Autistic people communicate effectively

Autistic people communicate as well with others as non-autistic people : the difference is not in the effectiveness of communication or lack of social skills, but rather in the different way of relating and interacting with others. This is according to the study led by the University of Edinburgh and published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, which challenges the common stereotype that autistic people struggle to connect with others, and which hopes to help reduce the stigma surrounding autism.

“Autism has often been associated with social difficulties ,” says Catherine Crompton, who coordinated the study. “Researchers have spent a lot of time trying to ‘fix’ autistic communication, but this study shows that, although autistic and non-autistic people communicate differently , they communicate just as effectively . Given that opportunities for autistic people are often limited by prejudice and misunderstanding,” Crompton continues, “this new research could help to build a bridge between the two ways of communicating and create more inclusive spaces for everyone.”

The researchers tested the effectiveness of communication in a group of over 300 autistic and non-autistic people: the first person listened to a story from one of the authors of the study and then had to pass it on to the second, and so on until the last. There were no differences in the amount of information transmitted by the various participants, but autistic individuals preferred to interact with others similar to them , and the same was true for non-autistic individuals . According to the researchers, this is only due to the different ways of communicating, and not to a lack on the part of those affected by autism.