Published on 12, July, 2020
In another discussion, this has been raised as an area which people on the spectrum find difficult.
I have found references to this problem in every book I have read so far.
As an undiagnosed person, this is one aspect that I find difficult to understand in relation to myself. If I am missing non verbal communications, I cannot be aware that I am. I am able, however, to understand quite a lot of the above, and have assumed so far, that this is just something that I have learned. (I'm another child of the 50s) So why is it such a big issue in books on asd?
People with aspergers are as intelligent, or more so, than nt people. So why would they be unable to learn that a phrase may have more than one meaning. Words with multiple meanings are commonplace, eg wind, cheque/check, love, row, tier/tear
. Do we not learn some of these things with time? I am slow at getting jokes, but get there in the end.
Do other people here, find this to be a major issue? Is Frankie Howard really beyond the comprehansion of those on the spectrum? I don't mean to be rude in asking this, it is just the one thing I have read that really doesn't seam to fit.
It is a very valid question. I'll try to offer up an answer, but hopefully others will contribute........
It isn't an absolute its an aptitude thing. Having less aptitude sets you at a disadvantage.
A lot of GPs, other health professionals, and particularly DHSS officials of late, have got it into their heads that autism should be obvious in a half hour interview.
It is not that people CANNOT communicate effectively, but that they are disadvantaged in ways that are still not properly understood - but possibly mostly related to picking up on facial expressions, voice intonation etc (and generating the right facial expressions etc - it is a two-way problem).
So yes, you can learn a lot of things with time - including being able to anticipate multiple meanings of words, and determine whether something might be a joke.
What holds thing up though is not being able to assimilate and spontaneously process supportive information (mainly non-verbal). You can be attentive enough, and informed enough to be on the lookout, but assimilation will be slower and less effective than for NTs. Also I don't think you can really learn enough to overcome those difficulties.
It isn't perhaps fair to give the example of a comedian. You watch/listen to a comedian in expectation of double meanings. You don't engage in normal conversation with that expectation (or maybe we should) and compared to NTs we are not as fast at spotting it.
Understanding double meanings, or metaphors, may not be enough. It is spotting them in context, at speed, as conversations move on, that puts people on the autistic spectrum at a great disadvantage.
And as I said before, that difficulty is unlikely to become obvious in a half hour interview, or a clinical session. So what on earth some clinicians are on about, playing down the impacts of being on the autistic spectrum, is beyond comprehension.