What is autism? The most useful way for me to conceptualize autism is to think of it as a difference in how brains make connections. Before I explain what I mean by that, I want to give you two caveats: 1. What we are now calling autism is not just one thing. It is a group of different conditions which are given one name because we are bad at telling them apart. I am talking about the kind of autism that I have and that most of my clients seem to have. I do not know that this is the most useful way of thinking about the autism of any other particular person. 2. There is some science that supports my ideas and some science that suggests that I am wrong. I could cherry-pick the research, but I prefer that you investigate it on your own if you are interested. Neural connectivity affects almost everything about the way we interact with the world: how our senses function, how we learn and access knowledge, how we move and speak. Autistic brains make some kinds of connections more easily and more quickly than neurotypical brains do. Autistic brains make some kinds of connections more reluctantly and more slowly than neurotypical brains do. And thats the most useful way for me to think about what autism is. Transitions and shifts in context may be tough for us in part because our brains actually get attached to our current circumstances. We may have a difficult time being flexible about routines or rules because they get literally hardwired into our brains. One of the things that some of my clients find most disabling is the tendency to form negative associations very quickly and very strongly. If an autistic person has a meltdown at Safeway, for example, he or she might have a hard time entering any grocery store afterwards. Maybe this is because of a physical neural connection associating supermarkets and trauma that that event has caused to develop in that brain. One of things that makes learning hard for me is the contrast between how quickly and joyfully I learn the sorts of things that rely on the kinds of connections my brain makes readily (language, music) and the kinds of connections my brain makes reluctantly (math, spatial relations). Again, this may not be the most productive way to think about your autism. But it is the most helpful way I have found of thinking about mine.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 22:14:16 +0000
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