Autism Spectrum Disorder and Communication: Best Practices for Overcoming Conversational Roadblocks

The American Psychiatric Association defines Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a “complex developmental condition involving persistent challenges with social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behavior.” Regarding social situations, this means that individuals on the Autism spectrum may communicate in ways that are not expected.

Typical roadblocks in communicating may include:

• Difficulty reading facial cues, body language, and emotions in others
• Difficulty understanding social relationships
• Difficulty identifying social cues
• Difficulty understanding sarcasm, slang, innuendo, and nuance
• Some difficulty with pronoun differentiation, specifically with “I” and “You”

Additionally, because individuals with ASD tend to approach their interests with a determined and passionate focus, when in casual conversation they may:

• Continually return to certain conversational topics
• Fail to identify when it’s appropriate to stop talking about their interests
• Fail to express interest in things others bring up

Conversational breakdown

When casual conversations hit one of these stumbling blocks, it leads to something that researchers Ruth Grossman and Emily Zane at Facial Affective and Communicative Expressions (FACE) lab at Emerson College in Boston call “conversational breakdown.” Conversational breakdown occurs when an ambiguity prompts a neurotypical person to interrupt for clarification or to lose interest and drop the conversation altogether. 

The FACE research lab is doing quite a bit of research on how ASD individuals process facial expressions as their name suggests, but they also identify another common yet subtle stumbling block: Prosody.

Prosody is rhythm of speech, the intonations we use to convey meaning and emotion. It is a performative aspect of language, and that performance goes a long way in conveying meaning. Prosody is the way we emphasize one word over another (“I wanted the black pen”), the way our voices rise to indicate a question and fail to indicate a statement, and the way we pause between words to simulate a verbal comma. Similarly, prosody indicates emotion in speech not necessarily indicated by the text of the speech itself. High pitch lets us know that a speaker is filled with excitement, like verbal exclamation points. Similarly, pitch and tone indicate urgency and emergency, like a vocal ALL CAPS. Given the emotional aspects of prosody and that it requires homing in on subtle and nuanced social and vocal cues, it’s no surprise that prosody has long been an obvious source of difficulty for ASD individuals.

Best practices

When considering “conversational breakdown” and varying communication styles, it’s crucial to recognize it is only the expectations of a neurotypical speaker that may make social interactions with ASD individuals seem “awkward.” Here are some basic best practices for communicating with a coworker, loved one, or new friend.

• Don’t speak down. Having differing communication styles does not mean that the receiver of the message isn’t comprehending what’s being said, simply that they approach conversing about it differently.
• Be clear, concise, and authentic. When we are not familiar with another individual's communication style, we can take things very literally, so say exactly what you mean and avoid sarcasm, irony, slang, and coded speech that requires “reading between the lines.” 
• Along those same lines, avoid prosody pratfalls. Be very specific and, when it comes to emotion, unafraid to state feelings outright. If your tone of voice indicates sadness, but that’s not something your friend seems to be picking up on, it’s ok to say, “That makes me sad.”
• Practice your listening skills. Just like in conversations with anyone else, actively listening lets a conversation partner know that you value their thoughts and that you are making every effort to understand their meaning.

Offer guidance when appropriate. A neurodivergent individual may speak incessantly about their specific interests because they are exceptionally passionate about the things they enjoy, and in their enthusiasm, they may not realize a conversation partner is ready to move on. Instead of simply retreating from the conversation, provide some guidance about that tendency in a way that is honest, non-judgmental, and clear. Doing so, when appropriate, can help someone with ASD learn to safely navigate complex social interactions.