Instead of taking in the bigger picture of things at first glance then going into the details, they recognize details more readily, then compile their own big picture in a succinct way. Individuals on the spectrum are more prone to this kind of associative thinking.
The autistic brain shows fewer long-range connections but a lot more short-range connections. This means that with every thought, more connections are made, but also more side-steps; it produces nonlinear thought processes.
Many autistic people have intense and highly-focused interests, often from a fairly young age. These can change over time or be lifelong. It can be art, music, gardening, animals, postcodes or numbers.
One of the most troublesome aspects of autism and Asperger's can be the tendency toward repetitive thoughts, also referred to as stuck thoughts or ruminations.
Autistic people may also experience obsessions. These may involve interests in specific areas, such as numbers or facts. Autistic people can also become “stuck” on certain topics of interest. This means they dwell on, or repeatedly express specific thoughts.
Some people with autism may have difficulty with complex thinking that requires the ability to make swift connections between different trains of thought. Others may have difficulty maintaining their attention on required tasks, or organising their thoughts and actions.
If we are day-dreaming of the success that we should like to have, or of the satisfaction of our various desires, we are doing autistic thinking. If our thinking is considering the ways and means of attaining our ambitions in reality, then we are doing realistic thinking.
It may replace real social interactions and behaviors with fantasies and daydreams which is not healthy. For example, a student who is repeatedly bullied at school may retreat into a fantasy world based on their favorite movie.
Literal thinking in a child with High-Functioning Autism (HFA) goes far beyond the concrete thinking that is associated with young kids or learning disabled children. It results from the underlying communication disorder, which makes them unable to understand the shifting meaning of words in changing situations.
Someone who is happy or excited usually speaks with a higher and wider pitch range than usual. Prosody has long been an obvious source of difficulty for individuals with autism. People on the spectrum may speak in a monotone way, or do the opposite and exaggerate their intonation.
Keise Izuma, first author of the study, called the effect "extremely clear." This suggested to the research team that individuals with autism do not think about, or care, what others think of them. It is perhaps simply not a part of their social reasoning and thought process.
There are other brain disorders that mimic autism symptoms, like ADHD and anxiety disorders, including selective mutism. Autism can be misdiagnosed as another disorder with some shared symptoms.
Some autistic children and teenagers have rituals. For example, some children might keep favourite objects in specific places, like the bottom corner of a drawer in the bedroom. They might have to get their objects out and touch them before bed.
over 70% of autistic adults said they experienced difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, associating this with sensory issues and high anxiety. around half were unable to stay asleep for long, whilst 4 in 10 experienced nightmares.
Many autistic people also like to make sure (probably because we are so often misconstrued) that we are being clear so will also overexplain things (the length of this article might be a good example of that – we really would like to make it an awful lot longer!).
Since there is no physical test to diagnose this complex neurodevelopmental condition, doctors use behavior, history, and parent-reported interviews to diagnose ASD. Research is suggesting that, in future, brain scans may be used to diagnose autism, possibly even before behavioral symptoms become apparent.
The overall findings of the study suggest that, compared with neurotypical individuals, individuals with ASD experience greater difficulty with decision-making.
People with autism tend to have insomnia: It takes them an average of 11 minutes longer than typical people to fall asleep, and many wake up frequently during the night. Some people with the condition have sleep apnea, a condition that causes them to stop breathing several times during the night.
Common Autism Obsessions
Fixation on a particular topic or subject: Many people with autism have a deep interest in a particular topic, such as trains, dinosaurs, or computers. They may spend hours reading about or talking about this topic, to the exclusion of other activities.
Individuals with Autism can respond to certain words, known as “trigger words,” in very different ways. Sometimes the response can be aggressive, violent, or result in socially unacceptable behaviors.
Psychological disorders: These may cause obsessive behavior, speech and communication problems, and other issues that may seem like autism, but aren't. Examples include: Avoidant personality disorder. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)