an NT asking autistics what THEY want from us.....

To go back to some_one's original posting, what do I think NTs can do for us?

Well I think we need proper recognition of the communications issue. We aren't blind and we aren't deaf, but something goes wrong in the way we process audio-visual information, whether environmental or to do with social communication. Whether you call it mind blindness, not connecting to the interbrain (Tantam's theory), narrow information processing bandwidth or over/under sensitivity or whatever, one of the most fundamental issues to autism is that we aren't getting the right information (or conveying the right information).

At present people accept a blind or partially sighted person and accept a deaf or impaired hearing person. Nobody challenges whether they can or cannot see or hear.

People on the autistic spectrum experience modified and compromised audio-visual input. And that probably underlies most of the other manifestations. But its the least understood aspect of autism/aspergers. Everybody challenges why we didn't hear or see, demands eye contact, expects us to cope in their world.

I do wish NAS would give higher profile to the sensory aspects. Because that, primarily, is what makes it hard for all of us.

It comes out very obviously in psychiatric approaches to autism - well we've drugged you, and we've talked you round to our way of thinking - you should be alright now. But they never seem to realise that we still have a social communication and an environmental sensitivity problem that doesn't go away and they cannot cure. And that's what causes distress and anxiety.

So NAS if you are listening, can we have a campaign to raise the profile of audio-visual perception of social interaction and environment as a priority need of people on the spectrum.

Maybe if the public were more aware that that was a fundamental problem for us, they might be more tolerant and understanding.

To go back to some_one's original posting, what do I think NTs can do for us?

Well I think we need proper recognition of the communications issue. We aren't blind and we aren't deaf, but something goes wrong in the way we process audio-visual information, whether environmental or to do with social communication. Whether you call it mind blindness, not connecting to the interbrain (Tantam's theory), narrow information processing bandwidth or over/under sensitivity or whatever, one of the most fundamental issues to autism is that we aren't getting the right information (or conveying the right information).

At present people accept a blind or partially sighted person and accept a deaf or impaired hearing person. Nobody challenges whether they can or cannot see or hear.

People on the autistic spectrum experience modified and compromised audio-visual input. And that probably underlies most of the other manifestations. But its the least understood aspect of autism/aspergers. Everybody challenges why we didn't hear or see, demands eye contact, expects us to cope in their world.

I do wish NAS would give higher profile to the sensory aspects. Because that, primarily, is what makes it hard for all of us.

It comes out very obviously in psychiatric approaches to autism - well we've drugged you, and we've talked you round to our way of thinking - you should be alright now. But they never seem to realise that we still have a social communication and an environmental sensitivity problem that doesn't go away and they cannot cure. And that's what causes distress and anxiety.

So NAS if you are listening, can we have a campaign to raise the profile of audio-visual perception of social interaction and environment as a priority need of people on the spectrum.

Maybe if the public were more aware that that was a fundamental problem for us, they might be more tolerant and understanding.