Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I’ve recently had my first autism assessment (online) and towards the end of it I was asked to tell a story with 5 objects I’d chosen. I chose the first 5 things that happened to be on the sofa next to me. I was asked to tell a story with them & I just couldn’t. I told the assessor this & she said it was ok. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
I think that it is a very outdated type of test, based on the myth that autistic people do not have imaginations and also, as a consequence, do not enjoy fiction. So many autistics, me included, have wonderful imaginations and create their own worlds - a notable method of escaping the real world that is so often inimical to them. This form of escapism is found documented in autism studies, how it can be squared with a supposed inability to make up a short story about objects, defies logic. Not all autistics, of course, have particularly vivid imaginations, but some certainly do.
Yes quite. It's probably that thing where we are often either end of the bell curve. Probably some have poor imagination and some have overactive imagination, where I am the latter. Which is one of the reasons so many of us have been missed.