The Spectrum as a Shape A non-linear way to look at autism & Autism Spectrum Disorders Hi! I’m Morgan Peschek, an autistic person in my 20s, and I want to talk to you about autism. Specifically, I want to introduce you to a little invention of mine: the “Autism Shape”. Lots of people view autism as existing on a linear spectrum, running from low-functioning to high-functioning. It looks like this: and, personally, I find it quite limiting. Being “high-functioning” in one area (say, verbal communication) doesn’t automatically mean I’m “high-functioning” when it comes to self-care! Re-visualising the autism spectrum isn’t an original idea by any means, but I hope that the following model that I’ve created can make room for more nuance when it comes to discussions about autism. Making an Autism Shape: The blank Autism Shape features eight areas in which autistic people often experience difficulties. I’ll give them a quick outline here, starting at the top and going clockwise: Social interaction - Interacting with other people in a way that is safe and enjoyable for everyone involved. Sensory perception - How sensory stimuli, like taste, smell and noise, affect someone, including whether they’re hyper- or hyposensitive to some sensory inputs. Interoception & self-care - Interoception is the ability to sense what’s going on with you - whether you’re hungry, tired, injured and so on. Difficulties with interoception can lead to difficulties with self-care, since you may not notice that you need a nap or a bandage. Flexible thinking - The ability to imagine things, understand others’ points of view and absorb new abstract concepts. Adjusting to change - Exactly what it says! These can be big changes (moving house) or everyday changes (switching from knitting to getting ready to leave the house). Paralinguistic communication - All the ways people communicate without words, like body language, tone of voice and facial expressions. Verbal communication - Communicating with words, whether this is orally (talking) or through writing. Cognitive empathy - The ability to recognise how somebody might feel without them telling you about it. The idea is that an autistic person can rate their experiences and abilities in each area on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is “I really suck at this” and 10 is “I’m awesome at this.” That way, other people can see at a glance which areas you have the most trouble with and therefore what support you might need. My own Autism Shape: As you can see, I rated my social interaction skills a 7/10, meaning that I’m pretty confident with socialising (but sometimes need breaks, or a familiar person to support me). Moving clockwise, I rated my experiences of sensory perception at 4/10, since I struggle with a great deal of textures and become overwhelmed very easily. Interoception & self-care only get a 2/10 because I need constant encouragement and assistance when it comes to recognising I’m hungry, bathing, staying hydrated and so on. I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea. An estimated 1% of people in the UK are autistic (according to the National Autistic Society), so whether you’re autistic, a professional who works with autistic people, or someone who has at least 100 friends and therefore, statistically, at least one friend with an ASD, it’s my hope that the Autism Shape can make a difference in how you perceive and communicate about autism. Below is a link where you can download the blank Autism Shape graph so that you can fill it out (if you’re autistic) or pass it on (if you’re not). Thank you for reading! Download the blank shape: https://i.imgur.com/A3B3e4W.jpg Autism facts and history, National Autistic Society: https://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/myths-facts-stats.aspx Further reading: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/functioning-labels-ableist-nonsense https://autisticadvocacy.org/
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