By Claire Hines, Year 12
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), more commonly known as autism, is a neurological condition that is expressed in various ways, depending on the individual. According to the World Health Organisation, autism is “characterised by some degree of difficulty with social interaction and communication. Other characteristics are atypical patterns of activities and behaviours, such as difficulty with transition from one activity to another, a focus on details and unusual reactions”. That’s quite a lengthy definition, so let’s break that down.
People with ASD can have varying degrees of the intensity of their condition, more commonly known as the three levels of autism. Level One, or ‘mild autism’, involves less severe symptoms, and the affected individual is, in most cases, fully capable of independence. Level Two presents the symptoms to a slightly more intense degree, and the individual affected usually requires a fair amount of support. Level Three presents the characteristics to a severe degree and in most cases, the individual is fully dependent on others, though this is far from always being the case. Let’s think about that for a moment. Independence is being able, in this case, to live alone and make your own decisions without any help. Though this may seem natural to you, it can take years of practice and training for some individuals with severe ASD.
So, what are the symptoms? The characteristics of ASD vary greatly with each individual, and in consequence, cannot be applied to all those affected as a whole. However, there are some general trends, such as difficulties with regards to communicating and interacting with others. This can be in the form of a verbal block, such as stuttering, constant repetition, and difficulties with pronunciation which can make learning a new language and indeed mastering one’s own very difficult.
In addition, comprehension difficulties are common for people with ASD, as they tend to take things literally, though once again, the extent to which they do so depends on the individual and is usually more common in younger years. For instance, in some cases of more severe ASD, if you were to tell someone with ASD to take a seat, they might wonder where you wanted them to carry the chair to. Or if you told them you were interested in how their weekend went, they might simply think ‘that it’s nice that they’re interested’, but won’t understand that you actually want them to tell you about their weekend. This may sound “funny” to some individuals, but it’s really not, and can lead to misunderstandings as some individuals with ASD can struggle with jokes, and sarcasm which can make people laugh at them, resulting in some cases in the development of a self-protection mechanism of distancing themselves from others. As they grow up however, most individuals develop an understanding of figures of speech and expressions, though they may still find figurative speech such as metaphors more challenging.
Let’s look at some of the varying characteristics mentioned in the above definition.
Difficulty with transitions is a fairly common one. People with ASD tend to find changes hard to adjust to, which can lead to mental distress, anxiety, and a feeling of being overwhelmed, which varies with their specific level, and individual cases. In turn, people with ASD tend to require a fixed routine to follow regularly, and like to have things planned out and explained to them in advance.
Attention to detail presents both advantages and disadvantages if they could be qualified as such. People with ASD tend to have an enhanced ability in their respective fields that stems from a desire for perfection and excellent results. Actors with ASD, such as Anthony Hopkins, bring outstanding performances to the screen by paying attention to every detail from intonation to hand gestures, whilst artists with the same condition, such as Stephen Wiltshire, (who once had a twenty-minute helicopter flight over London and subsequently drew a detailed drawing of the whole city from memory) bring rich detail and quality to their pieces through skilful attention to every part of their work. This can, however, lead to frustration if something isn’t quite right, as they will tend to start their work all over again if there is the slightest fault. But all in all, it can be said that some people with ASD are even more competent in some domains than people who do not have this condition.
Unusual reactions: Some people with ASD have difficulties processing and responding to external sensory stimuli. Those that have this trait can be, according to the American Psychiatric Clinic “over responsive” and/or “under responsive” in response to sensory information.
The “over responsive” trait is defined as an individual who gets easily overwhelmed by the sheer number of stimuli around them. Think about a classroom. The teacher talking, a whiteboard marker screeching across the board, your classmates whispering at different corners of the room, someone tapping the desk with a pen, someone shifting position, noise outside in the corridor, the smell of the food someone is illicitly pulling out of their bag… People without this condition tend to filter out unimportant external stimuli and are therefore vaguely aware of it without being too distracted by it. However, someone who is over responsive has difficulty filtering the useful from the redundant, and tends to pay attention to every sound, smell, visual, or touch, leading to a variety of behaviours such as distractibility and an avoidance of situations where the stimuli input is too intense, getting easily upset or anxious. This can sometimes lead to a sensory overload where the individual simply freezes and blocks all input.
Furthermore, some people with ASD can develop a repetitive behaviour they do to block out all the stimuli around them more commonly known as ‘stimming’ such as, pacing up and down, rocking their chair, repeating a favourite song lyric or movie script, tapping or playing with a pen or pencil, or fixing all their attention on one object like a spinning coin.
The “under responsive” trait is defined as an individual who is detached and unresponsive to nearly all external stimuli which can be demonstrated in various types of behaviour. One of the more common is low registration, due to slow processing of information that results in disengagement or disinterest in what is going on around them. Individuals with this trait can have difficulty completing tasks and find work at desks (writing or reading) arduous and much prefer more active pastimes like art or sport. Another fairly common expression of this characteristic is active search of stimuli. Someone who has this trait might try to make up for the lack of sensation they are feeling by finding more. This is shown through behaviours like being over-active, writing or drawing with excessive force on paper and liking tight hugs.
Once again, people with ASD all have unique traits and behavioural patterns, and not everyone with autism will exhibit all of these behaviours. Someone with ASD could exhibit both “over responsive” and “unresponsive” traits as well as neither.
An additional characteristic is masking, also called ‘social camouflage’. According to the National Autistic Society, masking is: “a strategy used by some autistic people, consciously or unconsciously, to appear non-autistic in order to blend in and be more accepted in society.” Many people with ASD tend to mask their identity and make an effort to outwardly conform to society so as to be accepted by others, and to avoid discrimination and bullying. Examples of masking, which can be both conscious and unconscious, can include exaggerated facial expressions, monitoring eye contact, mirroring dress sense and appearance, not demonstrating sensory sensitivity (being sensitive to touch but forcing yourself not to flinch or wince if someone shakes your hand) and scripting (preparing what you should say in advance).
This act of conforming to society by suppressing oneself is harmful and exhausting for the person doing it. David Gray-Hammond, an individual with ASD, describes masking as: “a survival mechanism in a world that actively oppresses and abuses us for being different to the majority. … I look back on my life, and all I can see is the mask. … Society taught me that the majority were better than me, more worthy of love and acceptance. I pushed down my autistic identity because I wanted to be accepted.”
Little is really known about ASD. In fact, scientists still haven’t discovered its cause. Multiple hypotheses have been put forward, but for the moment the scientific community rests with the broad claim that ASD may be caused by “many factors […] including environmental and genetic factors”. Which is another way of saying that we really don’t know.
Here at LGB, we have an outstanding team that is the ESP (Extended Support Programme) who work daily to support people with learning challenges such as ASD and help them develop independence through personalised activities, as well as adapting their schoolwork to their specific requirements to make it more accessible to them. The ESP team also supports some of the students in their classes to help them get the assistance they need and encourage them in their development.
So, what is World Autism Awareness Day? Celebrated yearly on the 2nd of April since 2007, this International Day, initiated by the United Nations, aims to show support for, and acceptance of people with ASD and their families in addition to spreading awareness of what ASD is, and what we can do to help people with this condition.
So, what can we do to help someone with ASD? Respect and patience are the key attitudes to adopt:
- Listen to them attentively, nodding to let them know you’ve understood and hearing them all the way through.
- Don’t infantilize them.
- Explain things to them in clear, simple language (saying ‘please sit here’ instead of ‘’take a seat’).
- Learning more about ASD and spreading awareness is also fundamental to supporting people with this condition.
- Helping people who have someone in their family or a friend who has ASD is also equally important as it affects the people around those individuals too.
Above all, be sensitive. Over 1 person in 100 is diagnosed with ASD, and more than that know someone with the condition. So playful insults like “autistic” or “sperg”, though not intentionally harmful, if overheard, can stick with that person for life and be very harmful. As one person with ASD said on Reddit: ‘it really hurt to literally be diagnosed with a word that people use to call people “dumb” or “stupid.”‘
Remember that ASD by no means makes someone “less intelligent”, it just makes them different to you. Understanding this and respecting that difference is very important.
Bibliography
António Guterres, Secretary-General’s message for 2024. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/observances/autism-day/messages. 05/04/24.
Centre for Autism Middletown, Examples of atypical responses to sensory stimuli. https://sensory-processing.middletownautism.com/background/examples-of-atypical-responses-to-sensory-stimuli/. 05/04/24
Evaleen, Autism and literal communication. Ausome Training, August 7, 2021. https://ausometraining.com/autism-and-literal-communication/. 05/04/24
National Autistic Society. https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/behaviour/masking . Consulted 09/04/24
Reddit Discussion (https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/comments/11a1cce/i_hate_when_people_use_autistic_as_an_insult_did/?rdt=41252). 05/04/24
Steven Zauderer, How to help someone with Autism. February 8th, 2024. https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/autism/how-to-help-someone-with-autism. 05/04/24
World Health Organisation, Autism. November 15th 2023. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disorders. 05/04/24
