A popular science summary
Autism is often described as a “spectrum” – a term that suggests diversity but explains little. Why do some people show tendencies toward social withdrawal, others language peculiarities, and yet others intense special interests? Current diagnostics collect these symptoms like puzzle pieces without a picture guide. But what if all these behaviors are consequences of a common cause?
The revolutionary thesis:
Many “autistic” behavioral patterns are not disorders in themselves, but clever adaptation strategies to a differently functioning sensory perception.
Imagine:
For many autistic individuals, this is everyday reality. Their nervous system processes stimuli differently – some are amplified, others filtered, some sensory channels are hypersensitive, others hyposensitive.
From these sensory particularities arise logical survival strategies:
| Behavior | Possible Cause | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Social withdrawal | Protection from sensory overload in groups | Child leaves noisy school celebration |
| Language avoidance | Energy conservation during auditory overload | Nonverbal communication via tablet |
| Repetitive movements | Self-calming through controlled stimuli (stimming) | Hand flapping, humming, rhythmic patterns |
| Special interests | Focus on predictable, safe stimulus environments | Obsessive knowledge of train schedules |
Currently, diagnostic logic states: “If someone shows social withdrawal + repetitive movements = autism”
But this approach has three problems:
“Autism” is thus not a fixed “entity,” but an emergency plan of the brain for dealing with a stimulus-intensive world.
Research should:
Therapy should:
A teenager describes it this way:
“When I understood my sensory triggers, my behavior suddenly made sense to others. I no longer need to ‘explain’ myself – we now design my space together.”
Autism cannot be reduced to a single cause. What’s crucial is the interplay of:
“How many ways of feeling and perceiving have room in our world?”
Instead of pushing people into categories, we should ask: “What conditions do you need to feel safe and capable?”
Autism is not a disorder that we need to “repair.” It is a different way of perceiving the world, which:
As Temple Grandin, autistic professor, says:
“The world needs different kinds of thinkers: the artists, the pattern recognition, the detail-oriented.”
By taking sensory differences seriously, we transform therapy from adaptation to norms to cooperation between neurotypes.
Inspired by: Grandin, T. “Thinking in Pictures”; Bogdashina, O. “Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism” This is a popular science summary of the detailed scientific original paper.