Autism, Direct Instruction and Having Friends
Autism, Direct Instruction and Having Friends by Judy Endow Social Understanding and Communication Social understanding and communication are two areas impacted by autism neurology. The way this plays out is different from one autistic individual to the next. Typically, for autistics I have worked with, this means that they do not always pick up social information from the world around them through observation only as most people do. Instead, they sometimes need direct instruction concerning information their autistic neurology doesn’t allow them to automatically pick up and learn. I think it is important that those around autistics understand that not
Autism and Processing Social Information
My autistic neurology means that I am not good at picking up typical social cues, understanding complex social situations, automatically picking up meanings of idioms, or understanding the hidden curriculum that most others automatically pick up (Endow 2012). This means I often look naïve and gullible. The fact is I AM naïve and gullible when I try to use the social constructs of neuromajority folks to navigate the world around me. When I was younger and deemed “in need of help” that “help” largely involved others trying to teach me to think and act as if I had a
