A Window into an Unseen World

When you take a step into an autie's world it's like looking down a kaleidoscope for the first time. Everything is brighter, louder, bigger and more detailed. Many auties suffer from sensory overload and find it almost impossible to shut out the flood of noise, smells, lights, confusing faces and conflicting images that flood their minds. There's so much negative stuff said about autism that it's time we talked about the positives.

Let's start with some of the science. The autie mind is unable to process information in the way most people take for granted. This is due to weak central coherence. Conversations, for example, become a confusion of words and visual clues. The messages get mixed up. Keep it simple - drop the sarcasm and the conciliatory wink because they take away from the message.

The flipside of registering so much information is that auties are able to hone in on the details. They can spot the smaller parts that make up the whole with speed and precision due to increased visuospatial skills. These skills are a real bonus in the IT world and there have been several small businesses which have been set up both here and abroad which utilise these abilities.

Auties have clarity and focus. They remember numbers and dates and have better musical pitch recognition than others. Their obsessions often provide a refuge from the social confusion of the outside world.

If some of the greatest minds of our modern age hadn't been on the autistic spectrum then they wouldn't have had the drive to invent and we might well all be sitting in candlelight with plumes and ink. Think about it for a minute...."Success comes in cans, failure in cant's" -Brahma Kumaris

http://www.templegrandin.com/faq.html

http://www.fhautism.com/

http://www.talkaboutautism.org.uk/discussion-forums/autism/autism-news/4934