By Dr Amy Pearson
Each April, dread begins to creep over many autistic people as Autism Awareness Month dawns and a sudden flood of information about autism breaches the public consciousness. Dread might seem quite a surprising response to a campaign aimed at increasing public education and knowledge, however an increase in ‘spreading awareness’ often spreads many misconceptions about autistic people.
So what is Autism?
Autism is a form of neurodiversity, which means that the brains of autistic people process information differently to the brains of non-autistic people. Human neurodiversity exists across many domains – I’m sure many of you remember ‘the dress’ and the arguments it caused amongst those who saw ‘black and blue’ and those who saw ‘white and gold’. Perceptual differences like ‘the dress’ are just one example of how individual differences in neural processing might manifest, alongside things like differences in sensory processing, social communication style, and how we allocate our attention.
Autism is currently characterised by a profile of differences across these domains compared to the non-autistic population but not all people have the same profile of differences, hence autism is sometimes referred to as a spectrum. Many people take this to mean that autism is a line with ‘very autistic’ at one end’ and ‘not very autistic at the other’
But what it actually means is that these people…
…are all autistic, even though they might all experience the world, and autism, differently. This is because, just like non-autistic people, autistic people are individuals with their own likes, dislikes, hopes, and personalities.
Social Communication Style
Autistic social communication can often appear ‘blunt’ or literal to a non-autistic person. Some autistic people might find it hard to understand the non-literal intention behind what a person says (i.e. someone saying ‘I’m a bit cold, are you?’ might be inferring that they want you to put the heating on, rather than actually just wanting you to state your current body temperature). Other autistic people might not use spoken language to communicate, and instead might use sign language or augmentative and alternative communication to share their thoughts with others.
Some autistic people might be very social, whereas others might require very little social contact to feel ‘peopled out’.
Many autistic people feel exhausted after social interaction, from constantly trying to read the subtext of what has been said, or from trying to concentrate on socialising while also filtering incoming sensory information. Imagine being out for dinner with friends and being able to hear several of your friends talking at the same time, the music in the background, the table across from you talking and the kitchen noises, all at the time without being able to switch it off. It can be pretty tiring.
Sensory Processing
Autistic people often experience differences in the way incoming sensory information is processed: sometimes this might mean that what other people find to be ‘just right’ in terms of noise, light, smell, etc., is too much. In the above restaurant example, we just thought about noise, but the ‘real world’ is full of different smells, visual information, sound, textures, and flavours.
Or alternatively, not enough. Things like weighted blankets, or coloured lighting can provide sensory stimulation to someone who is hyposensitive and needs a little more sensory input in order to feel at ease.
A lot of the time, one person can experience both- hypersensitivity in some senses, and hyposensitivity in others. This might look like a need for tight fitting clothing to provide a sense of where your body starts and ends (proprioception) and enjoying food with strong flavours, but needing to wear noise cancelling headphones to filter out extraneous noises.
Finding ways to create a good sensory environment can be really beneficial to an autistic person, and help them to conserve energy. It can also really help people to regulate their own moods and emotions, and minimise stress.
Attentional Allocation
Autistic theorists have suggested that autistic attention is monotropic. That means that autistic people tend to allocate their attention more intensely to one particular stimulus (i.e. a favourite pastime, subject, or interest) at a time.
Whereas non-autistic people tend to allocate their attention more evenly.
These interests will vary across the population (not everyone is into trains):
Autistic people are often described as having ‘special interests’. But everyone’s favourite interests are ‘special’ to them. By inferring that autistic people enjoy their favourite things too much we stigmatise their enjoyment and that can be really harmful, making people feel bad talking to others about the things that they love.
Why does this matter?
When we talk about whole sections of the population as ‘impaired’ or ‘disordered’ we attach their identity to a negative, which leads to stigma and dehumanisation. Autistic people are more likely to be victimised, bullied, have mental health difficulties, and die by suicide than the neurotypical population. How we speak about people has a real impact in their lives. Being aware that autistic people exist is one thing, but being accepting of autistic people for who they are is much more meaningful.
University of Sunderland School of Psychology 