Autism is the shortened version of Autism Spectrum Disorder. The disorder is a spectrum of several different traits that are separate from each other. These traits are: anxiety, motivation, impulsivity, sensory differences, attention, memory, flexibility in thinking, social use of language, social rules, and social confidence. Rather than autism being a range of more to less autistic, it is the combination of an individual’s placements on all these traits.

Autism is a developmental disability, which means it occurs before a baby is born. There is currently some research suggesting that there is a genetic tag that can be activated to cause the formation of an autistic brain, but whatever the case, autism is not something that can be developed after birth.

The traits of autism themselves are a spectrum, and even people who are not autistic will find themselves on the range somewhere. The trait of anxiety is self explanatory. The trait of motivation is the idea of executive function, or the ability to do something that one intends to do. The trait of impulsivity is also relatively self explanatory. The trait of sensory differences is the increased or decreased sensitivity to any of the five senses. The trait of attention is the ability to control and move one’s attention. The trait of flexibility in thinking is that black and white thinking that autism is known for. The trait of social use of language refers to the language abilities of the person and their verbal communication. The trait of social rules is the understanding and appropriate use of social obligations. The trait of social confidence is how shy the person is and how willing they are to initiate conversation and interaction.

We will be going into all of these traits individually in more detail later, but this is a kind of general overview. The idea that autism is a spectrum is not exactly wrong, but oftentimes people have a misunderstanding about what that spectrum looks like.