Les scénarios sociaux spécifiques en bandes dessinées (3S-BD) : un nouvel outil pour l’accompagnement à la compréhension socio-émotionnelle des personnes ayant un Trouble du Spectre de l’Autisme et un Handicap Intellectuel associé

Abstract

Those who suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) whose developmental trajectory mobilizes heterogeneous and variable expression skills require structured, concrete, explicit and long-term support. To offset the socio-emotional, behavioral and sensory alterations that characterize this lifelong handicap, specific social scenarios constitute a specialized visual support for treatment. They clearly and explicitly represent scenes of social situations, enabling these individuals, depending on their actual age and level of understanding and cognitive development, to acquire necessary lifelong skills. The themes include social communication, socio-emotional regulation and expression, biological and psychological developmental stages linked to gender differences, and puberty, and they address sensory and sexual aspects at the start of adult life as well as personal and social skills related to autonomy. Structured and accompanied access to information that is transmitted through specific scenarios allows the person with ASD (1) to learn and develop a repertoire of social response strategies for different contexts, (2) to have concrete response strategies to deploy in autonomous situations a, (3) to prevent the appearance and establishment of “problem behaviors” related to erroneous beliefs and (4) to propose alternative behavioral responses to “prohibited behaviors”. The second objective is to improve the quality of life of the person with ASD and to promote their development within their life-long social group. Having a concrete learning experience and establishing a positive spiral of experiences that reinforce self-confidence, the person with Autism Spectrum Disorder will be effectively supported in their socio-emotional development. A large number of people with ASD lack a solid understanding of a set of social, biological, bodily, sensory and developmental concepts and criteria which leads to maladaptive behaviors in society which hinders emotional and relational functioning to the point of increasing in some cases the sense of stress, anxiety and guilt. In addition, the lack of knowledge and concrete representations as well as the absence of appropriate responses to the questions brought about by natural curiosity and pubertal development, regardless of the cognitive functioning of the person with ASD, can lead to the elaboration of a set of auto- and hetero-aggressive behaviors. The structured intervention applied to the person with autism, but also to any person with other neurodevelopmental disorders, can ensure the benefit of a serene socio-emotional development.