COMMUNICATING IN COLOUR

‘There is often a lack of aligned communication between autistic and non-autistic [people] which often acts as a barrier.? Autistic [people] tend to communicate more literally because spoken language is effortful for them so they use it to do what it says on the tin.’

Neurosensory Divergence: Autistic Languages. By Helen Daniel

Many autistic people - but not all - will take literality as a method or approach to interacting with the world both with other autistic people and with neurotypical people.? It's probably incorrect to say that autistic people consciously adopt literal thinking.? It's more of a necessity or shortcut to processing the way they feel, see, hear, and smell the world around them.

It is often said that autistic people experience the world, language, speech, and communication in general as bold and vibrant colours and shapes that they must spend time absorbing and interpreting to bring meaning to these touch points.? Years of research and studies have started to build a pattern which indicates that neurotypical people have developed a way of omitting the additional sensory inputs occurring in our everyday lives when interacting with the world.

As a result non-autistic people need much less time to process what is in front of them, be it a piece of text, an image, a scene. a TV program, and so on.? Autistic people will naturally notice more and will be more likely to absorb what could be deemed as unnecessary input to get to the meaning of a communication in whichever format it is presented in.?

'There are certain noises you don't notice but that really gets to us the problem here is that you don't understand how these noises affect us it's more to do with a fear that if we keep listening, we'll lose all sense of where we are it feels as if the ground is shaking and the landscape around us starts coming to get us and it's absolutely terrifying.'

The reason I jump. By Naoki Hashida

One can only imagine the absolute fear that must grip any autistic person who experiences this type of sensation regularly. When I came across this passage my automatic response was to recall all the times when I have heard and seen negative responses to both children and adults wearing noise cancelling headphones. Take the following scenario that often happens in my household with my teenage daughter. She was having a sausage roll and beans for lunch (I know not the healthiest of choices but it was a treat). Her dad had left the tin of beans open. The assumption on his side, was that she would take the amount of beans she wanted to consume from the tin. What she actually did was warm up the entire contents in a plastic tupperware container.

I happened to come downstairs when she was eating her lunch to find the container full of beans. It was full to the brim and obvious that it was too much for her to eat. When I asked her why she took all the beans she said that the tin of beans was left for her so she assumed it was all for her. I asked if her dad had told her that and she said he had not verbally but because he left the whole tin there, it meant that the entire contents were for her to consume on that day.

The way neurotypical, or non-autistic people, communicate relies on many assumptions, beliefs, and non-verbal cues. Much of the approach to neurotypical communication also depends on historical learned behaviours built on memory and repetition.??

The fact that autistic people understand communication and communicate differently is less related to understanding and cognitive ability and more to the shortcut mechanisms employed by autistic people to interact and function in society. How do non-autistic people generally know what the rules of engagement are, how to employ them, and when? This is where the perception of autism causing a highly literal approach to life and to every day scenario, comes from. But neurotypical people often fall victim to their own unspoken rules about communication particularly verbal communication.

Take a scenario where there are several people in a room or space of some kind. A conversation ensues and suddenly a question will be posed but without a precursor to identify who the question is aimed at with, for example, a name, nickname, or other identifier. That's when the silly dance begins. “Not you!”, followed by “Oh, I thought you were talking to me!”

“No, I was speaking to Tia.”? So, why didn't you start by saying Tia's name to save all that back-and-forth?!? Autistic people often tell me that they prefer it when someone calls their name before attempting to ask them a question otherwise there's just no way to know who this statement or question is aimed at but this would likely prove useful for non-autistic people too.

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My name is Kate Isichei and I’m the Neuroinclusion Navigator.? I help organisations to increase innovation, productivity, and engagement by creating a neuroinclusive culture where the way different people think is harnessed and celebrated. DM me or visit my website to find out more about my neuroinclusion training and neuroinclusion audits.

https://www.wheretolookcomms.co.uk/collab-for-neurodivergence