Most people are born with an internal social interpreter, which allows them to understand others. The social interpreter enhances understanding of the multiple languages (voice tones and rhythms, silences, pitches, body languages, timing and facial expressions, to name a few) people use to communicate (often subtly) with each other.
However for those of us born with autism spectrum disorders, the information received by the interpreter may be random, missing, incomplete or inaccurate. Often the interpreter itself is missing or damaged in some way as well. This has a profound impact upon the lives of the individuals affected. We cannot automatically understand what others mean in their communications with us. Instead, we must search whatever contextual and historical information we have available for patterns and clues with which we can categorize our observations. Eventually we begin to make some sense of what is happening around us, and have a basis with which to react accordingly. The more consistent and predictable our environment, the more easily we can organize the “research” into useable information.
This process is either aided or hindered by other atypical syndromes, such as “Sensory Integration” hyper- or hypo-sensitivities. For example, an individual with an auditory processing disorder along with auditory hypersensitivity may hear things others do not, yet be unable to immediately make sense of some word combinations, even if able to repeat it back or define each word spoken. The same person may be quite articulate in spoken language, and may have no difficulty understanding the same phrase in written form.
Advertisement
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
Filed under: A Few Basic Concepts, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Education, Errors in Professional Documentation, General Commentary on Society, Personal Topics
Wisdom from the Bible
August, 2010 • 5:43 pm
Important Issues: Social Interpretation
Most people are born with an internal social interpreter, which allows them to understand others. The social interpreter enhances understanding of the multiple languages (voice tones and rhythms, silences, pitches, body languages, timing and facial expressions, to name a few) people use to communicate (often subtly) with each other.
However for those of us born with autism spectrum disorders, the information received by the interpreter may be random, missing, incomplete or inaccurate. Often the interpreter itself is missing or damaged in some way as well. This has a profound impact upon the lives of the individuals affected. We cannot automatically understand what others mean in their communications with us. Instead, we must search whatever contextual and historical information we have available for patterns and clues with which we can categorize our observations. Eventually we begin to make some sense of what is happening around us, and have a basis with which to react accordingly. The more consistent and predictable our environment, the more easily we can organize the “research” into useable information.
This process is either aided or hindered by other atypical syndromes, such as “Sensory Integration” hyper- or hypo-sensitivities. For example, an individual with an auditory processing disorder along with auditory hypersensitivity may hear things others do not, yet be unable to immediately make sense of some word combinations, even if able to repeat it back or define each word spoken. The same person may be quite articulate in spoken language, and may have no difficulty understanding the same phrase in written form.
Share this:
Like this:
Filed under: A Few Basic Concepts, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Education, Errors in Professional Documentation, General Commentary on Society, Personal Topics