Autism Spectrum Disorder and social skills

Autism used to be considered to be an extremely rare ‘disorder’ that only affected a tiny proportion of the population; however, in the numbers of those diagnosed as being somewhere on the wider ‘autism spectrum’ has massively increased. Conversations with an autistic person can include moments where there appears to be a breakdown in communication ‘transmission’ – they are deep in thought, deciding what to say, looking away – which can be disconcerting to the other person. The autistic person often has an unnatural posture or gait, which can vary from rigid to exaggerated. They may be unsure of how to position themselves so as to appear part of a group, or how to stand to show another person they are part of the conversation, interested and engaged. This can then result in them appearing on the outside of group and social situations.