Why are Autistics so Weird?

I was in the doctor’s the other day for an assessment, he marked down that my eye contact was poor. I mentioned this to another doctor and she thought lack of eye contact of autistics was a learned behaviour. I said no, it is reflective of information processing.

NT’s use eye contact when they are talking. The “listener” is actually only paying about 30% of their attention on what is being said and 70% reading body language including eye contact. What they are trying to do is detect if what you are saying is true.

On the flip side, autistics are actually trying to listen to what is being said and thinking if what is being said is said. NT’s think this is so weird!

Both, autistics and NT can not read body language, listen and think at the same time, we all get confused!

What is weird is that the strategies in understanding communication is different between NDs & NTs. NDs assume that NTs are processing the same information the same way, i.e. thinking and listening. After all, somebody is saying something and you should really be listening & thinking. What does eye contact has to do with the content of the communication?

ND’s think autistics are actually lying when they are talking, because they are avoiding eye contact.