It's kind of amazing to me that autistic people have been gaslit into assuming they must have bad people skills & don't understand anything
only because the measurement of understanding
is having a non-autistic brain and assuming every other person works like you do.
1/7
only because the measurement of understanding
is having a non-autistic brain and assuming every other person works like you do.
1/7
But when autistic people do that exact same thing, with their autistic brain (maybe I should talk about interesting topics to comfort X/Y/Z person) it's immediately "not empathetic" or "showing lack of theory of mind" or "black and white thinking."
2/7
2/7
This needs to be understood here -
Most human beings use their own experiences and understanding of reality to interact with other people. Most human beings draw on their own experiences. That will always happen, regardless of someone's neurotype.
3/7
Most human beings use their own experiences and understanding of reality to interact with other people. Most human beings draw on their own experiences. That will always happen, regardless of someone's neurotype.
3/7
So maybe we shouldn't tell autistic kids & adults that their way of interacting with the world is the unempathetic way, when allistic people constantly interact with us in their "empathetic" way which actually does us harm (eye contact, hugs, making us speak when overloaded)
4/7
4/7
Let's maybe think about this as a realization that everyone has different experiences and uses those experiences to inform themselves on how to interact with others, often even subconsciously.
5/7
5/7
One reason why autism is pathologized is because we don't do things in the same way because we have different experiences, different realities (sensitivities), different comforts, and interact with the world in different ways.
Not because the neurotypical way is "better."
6/7
Not because the neurotypical way is "better."
6/7
And now we have the research to show it -
Autistic peer-to-peer information transfer is highly effective
"We found that autistic people share information with other autistic people as well as non-autistic people do with other non-autistic people."
7/7
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
Autistic peer-to-peer information transfer is highly effective
"We found that autistic people share information with other autistic people as well as non-autistic people do with other non-autistic people."
7/7
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
There was an old experiment done once -
An experimenter tapped on a box, and then opened it. The neurotypical children watched and then did the same thing.
The autistic children didn't tap.
They just opened the box.
They concluded autistic kids had "poor theory of mind."
8/
An experimenter tapped on a box, and then opened it. The neurotypical children watched and then did the same thing.
The autistic children didn't tap.
They just opened the box.
They concluded autistic kids had "poor theory of mind."
8/
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