom. NAS say the SPELL approach has been refined to recognize the individuality of each child or adult with an Autistic spectrum disorder including Asperger’s. It is a holistic approach that sees every child/adult as a unique individual while acknowledging that they share similar experiences and difficulties. They say SPELL describes the necessary environment and support environment that enables the child to learn while minimizing stress. NAS’s description of the SPELL approach is as follows: · Structure: helps the child to make sense of a very confusing world. · Positive: attitudes and appropriately pitched expectations enhance the child’s self esteem and self-confidence. · Empathy: Empathy is crucial to see the world from the child’s unique viewpoint and to understand their perceptions. · Low Arousal: The child’s learning environment needs to be clear, calm and clutter free. · Links: With parents and mainstream education.
STATISTICS See Prevalence.
STEREOTYPED MOVEMENTS Repetitive, seemingly driven, and non-functional motor behaviour. Examples include hand shaking or waving, body rocking, head banging, mouthing of objects, self-biting, picking at skin, hitting one’s own body. Also see repetitive activity / behaviour.
STIMMING Self stimulating behavior (e.g., repetitive patterns of behavior).
SQUEEZE MACHINE Invented by Temple Grandin who has autism, this is essentially as the name suggests. An individual puts themselves into the machine and is ‘squeezed’ to various degrees. The squeeze machine therefore allows a person with an autistic spectrum condition to explore touch and deep pressure in a way that is completely under their control.
TACTILE DEFENSIVENESS / HYPERSENSITIVITY The nervous system appears to overreact to touch, so that a ‘friendly’ touch is perceived as overwhelming and invasive. This is not true for everyone with an autistic spectrum condition, as some enjoy certain forms of active physical contact.
TEACCH Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children. TEACCH provides a wide range of services to children, adults and families, has a research programmeme and provides multidisciplinary training for professionals working with autism. Their stated aim is to help to prepare people with autism to live or work more effectively at home, at school and in the community.
THEORY OF MIND (ToM) Theory of Mind refers to the capacity to attribute mental states to oneself and others in an attempt to understand and explain, and to predict other’s behavior. ToM is not fully developed in children or adults with Autism.
TOMATIS METHOD See Auditory Integration Training.
TREATMENT An autistic spectrum disorder is a life-long disability and there is at present no one effective treatment that appears to work for everyone. However, given appropriate intervention early in life, specialized education and structured support can make a difference to a child’s life, helping to maximize their skills and achieve their full potential as adults. Although there is no documented “cure” for Autism, research suggests that it can be managed effectively using comprehensive behavioral and educational treatment programmes. Social pragmatic approaches, augmented by individualized strategies and social coaching, may be best for teaching social communication skills. Pharmacological interventions have a limited role in improving asocial communication, but may help ameliorate depression, hyperactivity and other secondary problems. For a definition and brief description of the various treatment approaches, refer to the appropriate place in this glossary.
TRIAD OF IMPAIRMENTS Autistic spectrum disorders are characterized by impairments in social interaction, social communication and imagination which can occur in varying degrees of severity. This triad is generally accompanied by a limited, narrow, repetitive pattern if activities. Also see Diagnostic Criteria


Children’s literature is a powerful genre. Everybody has a favourite childhood book that has influenced them. My favourite was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Often we want our own children or the children that we teach to enjoy the same book. No other category of literature is so loaded with social, cultural, historical, ideological, educational and commercial power. This makes it an interesting subject for literary criticism and I think it is important for teachers to critically appraise the books that are used in the classroom.
A significant aspect of children’s literature is that it is written by adults. Children are characters in the book but whose childhood does the book represent? Is it a real childhood or a theoretical one? When one group constructs another, then power becomes an issue. For much of children’s literature, the actual child is voiceless. Adults tell the stories and adults profit financially from book sales. Cyber spaces are becoming areas where children can have a voice in their own storytelling and I will be exploring this notion further in subsequent posts.
In diverse plural societies in a globalized world, the need for multicultural literature and the examination of cross-cultural responses has become more important. Cultural authenticity is key. As children’s literature is so full of direct and indirect meaning, it’s essential that teachers critically analyze the books that we introduce into our classrooms.
A critical analysis of a children’s classic
Below is a full critical analysis that I made of the children’s book Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel. It is a favourite in school libraries and often categorized as multicultural literature. In this interpretative essay, I uncovered the truth about this book, discovering that it is far from an authentic multicultural piece of children’s literature…
An analysis of the text Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel reveals a depth of meaning to the picture book. Tikki Tikki Tembo has been a durable text in English speaking educational environments for 40 years. It is a populist book and a text used by primary school teachers alike. Different readings and interpretations occur in light of significant theories, which focus on different aspects of the text- race, gender and class. The Foucauldian idea that power is available everywhere but depends on the discourse can be used when analyzing children’s literature. No interpretation is more meaningful yet the exploration of the postcolonial viewpoint, encompassing critical race theory and notions of a western constructed orient are particularly suited to Tikki Tikki Tembo. Ultimately how the text is read influences how children are placed in society.
It is from a formalist and structural perspective that most educators would support a use of the text in classrooms. The picture book has conventional, effective patterns in the narrative and illustrations that children find enjoyable. That is not to say that the meaning is not worth studying as in a traditional formalist view (Ryan 2007) but the meaning has been diminished by criticisms of authenticity over time. The use of rhythmic alliteration “Tikki Tikki Tembo” and repetition, for example “step, step over step” and “pumped the water out of him and pushed the air into him and pumped the water out of him and pushed the air into him”, encourages students to join in with the reading. In fact, given the effective structure and audible literary features, the text is best read aloud making it useful in the ESL primary classroom. The uses of illustrations in the picture book, from a formalist perspective reflect the text congruently (Sipe 1998) and aesthetically defining characters and the setting. The signs in the illustrations follow a structural framework, with recognizable symbols of everyday life- house, water, man, mother, children.
When viewing Tikki Tikki Tembo through the lens of historical knowledge, it is important to critically examine the constructed nature of the past (Jenkins 1991). Children’s literature and history are interconnected, both informing each other (Watkins 2005). History is a discourse that interprets the past, influenced by theory and power (Jenkins 1991). The historical context of a text is not a static fact, as history is not “closed” (Giroux 1991 p508). Therefore, when viewing a literary text historically, the context of the book is fluid. The purpose for the text and its values ( Sarland 1999) can be seen in different historical light depending on the view of past truth- for example as a push for multicultural awareness in a 1968 counter culture or a continuum of western obsession for controlling China.
Tikki Tikki Tembo was published in 1968 in New York. From a liberal socio-historical perspective, it is part of a post World War Two American cultural interest in China and Asia in general, as United States foreign policy increasingly saw Asia as strategically important in the Cold War (Klein 2003). China was a closed Communist nation in the throws of The Cultural Revolution and the cult of Mao (Meisner 1999). Tikki Tikki Tembo satisfies the western curiosity and symbolic consumption of Asia (Klein 2003), whilst presenting a simpler and more understandable vision of China than the confusing political reality.
The text, Tikki Tikki Tembo, published in the twentieth century postcolonial period harks back to a pre-colonial time. The British and French Empires from the 19th Century had fought over China for colonial rights. Bradford (2001) argues that all books written in the twentieth century were produced in the “pattern of imperial culture” (p 196). This text is therefore receptive to a postcolonial reading. Arlene Mosel wrote the book within the context of a postcolonial China, (excepting the continued colonial annex of Hong Kong in 1968) and evokes a simpler, peaceful time as evident in the illustrations. The restricted palette of the graphics to basic earthy hues of brown, blue and green emphasize simplicity. There is not just an element of “historical amnesia” (Gandhi 1998 p 7) in reminiscing of early pre-colonial times but a lack of historical accuracy from a postcolonial perspective in the text as a whole.
When viewed through the critical race theory with a post-colonial perspective, Tikki Tikki Tembo could be accused of implying western superiority. As young children make generalizations about cultures (Ramsey 2009), the text could imply that Chinese people are unhappy and cold. In the text, the Chinese mother is portrayed as emotionally hardened, neglecting her second son. She is inhuman and mysterious, fulfilling a stereotype of Asians as inscrutable (Cai 1994). The adults are generally unhappy and the children enjoy a carefree life in a natural Arcadian pre-industrial environment, portrayed in active scenes, flying kites and dancing. They look like generic primitive Asian stereotypes, though not specifically Chinese. This is expressed through the naïve folk illustrations. The naivety of the depictions, especially in the unrealistic illustrations of moving bodies reinforces the primitive, simple tone. The physical stereotype is seen most prominently in the depiction of the Old Man with his long beard.
Tikki Tikki Tembo is an example of cultural misrepresentation as the story is not Chinese (Kromann-Kelly & Changlu 1986). There was never a custom to give children long names and the name Tikki Tikki Tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruche-pip peri pembo “does not sound Chinese, ancient or modern” (Cai 1994 p 185). Translated stories have often used different character names to suit the target language and culture (Lathey 2010) yet in Tikki Tikki Tembo there is a lack of linguistic authenticity. The costumes in the illustrations are more Japanese, for example the children wear clogs and the curved roofs of Japanese architecture present in pictures of the buildings (Cai 1994). The western ‘retelling’ of a traditional Chinese folktale is misleading.
The western author of Tikki Tikki Tembo, Mosel speaks for the Chinese ‘tradition’, because “According to Europeans, Europeans must describe and analyze the Orient because Orientals are not capable of describing or analyzing themselves” (Nodelman 1994 p 29). Gandhi (1998) states that sociolinguistic theory demonstrates how “discourses, or discursive formations” (p 77) are about power and by Mosel speaking for the Chinese immediately infers superiority. The authoritative tone of the narrator shows this; “ Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, it was the custom…” reinforcing that the author knows the truth. Mosel (1968) crosses a ‘fence’ (Naidoo 2010) between cultures but speaks for the other side and highlights the politics of children’s literature, “Who has the power to make the fence, alter the fence? Who is in, who is out? Who has the power of speech? Who is silenced out?” (p 76).
The craft of taking a (supposedly) old tale from one culture and adapting it for another leads to inevitable “Cultural filtering” (Mo & Shen 1997). As Lathey (2010) states, interpreting foreign stories inevitably changes the values and content of the text to appeal to the culture of the child reader. Hearne (1993) questions whether “only members of an ethnic group truly represent the lore of that group?” (p34). Child readers of Tikki Tikki Tembo without any teacher led critical multicultural interpretation will accept the story as truth and will in some way influence perceptions of Chinese people. The text requires engagement with Giroux’s ‘pedagogy of difference’ (1991) and a critical analysis from a multicultural viewpoint, encouraging students “to examine the social construction of difference” (Botelho & Rudman 2009 p 17).
Mosel’s text is an example of western obsession with the mystical east. It has been a trend in art and literature “a combination of admiration and appropriation” (Nikolajeva 2009 p 89) to feed western imaginations of a truly foreign place. Said further states that the creation of Orientalism was not purely a trend but a mindset that justified colonialism (Said 1979). The characters in Tikki Tikki Tembo are clearly in a far away place though not specifically anywhere, especially reinforced by the confused but generic Asian illustrations that are part Japanese, part Chinese. Indeed, the location for the book is “unmappable” (Spooner 2004). The geography of the mountainous landscape emphasizes their remoteness, “in a small mountain village” (Mosel 1968 p1). The remoteness of the geographical setting and the nondescript “long, long time ago” (Mosel 1968 p 1) intensifies the ‘othering’ of the Oriental characters, “detached in time as well as in space” (Nikolajeva 2009 p 91).
Nodelman (1994) connects the construction of ‘the child’ in children’s literature with the European construction of ‘orientals’. It is the creation of ‘the other’, a notion that there are “opposite” (p29) people, unlike those in control of narratives and ultimately “not quite human” (p29). The idea of the mystical east, present in the western creation of the orient is evident in the reference to “evil spirits”. In addition, the depiction of the Old Man’s dream expresses this notion with the swirling patterns, bleeding ink stains and pictures of imperial buildings. The femininity of the orient (Nodelman 1992) is seen in the vision of the young woman in the Old Man’s dream. Nodelman (1994) highlights this ‘feminization’ of the Orient, from a power relationship between east and west, “For Europeans for whom the orient is subject to the gaze, it is therefore, metaphorically, female- and that allows Europe to represent itself and its own authority as male” (p30).
Mosel chooses language which makes the Chinese characters caricatures. There is a repetition of the word “honored” or “honorable”, which does not demonstrate the Chinese contextual meaning but becomes a meaningless stereotype of how Chinese people speak. It is almost as if Mosel had written it to be read with a Chinese accent, for example avoiding the more fluent present continuous tense “The water roars”. Stereotypical Asian references are used in the oriental words “Blossom”, “fish”, “rice cakes”, “Precious Pearl”.
The text lends itself to a feminist reading. The narrative creates a frame to express the oppression of the only female character, the single mother trapped in a traditional patriarchal society. She is pictured constantly in the domestic sphere at the home, unhappily performing domestic duties and is seen washing in four pictures. She is not given the nurturing characteristics of a mother. Rather she is portrayed as emotionally distant especially from her second son.
As language constructs gender (Sunderland 2010), the female is represented through the language used to describe her and the words that she uses (Sunderland, J. 2012). An examination of the words used for the female character create Mosel’s notion of femininity. The mother does not possess essentialist female traits of soft nurturing motherhood. She called her child “Chang, which meant “little or nothing”. (Mosel 1968 ) demonstrating her detachment from her traditional female duty as mother. The negative words that the mother says to her sons further illustrate tension between the genders in the text e.g. “That Troublesome boy”, “Tiresome Child, what are you trying to say?”, “Unfortunate Son, surely the evil spirits have bewitched your tongue.”
The fantasy woman that occurs in the Old Man’s dream represents the male creation of traditional femininity. With a psychoanalytical approach, the Old Man through age, is given decreased masculinity by the author, resulting in his need to control the woman in his dream. The fantasy woman is one that the Old Man can concoct and dominate in his dreams. She embodies traditional notions of feminine beauty with her long flowing hair and silky gown. The Old Man resists leaving his fantasy woman, “Miserable child, you disturb my dream… If I close my eyes perhaps I will again return”.
The psychoanalytical perspective of the picture book focuses on the Old Man’s dream as according to Freud dreams contain the unconscious material that drives conscious thought (Ryan 2007). The Old Man regresses to his childhood in his dreams “I had floated into a purple mist and found my youth again”. The woman in the Old Man’s dreams is his mother. According to Freud and psychoanalytical theory, “full separation from the care-giver is made possible when the child acquires the ability to make mental images or representations of tits initial care-giving object” (Ryan 2007 p97) thus showing the man’s detachment and sense of self.
The Marxist perspective is influenced by the historical context of the text and it’s connection with the class struggle “literature is a product of the popular historical and social formations that prevail at the time of its production” (Sarland 1999 p41). In a Marxist interpretation, Tikki Tikki Tempo is set in an emerging capitalist period. According to Marx, an existing capitalist society is essential before a socialist revolution can occur (Gandhi 1998). The Mother represents the bourgeoisie in this economic system. She uses the old well, a symbol for the means of production that are owned by the ruling class.
The class struggle occurs between the Old Man, the exploited working class and the bourgeois Mother and her sons. The old man is expected to rescue the bourgeois children from the well, one that has the ostentatious name “Tikki Tikki Tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruche-pip peri pembo, which meant “the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world!” (Mosel 1968). The bourgeois family forces the Old Man to be available with the life-saving ladder each time the children dangerously play near the well. The use of irony in “your mother’s ‘Precious Pearl’ has fallen into the well” is the climax of class tension. Whilst the woman lives in a house in a community of other similar houses, the Old Man is depicted apart from the mainstream community, alone on a hill, under a tree. He is surrounded by nature and portrayed as an extension of the natural world. When the mother and the son summon him, disrespectful language is used in comparison to the “Most Honorable” title given to the mother. This is especially significant for a culture so rooted in filial piety and respect for age ,“Run and get the Old Man With The ladder” and “Come right away”.
From a liberal humanist perspective, Tikki Tikki Tembo celebrates the feudal values of a pre-industrial rural life and the common human values of love for family and communal spirit. The idyllic landscape is an “escapist response” (Sarland 1999 p39) to the changing developed world in 1968. The Old Man helps the boys out of the well celebrating the communal spirit of a society before the evils of mechanization and urbanization. The old well represents modernity and danger. The kite, an image of a butterfly tied to earth, represents humanity and the children’s happiness. In the first picture the kite is flying in the sky, yet in the second and third pictures the kite is caught on the frame of the well and gradually falling to the ground- illustrating the affect the well is having on human happiness. The kite is seen triumphantly flying high in the sky on the last page.
Interpreting the book through different perspectives highlights the different theoretical perceptions and constructed notions of the child. Rudd (1999) considers the notion of the child as central to the purpose and meaning of a text. The child characters in the book are crucial to the action of the text. They both fall down the well, creating the main source of conflict in the Marxist and feminist interpretations. Yet the children, in their action, can be perceived as vulnerable beings and therefore lacking power reflecting social hierarchy. The fact that the Mother cannot hear her sons reinforces their voiceless state, “I can not hear you”, “what are you trying to say?”.
Tikki Tikki Tembo is a picture book that has received much criticism for it’s lack of cultural authenticity but endures as a text used by teachers. The various interpretations of the book through the lenses of history, structuralism, post colonialism, feminism, Marxism, psychoanalytical and liberal humanism show that the text has a wealth of ideological meaning that is imparted to children. The text does not occur in a socio-political vacuum and is infused with ideology depending on how it is read. Ultimately, literary criticism of children’s literature is an adult domain, excluding the intended readers from the discourse.
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Spooner, S. (2004). ‘Landscapes: Going Foreign’ in Arthur Ransome’s Peter Duck in Lesnik-Oberstein, K. Children’s Literature: New Approaches. New York: Routledge. 206-227
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The California Missions
This is the text for a unit on the California Missions that I student taught at a middle school in Beaverton, OR in 1999. The 7th grade social studies/language arts class was studying historical selected topics. Bolded words in the text indicate special vocabulary words needing to be discussed in class.
Lesson 1: Two Very Different Cultures
Remember in “Shogun” when Blackthorne first landed in Japan? He didn’t understand the language, and many things about Japanese culture were confusing and even unpleasant for him. At first, for example, he didn’t want to take a bath, expressing what he’s been taught, that “baths’ll make you foul sick.” By the end of the film, however, he’d learned to speak Japanese and adopted Japanese dress and customs. He even appeared to have adopted some Japanese beliefs. In many ways, Blackthorne was now able to live in two worlds: the English one in which he’d grown up and lived all his life and that of Japan. Because of her conversion to Christianity and her love for Blackthorne, Mariko also lived in two worlds. Sometimes those worlds conflicted, as when she prepared to commit seppuku, despite the Christian prohibition against suicide.
Blackthorne and Mariko show us that, though it isn’t easy, it’s possible to understand and participate in more than one culture. Because of choice or circumstance, some of us live that way today, as our world becomes more and more multicultural. That could be a good thing – the demands of the 21st century may require that we borrow from the best in many cultures to solve our problems.
Blending cultures can be difficult, especially if one culture conquers another and considers itself superior. In this unit we’re going to take a look at what happened when a European culture, an earlier version of our own in many ways, met a Native American hunter-gatherer culture.
The Spaniards’ Perception of the Indians
Many Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans saw the California natives as inferior to them in culture, religion, and even intelligence. The Indians’ houses looked primitive to Europeans, and they appeared to have little art except for their baskets. Native religion appeared to them as “barbarous sorcery.” The Indians’ relative nudity and courtship and marriage customs seemed immoral, too, compared to European standards. The California Indians ate foods, like insects, the Spanish thought were disgusting. Some Spaniards described Indians as barely human and compared them to animals.
Different Economic Systems
How is personal property distributed in different cultures? Native Americans tend to share, value generosity, and have customs like potlatches or giveaways that result in everyone having a similar amount. In some tribes there was little or no private property. Hunter-gatherers have always lived this way, and, until relatively recently, all of us were hunter-gatherers.
How did we get from the hunter-gatherer economic system to the one we have today? The development of agriculture less than 10,000 years ago started things changing. In an agricultural society there’s often a food surplus that can be fought over, guarded, and converted into wealth. These surpluses allow specialized roles and social classes to develop. In our study of feudal Europe, the Aztecs, and medieval Japan we’ve seen class systems of nobles; knights or warriors; and serfs, commoners, or peasants. Tribes or clans fought, as you did in “Warlords,” to take control of larger and larger territories. Eventually, a unified nation or state can form. If this nation-state goes on to conquer other countries, it can become an empire, like that of the Aztecs. From the 1500s to 1700s, some European countries formed colonial empires in the Americas. Spain, one of the first to do this, brought its complex economic and political system to California – to a people who had no way of understanding or fighting it.
Lesson 2: Spanish Exploration and Empire
Part 1: The Caribbean and Mexico
Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the “New World” in 1492 was financed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, so Columbus claimed the island of Hispaniola for Spain. He called the inhabitants of the island indios (Indians), thinking he’d arrived at his goal, the East Indies.
On Columbus’s second voyage he brought 17 ships, 1,500 men, and large quantities of livestock, seed, and tools. Indians were made to work for the colonists, each of whom was given a grant of Indian labor called an encomienda. The encomenderos were supposed to pay the Indians wages, offer them protection, and instruct them in the Catholic faith, but these regulations were ignored more often than not, and most Indians were treated like slaves. By 1520, most of them had died from mistreatment or European diseases.
Hernan Cortes, a wealthy encomendero on the island of Cuba, went to Mexico to explore and conquer a new land for Spain. He defeated the Aztec empire of central Mexico with 600 men, some horses, steel weapons, and several thousand Indian allies. A smallpox epidemic helped him take the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521. The Spanish called Tenochtitlan “Mexico City,” and tore down the Aztec temples, replacing them with churches.
The Aztecs thought the Spanish would be satisfied if they surrendered to them and paid tribute, but, unlike the Aztecs, who let conquered city-states keep their own language, gods, and customs, the Spaniards expected the Aztecs to learn Spanish, convert to Christianity, and adopt European customs. They also expected the Indians to work for them, as in Hispaniola, and over-work and epidemic diseases again took a heavy toll. Sixty years after the conquest, the Indian population of central Mexico had been reduced by almost 90%.
Part 2: California
In search of spices, silks, and precious metals and stones, Spain took the lead in exploring the New World and dominated it for almost 200 years. By 1531 Spain claimed the Caribbean islands, Mexico, Central America, and half of South America. There were also Spanish colonies in what are now Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Philippines.
In 1542 a Spanish explorer landed on the southern California coast and claimed it, too, for Spain. But for more than 150 years there were no Spanish settlers there. Deserts and mountains made it difficult for people to travel overland from Mexico, and sea journeys were dangerous. Spain also needed to concentrate on protecting its ships from pirates in the late 1500s and 1600s. Spanish treasure ships carried silver from Mexico to Manila in the Philippine Islands. There, Spanish traders exchanged the silver for Chinese silks and porcelains. Knowing the richness of the Spanish ships, English pirates like Sir Francis Drake prowled the coasts of the Americas in search of them. They even started attacking the port cities of the Spanish empire, forcing Spain to build fortresses in Havana, Cuba; Veracruz, Mexico; and St. Augustine, Florida.
In the late 1700s, Spain’s empire was threatened by more than pirates. Other countries had begun exploring, trading, and settling in the New World, too. Russian trappers and traders were hunting seals in San Francisco Bay, British naval forces sailed the coast, and there were British fur traders in western Canada. American whaling and trading ships had also entered the Pacific. Fearing that one of these countries might claim land in California, Spain decided to establish settlements there to show that it belonged to Spain.
Lesson 3: Serra Starts Out
Spain already had hundreds of missions in the New World when Franciscan Father Junipero Sierra established the first Spanish mission in California at San Diego. He had been appointed head of the Baja (Lower) California missions in 1768 and ordered to found new ones in Alta (Upper) California.
It was a great and important adventure. Picture the departure of the first land expedition from Santa Maria, Mexico…With banners flying, hands waving farewell, and last words shouted to those who had come to see them off, the procession started, with Captain Fernando Rivera and 25 of his leather-jacketed soldiers in the lead. The soldiers were on horseback and armed with helmets, shields, and muskets. Following them were 40 Christian Indians with spades, pickaxes, crowbars, and machetes. Next came Father Crespi on a white mule, followed by a hundred pack mules loaded with leather sacks of food and other necessities and guided by muleteers. Bringing up the rear were 25 more soldiers, a cloud of dust behind them. Meanwhile, two ships sailed toward California, their holds full of sacks of corn, wheat, and peas and barrels of water, wine, dried beef, and chocolate. The ships also carried axes, hoes, and spades for farming and altars, bells, candles, and priests’ robes for the churches the padres planned to found.
Don Gaspar de Portola and Father Serra led the second land expedition, which took 40 days to arrive in San Diego. Indian cowboys called vaqueros were in this group, driving herds of cattle and horses. On July 1, 1769, the land and sea expeditions were united at San Diego – a sad and happy meeting. Many of the sailors had died of scurvy, and many of the Christian Indians had deserted, going back to their homes in Mexico. But Father Sierra said, “God be praised!” He was already thinking about where to build the first church.
The country is “pleasant and green with many fragrant herbs, wild grapes, and plenty of game,” one of the Spaniards wrote, and “the Indians are friendly and tractable.” The Spanish put up tents and started building. The Indians welcomed them, guiding them around the country and giving them food. The Spaniards give the Indians beads, the first metal knives they’d ever seen, and clothing.
Lesson 4: Native Peoples of California
Native Americans had been living in California for at least 10,000 years when the Spanish arrived in 1769. There were 50 tribes of 100 to 1,000 members, a total of 300,000 people speaking many different languages.
To its native peoples, California wasn’t one country, but many. It included the lush rainforest of the northwest coast, the marshlands of the central valley, the wooded foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the beaches of the southern coast, and the palm-shaded springs of the desert interior. Each setting fostered a different way of life.
What the California Indians had in common was the belief that each of the life forms on which they depended came to them as a gift from the spirit world, and that nothing in their environment should be taken for granted.
Mount Shasta in northern California was sacred to the Modoc and Achumawi tribes. The Yurok, who lived closer to the coast, used long-handled dip nets to catch the salmon, surgeon, and steelhead that came upriver to spawn. In the wetlands of central California, the Pomo ate waterfowl and gathered tule reeds to make houses and boats. The Yokuts who lived in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada ground acorns into meal in stone mortars. Some of the biggest tribes lived along the southern California coast. One of these, the Chumash, lived in large villages of over 1,000 residents. They were skilled navigators and fishermen, traveling to offshore islands in ocean-going canoes. The Cahuilla living near the desert oasis of Palm Springs ate dates from palm trees.
The original Californians were dismissed by Europeans as primitive hunter-gatherers, but they managed and improved their environment by burning, pruning, sowing seeds, weeding, irrigating, tilling, and harvesting according to sound ecological principles. In this way, California supported one of the highest concentrations of people north of Mexico. California Indians were peaceful because the land gave them plenty, and natural barriers like mountains and deserts separated many of their groups. Lightly clothed and with few possessions, the California tribes seemed to the Spanish to be inferior to the Aztec, who had developed a city-state civilization based on settled agriculture. The California tribes’ knowledge of the environment, gained over thousands of years, went unrecognized by the Europeans.
Some Indians lived in houses made of brush or tule reeds, and others built houses of bark or wooden planks. The choice depended on the climate and available materials. Several families might live together in one house, and most Indian houses had a firepit in the center for cooking and warmth. There weren’t any windows – smoke from the fire went out an opening in the roof.
Most villages had at least one sweathouse, in which the men made a big fire, poured water on the hot rocks around it, and sweated out impurities in the steamy heat. At the end of their sweat, the men ran outside and jumped in the cold water of the nearest ocean, river, or lake. This kept them clean and healthy. Most Indian villages also had a meetinghouse for meetings, dances, ceremonies, or storytelling sessions.
Indian men hunted, fished, and trapped. Meat that wasn’t eaten right away was cut in strips and dried in the sun or over the fire, and fish were smoked. Women gathered plant foods and cooked. Many varieties of oak trees grew in California, and most tribes used their acorns as a major food source, pounding them into meal to make bread or mush.
The Indians needed little clothing in California’s mild climate. If the weather turned cold, capes made of rabbit skins kept them warm, and deerskin moccasins were worn on long journeys. There were also special clothes for dances and feasts: beautiful feather capes for the men and skirts trimmed with shells for the women.
Women used grasses and reeds dyed in different colors to make beautiful baskets. These baskets were used to carry babies, hold food and water, cook, and to wear as caps. California Indians are still the most skilled basket makers in the United States.
Lesson 5: The Founding of the First Missions
Thousands of Kumeyaay Indians lived in villages around the new Spanish settlement at San Diego. When the Spanish stopped giving them gifts, they sometimes took what they wanted from the presidio, or fort, the soldiers had built or from the wooden chapel erected by the missionaries. The Spanish saw this as stealing, evidence of the natives’ “heathen” ways that they hoped to change.
In 1775, after six years of efforts by the Spanish priests, there were 500 Kumeyaay converts at the San Diego mission. Often there were problems between the Indians and the soldiers at the presidio, because the soldiers molested the Indian women and let their horses eat the crops the padres had taught the Indian men to grow. Finally, two of the Indian men organized an attack on the presidio and the mission. The attack on the presidio failed, but the mission was burned. When Father Jaime ran out to try to stop the attackers, crying, “Love God, my children!” he was killed. The other Spaniards at the mission barricaded themselves inside and scared the Indians away with their muskets. Later, the Indians said they’d tried to drive the Spanish away so they could “live as we did before.”
Father Serra established a total of nine missions before he died in 1784, and his successors founded 12 more for a total of 21. The missions were built a hard day’s journey apart on what came to be called El Camino Real, the Royal Road or King’s Highway. Along with missions, the Spaniards built forts, called presidios, and towns, called pueblos. The priests tried to concentrate groups of Indians around the missions so they could control them and keep them from being influenced by unconverted tribesmen. They needed the Indians to work at the missions: to build and decorate them and to raise the crops that would feed the soldiers and settlers.
Because there were so many different Indian languages in California, few of the priests made an effort to learn them. The mission Indians were expected to learn enough Spanish and church Latin to get along, but they may not have fully understood the prayers and rituals they memorized. The missionaries never taught the Indians to read or write.
Lesson 6: Life at the Missions
The mission Indians’ lives were ruled by the bells that rang to call them to worship, work, meals, and sleep. Their day began at sunrise when the Angelus bell called them to prayers in the mission church. An hour later, another bell announced breakfast. Each family sent someone to get its share of the atole (corn mush) the Indian women had cooked in the communal kitchen. After breakfast the work bell rang. Everyone physically able to work, including the children, had tasks to perform. Twice a day the padres gave the children over five religious instruction in Spanish or Latin. At midday the bell rang for a meal of posole, a corn and vegetable stew that sometimes had meat added to it. This was followed by an hour’s siesta. The afternoon was spent working. The Angelus bell rang at six, calling the Indians to evening prayers, followed by a supper of atole and tortillas. At 8 PM everyone was expected to be in bed. Unmarried girls and women slept in a locked dormitory, and widowers and single men, too, were often locked in at night to prevent them from leaving the mission.
Indian men and boys farmed with hoes and wooden plows pulled by oxen. They grew corn, wheat, barley, beans, and peas, as well as vegetables like tomatoes, onions, garlic, and peppers; fruits such as oranges, lemons, peaches, plums, apples, and figs; and nuts (walnuts and almonds). The Indians learned to make oil from olives and wine from grapes. Indian herders cared for sheep, cattle, and horses, as well as the work animals – oxen, mules, and burros. Chickens, pigs, and goats were also raised. Indian men and boys also learned trades in the mission workshops. In the blacksmith shop tools, nails, bolts, hinges, locks, keys, bits, stirrups, and horseshoes were made out of iron brought from Mexico. In the carpentry shop doors, beams, and furniture were fashioned. Some of the most important mission products came from the hides and fat, or tallow, of the cattle. Leather was made into shoes, sandals, sacks, harnesses, saddles, and rope. Tallow was used to make soap and candles. In the pottery shop Indian workers made jars, roof and floor tiles, clay pipes, and adobe bricks. The women worked in the gardens, washed the clothes, cooked, and spun, wove, and sewed, using the sheep’s wool to make blankets.
The farming and other work done by the Indians at the missions supported not only the padres and the Indians themselves, but the Spanish soldiers who guarded the missions and manned the nearby presidios. Products from the missions were also sold to settlers from Mexico who lived in neighboring towns. Some mission products, especially hides and tallow, were traded with ships from New England that stopped along the coast. In addition to food and other products from the missions, Spanish miners, farmers, and ranchers also expected the mission Indians to work for them occasionally.
The work they did at the missions and elsewhere was different from what the Indians were used to. It was harder and took a lot longer than hunting and gathering. Sometimes the Indians missed their freedom and resisted the mission schedules and rules, especially the one that said they couldn’t leave. When Indians broke the rules, the padres had them whipped or locked in the stocks (a heavy wooden frame with holes for the prisoner’s wrists and ankles). Wearing leg shackles while they worked was another punishment.
Why did the Indians come to the missions? First of all, it was the missions that had come to the Indians. The Spanish had purposely built missions where many Indians already lived, in order to convert them and make use of their labor. Second, the Indians were curious about the spiritual powers of the priests, the leaders of these strange new people with horses, metal, and guns. Some of the first Indians to approach the missions and agree to be baptized were actually medicine men and women trying to add to their spiritual powers. None of the Indians who came to the missions gave up their old beliefs when they started practicing Christianity. Like the Mexican Indians before them, they ended up with a mixture of the old and the new.
The Indians didn’t come to the missions initially for food, because they had plenty to eat when the Spanish came. After the Spaniards had been living in their country for a while, however, many of the seed-bearing grasses and other plants the Indians depended on disappeared, eaten by the Spanish livestock and untended by the Indians who worked at the missions. Wild game became scarce as well. Thus, in later years many Indians did stay at the missions in order to have enough to eat.
Lesson 7: Understanding the Spanish
To understand the point of view of the Spanish soldiers and missionaries in California in the 1700s we have to go back over a thousand years when the ruler of Spain made Christianity the state religion. That meant everyone in Spain had to be a Christian, and all Christians in those days were Catholic. Two hundred years later, Muslims from North Africa conquered most of the country. The reconquest of Spain from the Muslims, called the Reconquista, took 700 years. This long fight for their territory and their religion gave the Spanish a permanent crusading spirit.
Spain wasn’t really united until King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile married in 1469. In 1482 the Spanish Inquisition, famous for its cruel treatment of people suspected of heresy against the established church, began. In 1492, the year Columbus sailed west to what he hoped would be the Indies, all non-Christians (mostly Muslims and Jews) were forcibly expelled from Spain. Spanish Catholic faith was intense – today we’d probably think it close-minded. At the time, however, fervent and militant religious belief, merged with patriotism, was the Spanish frame of reference. It led them to create a vast, mighty, and extremely wealthy empire in the New World, where they were able to extend both Spanish territory and the Christian faith.
Lesson 8: Indian Resistance
Because they needed a constant labor supply to keep the mission system going, and because the Indian death rate from European disease was high, the padres were always looking for new converts. By the early 1800s, they were sending soldiers into the interior of California looking for new tribes to convert. Soldiers went into the mountains, rounded up Indians, brought them back to the missions, and locked them up. Indians who escaped often came back and tried to steal the Spaniards’ horses.
Occasionally, the Indians revolted. In 1824 some of the Chumash, who had five missions in their territory and had suffered terrible losses from disease, got tired of working so hard and being whipped for minor rule infractions. They attacked the missions of Santa Ines, La Purisima Concepcion, and Santa Barbara. After weeks of fighting, the Indians were defeated by the soldiers, but 450 of them fled east to the San Joaquin Valley, and another 50 escaped to Santa Cruz Island.
In 1795, 280 converts ran away from the San Francisco mission. Two hundred more ran away the next year. In 1798, 138 Indians left Santa Cruz, and 200 left San Juan Bautista in 1805.
In general, there was growing Indian resistance to the Spanish after 1810 when the war for independence from Spain began. This may have been because supplies were no longer getting through, and because there was more pressure on the missions to supply military garrisons. Indian rebellion, flight from the missions, and horse raiding all increased. Indians living in the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and other interior valleys also fought with the Spanish soldiers who came to find fugitives and seek new converts.
Lesson 9: The End of the Mission System
In 1823 Mexico declared its independence from Spain. Six years later, the new government ordered the Spanish padres to leave the California missions. In 1834 Mexican officials and settlers took most of the mission lands and property, including equipment and livestock. By law the Indians were supposed to get half of everything, but they didn’t know that, and would have had no way to defend their rights anyway.
The missionaries had said they were planning to give the missions to the Indians when they were ready to live independently as Hispanicized Christians. But they did little to prepare the converts for self-government, saying the Indians were too ignorant, backward, and prone to backsliding into their “heathenish” ways. In reality, many Indians had probably learned enough about Western civilization to get along in colonial society, had the colonists and padres been willing to accept them as fellow citizens. As it was, the mission Indians either tried to go back to their old life of hunting and gathering, or went to work on Mexican cattle ranches for whatever food, clothing, and shelter the rancheros were willing to give them. Most of these workers soon found themselves in debt to their patrons, according to the records the colonists kept, and were thus unable to leave.
Lesson 10: The Americans Take Over in California
California became a United States territory in 1847 after the Mexican War. Under the Americans, as with the Mexican rancheros, Indians were legally free, but required to work. According to a law adopted by the state’s first legislature in 1850, unemployed Indians could be arrested and hired out. Whites were also allowed to obtain Indian children as “apprentices” if they fed and clothed them. In 1860 this practice was extended to adult Indians with “no settled habitation or means of livelihood.” As many as 10,000 Indians were indentured without their consent in this way. An editorial in the Sacramento Union in 1860 said, “If this doesn’t fill the measure of the constitutional term ‘involuntary servitude,’ we shall be thankful if someone will inform us what is lacking.”
The abduction and sale of Indians, especially children, was carried on as a business. White farmers, ranchers, and miners bought kidnapped Indians and used them as slaves. Some whites argued that the Indian children working for them were being “improved” or “civilized,” but an observer wrote that “these involuntary wards often die at an early age. If they attain maturity, they abscond to their native mountains.” Approximately 4,000 Indians were victimized by this practice from 1852 to 1867.
A few reservations patterned after the mission system were tried in California. The Indians were to farm and learn trades, their work supporting government agents and troops. In 1857 as many as 10,000 of the estimated 50,000 California Indians were involved in this system. However, several agents were found to have pocketed money meant for the Indians. Starving, the tribes stole cattle and horses in order to survive. Angry settlers then felt justified in killing every Indian they could find. In northern California miners and ranchers banded together for the purpose of hunting and killing Indians, and as late as 1870 frontier communities paid bounties for their scalps or heads.
The state’s Indian population declined from about 150,000 in 1845 to less than 30,000 in 1870. An estimated 60% of the population decline was due to disease.
During the late 19th century, the majority of California Indians subsisted on the fringes of white settlements, working as farm laborers and domestic servants. During the 20th century, their material situation improved, but not to the level of the general population. In the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, Indian people showed a growing interest in the revival and preservation of their native cultures, some of which, tragically, had disappeared.
The tribes that have been able to remain on at least a portion of their traditional lands have been the most successful in keeping their culture. The Cahuillas, for example, have been able to remain on their land in south central California during more than 200 years of white contact. Traditional foods are still eaten at ritual and social events, kin relationships remain important, precontact songs and dances continue, and traditional funeral and personal rituals are performed. In northern California, the Hupas also have a history of uninterrupted occupancy of their homeland. The Hupa language continues to be spoken, and there are efforts to perpetuate traditional beliefs and activities.
Even among the tribes removed from their lands the old ways haven’t disappeared entirely. Pomo tribal leaders maintain traditional philosophical and religious principles, and schools teach ceremonial dances and songs. Several Pomo shamans still use ancient curing methods. The Achumawis have also maintained extensive knowledge and use of aboriginal medicines, foods, and rituals. Their faith in their shamans remains strong, and they still know where the traditional “power places” are in their old territory.
The U.S. government returned most mission buildings and some land to the Catholic Church in the late 1850s and ’60s, but by then many of the buildings had been torn down or were in disrepair. Artists recorded the ruins in paintings and photographs, inspiring growing numbers of tourists to visit in the early 1900s. Soon wealthy individuals and groups began to campaign for the missions’ restoration, and this has now been done at practically all the old sites.
Lesson 11: What Can We Conclude about the Missions?
European and Native American cultures have very different – we might even say opposing – values. It was inevitable that they would meet and that when they did Native Americans would be at a disadvantage. Indians didn’t realize until it was too late that Europeans wouldn’t recognize their right to continue living as they had for thousands of years on their land. Not understanding European culture, they had no way of knowing that the newcomers would eventually want all of the land for themselves, and that they would expect Indians to assimilate. For these reasons, Native Americans didn’t unite against the intruders, or did so too late. They lacked the technology to defeat Europeans in battle, and, in the case of the California tribes, also lacked training in fighting, not having warred much with each other. By the time many California Indians decided they didn’t like the effect the Spanish and their missions were having on them, their numbers had been depleted by European diseases, and the Spanish sheep, horses, and cattle had eaten up or driven away many of the food sources they depended on.
Why did 80% of the California Indians gathered into the missions die? First, they hadn’t had the opportunity to acquire immunity to European diseases, and the padres unwittingly spread these diseases by visiting Indian villages and baptizing as many infants and children as they could. Native Americans also died because of the stress of being forced to change their way of life so drastically. Their families and societies were torn apart, their workload was heavy, and their diet poor.
Most of what happened as a result of the meeting of these two cultures was negative, especially for the Indians, whose culture was neither valued nor respected. Today, however, many people of European descent recognize the need to listen to Native Americans, as well as other tribal peoples around the world, whose remaining cultures have much to tell us about how to live in harmony with the earth. We’re starting to realize that we need this kind knowledge not only for our survival, but for our happiness.
The missions succeeded materially, establishing the foundation for California agriculture. They’ve also given us much in the way of Hispanic culture. Today the restored missions stand as monuments to those who sought to spread what they considered to be the most valuable assets of mankind: Christianity and Western civilization. When we judge their actions today we must remember that the Spanish rulers, padres, and colonists, like all people, viewed the world according to what they’d been taught. They acted in accordance with this worldview, following the values of their particular culture and time. Perhaps we who study their history can benefit from it, learning to better respect and appreciate different cultural viewpoints, and using them to solve some of the problems we all share.