Part 3 – A2: Nonverbal Communication

The Autism Spectrum in the DSM-V

#neurodiversity #dsmasd #autism

What the DSM says

A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple con­texts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history 2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnor­malities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures: to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.

What it can mean

• Eye contact is painful to me, so I avoid it
• Looking at someone's eyes takes a lot of my attention. I'm not able to both look at someone's eyes and focus on what they're saying
• People always tell me that I make too much eye contact, or not enough. No matter what I try, I can't seem to get it to the “right” level
• When I talk, I focus on my words, so I can't focus on things like body posture or eye contact. Because of this, I might do things like facing away from my listener
• I don't understand how to use posture for communication. How is the way I sit or stand supposed to communicate anything?
• Speech is just words to me. I don't understand all the other “layers” like tone or volume
• People sometimes tell me I speak too loudly or too quietly, but I didn't notice.
• I don't use gestures like pointing or waving
• I use gestures a lot. My hands are more expressive than my words
• I don't express my feelings through facial expressions, at least not the way others do
• I try to copy other people's facial expressions, but people tell me it looks “weird”, “unnatural”, or “exaggerated”
• I have had to practice to understand the body language and facial expressions of other people. There are some I still don't understand
• I know an autistic child, and understanding how he feels comes very naturally to me. I can understand how neurotypical people feel, but it's a skill I've had to work on. However, understanding the body language of this autistic child is something I can do very intuitively. I think this might be how neurotypicals recognize each other's feelings all the time.
• I don't express my own emotions the same way other people do. For example, others smile or laugh when they're happy. I jump up and down or flap my hands instead.
• I don't understand the way people communicate. I understand the words they're saying, but all the other things that are supposedly included in communication – like body language, tone of voice, or facial expressions – seem like a riddle I can't solve
• I constantly feel like I am performing and micromanaging my facial expressions, body language, etc., which is extremely tiring because I am constantly having to think about them
• Sometimes people tell me my tone was dismissive/annoyed, even though I was imitating my tone from a time people told me I sounded friendly/supportive. It's confusing
• my tone of voice doesn't change in conversations depending on the subject/emotions/my level of interest. I pretty much always sound disinterested even if I'm very excited by a topic
• I respond to stimuli differently to most people – for example, I make singing noises rather than crying when I'm in pain or distressed

Continue to Part 0 – Sources Part 1 – Introduction Part 2 – Social-emotional reciprocity Part 3 – Nonverbal communication Part 4 – Relationships Part 5 – Repetitive Behaviors