Autism Facts That May Surprise You

1. Autism is a type of neurodivergence (a cognitive variation). 

Other types of neurodivergences include ADHD, tourettes, OCD, and dyslexia, all of which have as many differences as a sunflower does to a maple tree. You can think of brain as iPhone vs. Android operating systems. 

3. Stimming (self-stimulatory behaviors) serves a purpose! 

It is a functional way to regulate and process emotions, as well as to meet sensory needs when a person is over- or under-stimulated. Think about when you start bouncing your leg or tapping your pen after sitting at a desk for a long time, or twirling your hair when you feel anxious.

4. Masking is when autistic individuals hide their autistic traits in order to appear neurotypical.

While it may protect autistic people from being outed or harassed, masking causes increased depression, anxiety, and autistic burnout. 

5. Autism presents differently in girls, minorities, and adults.

These groups are often under-diagnosed because the assessment protocols are normed on young white boys. Girls are also often better at masking, which is another reason that girls are under-diagnosed. 

6. Meltdowns and shutdowns result from sensory, informational, and emotional overload. 

Meltdowns and shutdowns are involuntary, and characterized by increased levels of anxiety and distress. This results in reduced ability to process and communicate. A meltdown is the fight response, and a shutdown is the freeze response. You can prevent these by reducing anxiety, avoiding sensory overwhelm, establishing/explaining routines, ensuring adequate rest, and responding to early signs (eloping, distressing vocalizations, increase in stimming, etc.)

9. The blue puzzle piece is no longer the symbol of autism.

It is no longer used because of the implication that autistic people are puzzling or have missing pieces, and because of negative connotations associated with it (Gernsbacher et al., 2018). The new symbol for autism is the gold or rainbow infinity symbol. The rainbow infinity symbol represent neurodiversity in general, and the gold infinity symbol represents autism specifically (also because AU on the periodic table of elements represents gold).

10. Many autistic children learn language through Natural Language Acquisition, also known as Gestalt Language Processing. 

In other words, rather than learning single words then combining them into phrases, sentences, and conversation, Gestalt Language Processors learn whole units at a time first (echolalia, songs, monologues, phrases), then learn to break them down into smaller combinable units.

11. Exposing a child’s diagnosis may place them in danger.

Autistic kids are seen as easy victims to predators of abuse, trafficking, bullying, discrimination, etc. 

However, there are many benefits of telling your child about their own diagnosis:

• They may already feel different, possibly being given labels like “weird”, “stubborn”, “stupid”, or “difficult”, but replacing those labels with ‘autistic’ is more empowering.

• Being autistic isn’t shameful and doesn’t have to be hidden. More knowledge helps them understand themselves and the causes of their struggles. This avoids confusion/anger and encourages self-acceptance.

• Autistic adults say that they wish they had known about their diagnosis sooner to discover more support and self acceptance.

12. Autistic people do not lack empathy, they simply experience the world and express emotions differently than neurotypicals.

Neurotypicals and autistics both lack insight about the perceptions of one another. This makes it difficult for neurotypical people to understand autistic people and vice versa because each group often lacks insights about the others perceptions, communication, and culture. Studies have shown that there are significantly fewer communication breakdowns that occur in NT-NT and AU-AU interactions, and more perceived empathy, which simply means that it's difficult to understand people whose brain works a different way. (Crompton, C. J., et al., 2020).

13. Autism may seem more prevalent now, but it is because there is more awareness of autism and less shame around the diagnosis. 

Similar to how the prevalence of left-handedness seemed to increase after it was no longer shameful. With awareness comes acceptance. 

14. Autistic play can look different than neurotypical play. 

It can include lining up toys, figuring out how things work, teaching themself a new skill, and intensely observing objects of interest. There is no limit on how to play. We say "All play is okay!"

15. These organizations are recommended by autistic people:

These are some organizations you can get involved with that support autistic people- Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Autistic Women and Non-Binary Network, Neurodiversity in Business Network, Institute of Neurodiversity, and Autism in Black.

There are lots of ways to reduce the stigma around autism but spreading awareness is a great place to start!