When we examine 100 random teenagers,
we would find that while they all look different,
their minds work in very similar ways.
One or two however, have minds that are atypical in a particular way.
They could be diagnosed with autism.
This happens to boys four times as much,
perhaps because diagnosing them is easier.
Children and adults who are on the autism spectrum experience the world differently
because they were born with various degrees of neuroatypical traits.
Most autistic children have more refined senses
and share a deep desire to bring the logic into their surroundings.
Some seek repetitive behaviors that follow specific patterns
and many appear to be asocial and avoid eye contact.
Autism is not a disease and therefore cannot be cured.
Since all our brains are different and there is an endless range
of nuances in their architecture, autism is defined as a spectrum.
On one side of the spectrum is high-functioning autism,
also known as Asperger syndrome.
These children are highly intelligent, and have extreme abilities
and interest in specific areas.
In the middle, are those with average intelligence and some problems
learning new things in school.
On the far end of the spectrum
are children with severe learning disabilities
who may require support in their daily lives.
Timo, a young boy, can help us understand
how living with a neurodivergent mind can be.
His mum noticed early on that her boy would avoid eye contact
and that he would often become upset if she hugged him.
He never returned smiles and engaging him in play
with friends often ended in a tantrum.
His mother suspected something to be wrong, when Timo still wasn’t speaking
more than two or three words at a time even after turning four years old.
She sought help and Timo was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder,
or ASD for short.
Timo has an atypical perception.
When reading books or watching movies, Timo’s brain picks up
and organizes the information differently.
While his neurotypical peers categorise things and form schemas,
for example, they identify everything with four legs that barks as a dog,
for Timo, each type of dog is unique and categorised in Timo’s mind individually.
His attention to detail and inability to generalize makes Timo more
objective in his perception of the world and less prone to a framing bias.
However, it also makes all sorts of new experiences incredibly complex,
which is why he loves to follow a rigid daily routine to limit his sensory input.
Timo is highly sensitive.
His brain amplifies whatever input it perceives.
He hears everything and has a heightened sense of touch.
However, this superpower makes situations where many people speak
simultaneously very challenging. Timo hears everyone but understands nothing.
The sensitivity to touch makes eating an intense experience.
If a texture or flavour is too much to handle, Timo won’t eat it.
Also walking barefoot on wet grass or playing in dirt overwhelms his brain.
He has a fascination with logic.
Timo naturally looks for patterns that bring logic into this world.
Sometimes he also tries to bring order into his own
behavior and ways of moving his body.
When structured patterns are broken, he gets upset.
It freaks him out when someone counts to 8 but doesn’t continue to 10.
Doctors call it an obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD.
Timo experiences social disconnection.
He has trouble connecting with others, because social settings
overwhelm his sensitivity and desire for order.
Because human emotions are incredibly complex
and don’t follow a set predictable pattern,
Timo often finds himself misreading situations
and upsetting people around him.
As a consequence, he avoids people and rarely makes eye contact.
Which doesn’t matter that much to him, since most of the things
other people talk about, are illogical, irrelevant, and boring anyway.
For 4 years, his mother had him treated by a therapist who would
show him images of faces to help him learn to identify feelings.
This meant he got better at identifying facial expressions
and corresponding emotions.
However, personally, he is still not interested in reading faces,
or establishing new social contacts.
He has two friends who share the same interests and couldn’t wish for more.
Since Timo’s autism is not an illness we can treat,
but rather a different way of him experiencing the world,
the question remains whether we should try to change him through
therapy or accept him for who he is.
So what do you think?
Should we treat children with autism with therapy or
celebrate them for who they are? Or perhaps do both?
Maybe it’s not their atypical minds, but our stereotypical
way of looking at them that needs correction?
To get a three-dimensional glimpse of how an autistic girl experiences
her own surprise birthday party, or to download this video without
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