Autism Doesn’t Impede Effective Communication

Autism is clinically defined by impairments in social communication, leading to assumptions that individuals with autism are less effective communicators. But a new study challenges this notion.

The study found no significant difference in the effectiveness of how adults with autism and those without autism communicate, challenging the stereotype that people with autism struggle to connect with others.

This suggests that social difficulties faced by people with autism are more about differences in how people with and without autism communicate, rather than a lack of social ability in people with autism, researchers said. 

The study was published online on May 14 in Nature Human Behavior. 

Prior studies have suggested that communication challenges might stem from neurotype mismatches (autistic vs nonautistic) rather than autism itself. 

To investigate further, a team led by Catherine Crompton, PhD, with the Center for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, tested how effectively information was passed between 311 adults with (n = 154) and without autism (n = 157). The participants were tested in groups where everyone had autism, everyone was without autism, or a combination of both. 

The first person in the group heard a story from the researcher, then passed it along to the next person in the group. Each person had to remember and repeat the story, and the last person in the chain recalled the story aloud. The amount of information passed on at each point in the chain was scored to discern how effective participants were at sharing the story. 

The researchers found no significant differences in the effectiveness of information transfer between groups with autism, groups without autism, and mixed groups. They did note significant decay of information over time, but this was unrelated to neurotype matching.

After the communication task, the researchers asked the participants to rate how much they enjoyed the interaction with the others in the group.

They found that adults without autism preferred interacting with others like themselves, while those with autism preferred learning from peers with autism, which could come down to the different ways that people with and without autism communicate, the researchers said.

For adults with autism, disclosing their diagnosis might improve social experiences by fostering greater rapport, the data suggested.

Overall, the results support a paradigm shift from viewing autistic communication through a deficit model to recognizing it as a difference in communication style, the researchers said. 

“Autism has often been associated with social impairments, both colloquially and in clinical criteria,” Crompton said in a news release. 

“Researchers have spent a lot of time trying to ‘fix’ autistic communication, but this study shows that despite autistic and nonautistic people communicating differently, it is just as successful,” she said.

“With opportunities for autistic people often limited by misconceptions and misunderstandings, this new research could lead the way to bridging the communication gap and create more inclusive spaces for all,” Crompton added.

Funding for the study was provided by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The authors had no relevant conflicts of interest.