There are lots of ways autistic people think differently. Here are a few:
Autistic people can notice small things that other people don’t notice. We can notice small mistakes that other people don’t see, like typos. We can pay a lot of attention to things other people don’t think are important. We can have very good memories for facts, like facts about our special interestsVery strong interests that autistic people have..
Many autistic people like routine. We might like things to be the same every day, or to eat the same foods every day. It helps us to know what will happen each day.
Change can be scary for us, since things being the same helps us stay calm. Knowing what’s coming helps us make sense of our lives.
Autistic people sometimes think in black and white. For example, things are either good or bad, we either like or dislike people, or we either can or can’t do something. We can sometimes think in-between, but it can be hard. Black and white thinking can be a good thing. For example, we know when something is right or wrong, and we can help people do the right thing.
Autistic people learn things differently. We might learn things in a different order, like learning “hard” things before “easy” things. We might be great at one thing and bad at another thing. We might not get something, and then suddenly get it weeks later. We might need to learn some things very slowly, and other things very fast, or we might need to learn something more than once. Because we learn things differently, we can solve problems that other people can’t!