40. The Impact of Mind Blindness

For most people, context is just a known thing. I mean it's like
it is just inherent for us to know that everything is relative
and depends on the context, situation, or setting which
determines how we act or react or what we say or don’t say,
right?


Well, imagine, if you are only able to take in one piece of
information at a time. This is a daily struggle for people with
autism. There are so many different pieces of information to take
in and respond to and put into context.


Context refers to the circumstances or events that form the
environment within which something exists or takes place. Context
directs our perception and ultimately influences and directs our
actions and/or responses.


Autistic brains tend to think in an absolute way and it also
seems that they have challenges viewing a situation from
different perspectives.


We spend a lot of time teaching them social rules but what
happens is that they have difficulty adapting these rules to
different situations and making exceptions to the rules even when
appropriate.


The more you model to them how you act or react or how you speak
to people you know or don’t know and how you show up in different
areas of life, the more they will gain an understanding and
importance of this.


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