10 Tips on How to Communicate with Autistic People

In response to brydensmommy at myautismteam.com
What follows is an article that I hope helps others understand Autism better.

Guest Post by Steve Summers*

1. Please always keep in mind that communication difficulties are common with Autism. We have difficulties in reading social cues and body language. Be patient and understanding.

2. We tend to take things literally and have often trouble reading between the lines. As a result, we may ask a lot of questions to clarify what is meant by something that you say. I have been told that I ask a lot of questions. Don’t be offended by this. It is our way of being sure that we understand what you are telling us. We may repeat back to you in our own words to try and get on the same page as you.

3. If we misunderstand something that you say, please be patient and expand on what you said and explain what you meant. Don’t assume a negative or hostile intent from us if we misunderstand something that you said. Keep in mind that communication can be difficult for us. Things that come naturally to you take extra effort by us.

4. Please don’t get offended by our communication style. We tend to be frank, honest and matter of fact. Some people may interpret this as blunt or rude. We don’t intend to offend you by not sugar coating the things that we say. We don’t intend to be rude. Please don’t get defensive or assume that we are attacking you. Remember that communicating is hard for us. Don’t make negative assumptions. Too often we get corrected or attacked by someone who fails to give us some slack and the benefit of the doubt.

5. Please don’t expect eye contact. We may be able to force eye contact, but it is not comfortable for us. Making eye contact takes a conscious effort. This effort may take away from listening and understanding what you are saying. I tend to look at a person’s mouth more often than their eyes. Other autistic people will rarely look at your face. This is ok.

6. Please keep in mind that we most likely have been rejected, excluded, ridiculed or bullied in the past. If we seem anxious or insecure this may be due to living in a world that misunderstands us and is often hostile to us. We have to work hard to reach out to others. Please work at reaching back to us with understanding and kindness. If we feel that you are ignoring us we will feel bad about that. We may persist in asking for feedback from you. Please be reassuring and clearly express your support for us.

7. Please don’t speak down to us. Treat us as equals. We may sound flat or have an unusual tone to our voice. We may not speak with our voice at all. We may need to type our words. Please be patient with us. It may take us a while to formulate our answers.

8. Please don’t talk too loudly or yell at us. It is very jarring to us. It makes me jump when someone comes up to me and talks too loudly. It is like having someone jump out in the dark yelling “BOO!” at me. It causes an adrenalin dump in my body. I don’t like this.

9. Please do NOT touch us without warning. It will make us jump. We don’t like unexpected touches.

10. Please don’t assume that we lack empathy or emotion. We pick up on negative or judgmental attitudes. We know when people look down on us or are hostile to us. We will shut down if you show us a lack of respect.

Please keep in mind that we are all different. These issues will vary from person to person. The above tips are written from my perspective as an autistic person. This is just a guide. Feel free to ask me any questions so that I may expand and clarify any areas that aren’t clear to you. Thank you for reading this guide. ~ Steve Summers

*Steve Summers

I was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (part of the Autism Spectrum) as an adult. I was diagnosed following my 11-year-old son’s diagnosis with Aspergers. I am happy to have my diagnosis. It was like a light being turned on that illuminated my entire life in a new way. Now I understand why I never really ‘fit in.’ It is like having a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders to have my diagnosis.

I don’t feel that people should make divisions between parts of the Autism Spectrum. I am autistic and I want to work to make the world a better, more understanding and accepting place for all autistic people. We need to work together for the benefit of all on the Autism Spectrum. 

I wrote this list due to continuing difficulties that I have had with the give and take of communicating with others. Many people seem too easily offended because they fail to understand these things about me. We all need understanding and acceptance.

Source: Click here

Teaching students who are low-functioning: who are they and what should we teach?

Dr. Cathy Pratt & Rozella Stewart

During recent years, interest in individuals with autism who are high- functioning has grown as increasing numbers of students who fit that description have been identified. During the same period, those who advocate on behalf of students with severe cognitive disabilities have continued their search for information on teaching, working, and living with individuals perceived as belonging to this more challenging group. Before discussing programming issues, it seems important to first attempt to clarify who these individuals are who are referred to as low-functioning.


The most common tool for identifying this population of students are standardized test scores. It is commonly believed that 70% of students with autism also have cognitive disabilities. However, we need to be careful when using formal instruments to determine levels of cognitive functioning. During the past several years, professionals and family members have become keenly aware that traditional methods for measuring true intelligence, such as standardized tests, are often flawed in ways that can reap highly unreliable results. Although information gained through the process of testing can provide us with valuable information about how a person learns and about areas of difficulty, standardized tests are virtually never a true predictor of future success. Many adults who were considered severely disabled as students, are now able to secure jobs, live in a variety of home environments, and are able to become members of their community when appropriate supports are in place and when taught necessary skills. Labeling a person as low functioning may in effect serve to limit the person's potential by limiting our vision for that person.

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Clearly, students with autism who have severe cognitive limitations can be challenging to educators. However, as professionals and family members review the literature on autism, beware of the dichotomy between low- and high- functioning. These two groups often are referred to as if they are two discrete and separate categories of individuals. Realize that there are individuals with autism who may be gifted in certain areas but who are extremely challenged in others. Conversely, students with the label of severe disabilities can possess exceptional talents. In other words, students labeled as high-functioning may be severely disabled by their autism. And those who are labeled as low- functioning may be less affected by the characteristics associated with autism.

Generally, those who are labeled as having a severe cognitive impairment are individuals who have greater difficulty with social skills, and academic performance. They often have few readily recognized and/or socially appropriate means for communicating with others. It should not be surprising then, that these individuals may more readily exhibit challenging behaviors, such as self-injury and aggression. This may be because they simply have not learned a better way to act or to cope with the demands of daily stressors, or may have no better means for communicating with others. These individuals may also engage in more sensory-related activities such as hand flapping, spinning, or rocking.

When designing educational programs for students with autism labeled as severely disabled, professionals and family members are cautioned to remember that programs for specific students are to be individually determined through the individualized education program (IEP) process. There is no IEP for people who are low-functioning versus people who are high-functioning. There are only IEPs for each student. Individualized programs must describe strategies for providing the student with acceptable and understandable ways of communication, teaching situation-appropriate social behaviors, and providing experiences that satisfy sensory needs by promoting desensitization or reducing sensory overload in specific settings and situations.

Can emotion recognition be taught to children with autism spectrum conditions?

There are several videos on YouTube showing students speaking about their fondness for the Transporters software and demonstrations of the animations of the faces on the trains. Here is a video with a short interview with Simon Baron Cohen and autism expert and author who helped develop these animations:

This paragraph is a summary of research conducted by the authors on their Transporters software for facial emotion comprehension with children with ASD. Please see attached PDFs below for more on this research.

Simon Baron-Cohen*, Ofer Golan and Emma Ashwin 

Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge University, Douglas House, 18B Tr umpington Road, Cambridge CB2 8AH, UK 

Children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have major difficulties in recognizing and responding to emotional and mental states in others’ facial expressions. Such difficulties in empathy underlie their social-communication difficulties that form a core of the diagnosis. In this paper we ask whether aspects of empathy can be taught to young children with ASC. We review a study that evaluated The Transporters, an animated series designed to enhance emotion comprehension in children with ASC. Children with ASC (4 – 7 years old) watched The Transporters every day for four weeks. Participants were tested before and after intervention on emotional vocabulary and emotion recognition at three levels of generalization. The intervention group improved significantly more than a clinical control group on all task levels, performing comparably to typical controls at time 2. The discussion centres on how vehicles as mechanical systems may be one key reason why The Transporters caused the improved understanding and recognition of emotions in children with ASC. The implications for the design of autism-friendly interventions are also explored.

PDF  BC(2009)Canemotio.....pdf (473k) Katharina Boser, Jun 24, 2010      DOWNLOAD »

PDF Golanetal2009online.....pdf (357k) Katharina Boser, Jun 24, 2010      DOWNLOAD »