Your knowledge gap about autism is about genius
Reminder that tonight at 7pm – 9pm Eastern I’m hosting a free, live session to talk about autism. Here’s the link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82800295802?pwd=LfTfUHmWnqbbQdLJCbD9U8Wd7L571A.1
The platitudes about autism being a gift miss the more important point that pretty much every major movement, invention, and breakthrough has been from someone autistic. Here’s the science behind why that is true:
Dis/ability is contextual. For example, OCD is annoying when you’re trying to get someone to leave the house. But OCD is also finding fulfillment through consistency. When there are 100 musical phrases, and two are not written consistently, a person with OCD might feel a sense of fulfillment from adjusting those two. This is why autistic people focus on patterns — it’s fulfilling in a way birthday parties are fulfilling to neurotypical people.
Culture determines what we think is useful. Obsessively sorting rocks at the beach when the other kids are playing makes a kid look like an outcast. But when the kid can geologically date rocks by just looking, then rocks are a special interest, not an obsession, because society values that skill. Similarly we call behavior repetitive until it becomes a path to invention, and then we call it trial and error.
Social interest is not lower in autistic people. It’s different. Autistic people have a strong social drive to connect with people by sharing ideas. Neurotypicals connect by narrating their day or sharing personal feelings. To an autistic person, this is boring, and it’s why we prefer our dogs to small talk. If you ask an autistic person to narrate their day, they’ll pick out something surprising that happened because autistic people value connecting through interestingness over connecting through emotions.
Autistic empathy helps society more than neurotypical empathy. Neurotypicals have cognitive empathy which means they understand how someone feels and why they feel that way. Autistic people don’t have that, but autistic people do care about how someone is feeling. As usual, a deficit in the autistic brain makes room for another skill to develop. In this case, autistic people have a unique empathy for the greater good, which we see in the autistic drive toward social justice.
Autistic people are futurists. Our person-perception deficit means we can’t accurately predict an individuals’ intentions, emotions or thoughts. But our social-cognitive skills enable us to see what groups need before the groups know. Autistic people can predict social-psychological phenomena by looking at patterns and use that knowledge to predict trends. This autistic skill brought us concepts like “groupthink” and “social loafing”.
The autistic gift is the drive to understand systems. That’s mechanical systems, for sure — like a video recorder or a window lock. But it’s also social systems like management hierarchy or tango routines. We are familiar with the autistic obsession with natural systems like weather patterns and tides, but a less familiar one is motoric systems — throwing a frisbee or skydiving. Collecting is also systematic thinking – collectible systems distinguish between different types of stones/coins/stamps/marbles etc.
I talk with many people who think they are autistic but not gifted, or their kid is autistic and not gifted. But that’s simply not true. Behind the meltdown in the airport and behind the picky eater in your kitchen there is a genius waiting to shine.
Don’t forget to join Wed. Nov, 13, 7-9pm Eastern. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. I will talk, of course. We will not cover the stuff I’ve written here– because now you know it – but we’ll cover topics similar to these.
Here’s the link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82800295802?pwd=LfTfUHmWnqbbQdLJCbD9U8Wd7L571A.1
I wish I could join this tonight. Wednesday is always date night.
My TikTok is feeding me a lot of German-language content, some of it native and a lot of it for language learners. Since I was a teenager I’ve spoken German well enough that I can make my way as a visitor in Germany without ever having to use English. (Occasionally someone will be surprised I’m not native, “you have almost no accent.” It’s a point of pride.) Anyway, I find myself heavily drawn into this German-language content because it all feels like a puzzle to me, figuring out how the language works. I think you’ve called this “decoding a language” in the past. It feels like if I understand how German works, I’ll skyrocket in my fluency at a speed straight speaking practice can’t match.
Oooh. So interseting about that. Autistic people are gifted at decoding language. But autistic people aren’t good at speaking foreign languages. Decoding via speech is more difficult for us. And this foreign language data seems consistent to me with autistic babies decoding language via speech only until they can read — and it’s why autistic kids read early and speak late.
I took to speaking German like a fish takes to water. I don’t know why.
Z is like that too — he can speak a language really quickly and the writing and reading comes later. He is working with a professor who does research in this area and it appears that people who are auditory learners are decoding just like someone decodes by writing out conjugations — it’s just a different way of decoding. Which is to say, you’re still learning differently than neurotypicals which is why you’re so fast :)
Penelope
We celebrate obsessive tendencies when they manifest as sporting genius
I agree Generally more so if they are male( or identify and pass as one). This goes for collections of things or studying a niche subject in science.
I wonder if it translated into things like intricate lace or quilt making,spinning for women
Thank you for last night’s call. It was 12am here. I had read a short article that home sapiens had relations with Neanderthals, Denosovians and possibly a third named group. It fascinates me that this is where Autism may have originated. And how it was probably fine when we lived in small multi generational groups who could help with body doubling to get things done, helped alot with childcare and you generally didn’t have to do all you needed to survive all by yourself.
Or how you can have AuDH.
I feel I’m being abilist looking for my ‘gift’. Like I want to be like Einsteing who was an asshole to his wife but you know he’s a genius so it’s fine. I want to say look I’m excellent at this , take it and let it overcompensate for everything else.
The Pyscholgist who diagnosed my Inattentive ADHD thinks not everyone with a family will be on the spectrum. I believe your view might be more accurate
I’m so glad you liked the call! Almost always our gift starts out as something we think is really normal. Because it’s so easy for us and we do it all the time. Remember: disability is contextual and usefulness is cultural. So the first thing is to do what feels right, that you feel driven to do, and then look for a context for yourself. That context is: what problem are you solving for society? This is a tough path because we are money-focused and we can’t starve. We have to take a leap of faith that we are valuable.
Penelope
This reframing is really useful. Capitalism makes it more difficult if you find it hard to monetise or somehow use your ‘gift’ to provide the basics. One time we might have had a patron to offset this. Now we have to think differently about how to survive and thrive.
Also this made me feel good but weepy. I have a nice life but need to do something for my brain.