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ASD vs NT fundamental difference

Cece

Hello.

As I am going through my journey of autistic self discovery, I am finding a wealth of information online.. some relevant, some pointless but most have one thing in common, which is a declaration that this might all be relevant for you or not at all because autism is a spectrum, different per person etc.

So I would like to understand what is the fundamental difference between an ASD and a NT regardless of all the traits either one can have as I think they are cluttering up a view of essentially one fundamental difference.

The difference being the speed of which an ASD individual process and exchange social interactions vs a NT, did I get that right?

So it's not like we can't do it, it's just that it takes us longer to process it, understand it and react to it while a NT has already moved on afew steps ahead so we are effectively playing catch-up which is ofcourse exhausting.

Not all ASD individuals are introverts and not all NTs are extroverts. IQs differ per person as per the norm and all the other traits are also unique per individual. The fact that we are saying that some common traits include x, y or z is the same as saying that humans must all be the same because they mostly like to sleep at night!?

I feel like I am missing a very important point here... Help?

Thanks 

Parents

  • I think I'd say fundamentally that being autistic means having a brain that doesn't process and filter information like most people's do.

    e.g. neurotypical people are very good at taking visual input and immediately recognising it not only as a human face, but as Steve who lives three doors down. Some autistic people can recognise Steve too, but might struggle to have a conversation in a noisy environment because their brain registers every bit of background noise just as strongly as the voice they're trying to listen to. They might have sensory issues around labels or itchy fabric or flickering lights whereas neurotypicals filter all that out.

    Not every autistic person has the same processing differences, but the point is that they're different to the way most people's brains process information.

    This leads to the diagnostic criteria of problems with social interactions (because you don't hone in on the same social cues as NTs) preference for routine (because newness involves an overwhelming amount of info to process) and sensory issues (don't filter out textures/sounds etc like NTs do).

    It can also lead to advantages in some situations, eg being very good at noticing when a small detail has changed.

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  • I think I'd say fundamentally that being autistic means having a brain that doesn't process and filter information like most people's do.

    e.g. neurotypical people are very good at taking visual input and immediately recognising it not only as a human face, but as Steve who lives three doors down. Some autistic people can recognise Steve too, but might struggle to have a conversation in a noisy environment because their brain registers every bit of background noise just as strongly as the voice they're trying to listen to. They might have sensory issues around labels or itchy fabric or flickering lights whereas neurotypicals filter all that out.

    Not every autistic person has the same processing differences, but the point is that they're different to the way most people's brains process information.

    This leads to the diagnostic criteria of problems with social interactions (because you don't hone in on the same social cues as NTs) preference for routine (because newness involves an overwhelming amount of info to process) and sensory issues (don't filter out textures/sounds etc like NTs do).

    It can also lead to advantages in some situations, eg being very good at noticing when a small detail has changed.

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