What is Autism?

Up until recently, the definition of autism, a medical condition, diagnosed by medical practitioners was the only lens though which the neurology was understood. A medical specialist’s role is to discover what is wrong with people and hopefully to try and fix or ease any symptoms.  So autism was defined as a disorder – currently called Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the medical manuals.   However, there are no medical tests for autism, and it has only been described from the outside, by how these specialists observed autistic people to behave. 

As the only way autism was described was by the person’s behaviour, specialists thought that  by teaching autistic people to behave differently, that would be the end of their autism. Certainly some autistic people did learn different behaviour,  but they are still autistic.  

We now understand that autistic people have a different neurology. Autistic brains operate differently in the first place. We don’t know why this is though there are some theories around this. But we do know that neurodiversity is a fact – the world is made up of all kinds of minds.  

So knowing that autistic people have a different neurology, families and schools can support autistic young people to thrive by learning about and supporting the differences an autistic brain brings.  

Thanks to dedicated parents, teachers, researchers, but especially to the inclusion of autistic people in the discourse, we are reaching a better understanding of autism, and neurological differences generally.  

So let’s look at some of the differences you might expect to find in autistic people. 

Sensory Differences

Autistic people’s senses tend to operate differently to what is typically expected, feeling certain sensations more strongly than others, some more weakly or some not at all. At its best this can lead to some environments being experienced as incredibly joyful, and to great creativity. At worst, it can mean some environments are completely intolerable and exhausting. 

Communication Differences

Communication is the exchanging or imparting  of information by speaking, writing, body movement or using some other medium. 

Statistics vary widely, but some research shows that roughly 25-30% of autistic children are non-speaking. Autistic adults describe losing the ability to speak when stressed, exhausted, burnt out or very anxious. (http://www.selectivemutism.org.uk/) 

Likewise, the ability to understand communication, whether visual, written, spoken, or some other means, varies among autistic individuals. People who do not speak and do not understand what is said to them may be described as non-verbal. People who do not speak but can understand some, or all speech, are described as non-speaking. Even among speaking autistic people, there are differences from non-autistic communication in areas such as topic choice, conversational flow, intonation, body language (e.g. eye contact) that non-autistic others may not understand or appreciate.  Therefore, it is important to learn how each individual autistic person communicates and to support their right to access effective communication. 

Social Differences

Autistic people can stand out for appearing different to others, sometimes in obvious ways like stimming with the body or not making eye contact, sometimes in more subtle ways that can cause other people to feel uneasy although neither party can pinpoint why! Although autistic mannerisms, interactions and reasons for their actions don’t always make sense to non-autistic others, mutual incomprehension works both ways. This is known as the double empathy gap. As autistic people are in a minority, a lot of time is spent working out what is going on around them. Non-autistic people generally seem to pick up on social nuance much more easily. This uses up energy and may lead to the autistic person masking themselves and their needs to fit in. 

Attention and Focussing Differences 

For all of us, attention is a limited resource. Autistic people tend to devote all their attention to one or a few things at a time. This means that autistic people tend to be focussed thinkers. Non-autistic people’s attention can spread more widely, but also more thinly. So non-autistic people tend to be more general thinkers. Some people consider that autistic focussed attention is the defining feature of being autistic- the thing that distinguishes autistic people from others. This use of focussed attention is called monotropism. The theory of monotropism was defined by non- medical autistic scholars and has continued to be refined over the years. If we consider that autism is defined by focussed attention it explains a lot about autistic people 

• Social differences 
• Sensory differences 
• Inertia or difficulty stopping, starting or changing task 

• Intense interests 

Executive Functioning Differences

Executive functions are all the skills needed to get things done e.g. planning, scheduling, organising, handling change. 

They involve mental skills such as working memory, flexible thinking and self-control. 

While autistic people can often have advantages in areas such as flexible thinking in areas of interest and creative problem solving, in general executive functioning skills can need additional support. 

We need executive functioning skills for many aspects of school and everyday life. Problems can lead to difficulties in areas such as 

• Paying attention 
• Organising, planning & prioritising 
• Starting tasks and staying focussed on them to completion 

• Understanding different points of view 
• Regulating emotions 
• Self- monitoring (keeping track of what you are doing) 
• Time management 
• Remembering what is to be done