Neuro-atypical social communication styles.

As parents of children with autism, it’s important to understand their patterns of social interaction and communication. By being aware of these patterns, you might better understand their behaviour and find ways to help them interact more effectively. This will assist them in maintaining their relationships, communicating their needs to others, and feeling connected to their peers and family.

There are many different patterns of social communication and interaction that can be preferred by children with autism. Some children may appear to display a lack of interest in socialising (to an observer), but in reality they might just lack the confidence or strategies to share with others. On other occasions, you might notice that children with ASD seem overly interested or overly enthusiastic to share and play with others. Indeed, many children with ASD are very eager to engage in social interaction but find it difficult to understand how to appropriately do so, due to them misunderstanding norms and expectations, or them being extremely invested in their particular areas of interest.

Another common pattern of social interaction in children with ASD is “perseveration”. This is when a child fixates on a single topic and has difficulty transitioning from one conversation to another, or one task to another. For example, a child may talk about the same topic very often, and may not appreciate that others do not share their interest, or be unwilling to move on to a new topic even when prompted. Another pattern of social interaction seen in children with autism is difficulty understanding or interpreting social cues. This can lead to difficulty responding appropriately to other people’s gestures, body language, and facial expressions, for example not noticing when someone is pointing, or not understanding what is meant by waving or ‘blowing kisses’. It can also lead to difficulty understanding sarcasm or jokes, or concepts such as personal space and physical safety.

Finally, children with autism might have difficulty identifying and recognising when others are expressing emotions. Even though children with autism do care, when they don’t notice emotions in others, they can miss opportunities to demonstrate their empathy and concern. This can appear (to an observer) that a child seemingly lacks an understanding of other people’s feelings, such as when someone else is sad or upset. Children with autism are often as able to comfort others, but when they miss the cues that someone else is feeling upset, they might also miss the opportunity to express their concern. This can make it difficult for children with ASD to engage in emotive conversations or build lasting emotional relationships with strangers.

With social and emotional education tailored to an individual’s unique strengths and needs, individuals with ASD can develop skills and techniques to articulate and recognise their own emotions, and those of others.