A child who can barely get a sentence out in conversation will write messages to their mother in the evening which are precise, complete and sometimes even witty. This difference in communication can lead to confusion. However, written communication often works better with autism than spoken communication. The reason for this has little to do with the actual ability to speak.
What actually makes speaking so exhausting?
Spoken language requires you to do many things at the same time. You have to formulate the content in your head while reading the other person’s facial expression, controlling your own tone of voice, blocking out background noise and then finding the right moment to answer. For many autistic people, these subtasks take up the same narrow window of time – if one of them falters, they can often all falter.
Most of this is eliminated when writing. You have time to think about a formulation, can correct it, do not have to maintain eye contact and are not interrupted. The result is often more precise and honest as the above-mentioned subtasks that have to be solved simultaneously are largely eliminated.
And what does this mean for everyday school life?
This does not mean that we should stop speaking. Rather, it means that you could stop treating spoken language as the only valid form or forcing it. A child who is better able to express their thoughts in writing is not avoiding it – they are choosing the way that works best. In school, this could mean allowing written answers to be given equal or higher value. Teachers could be sensitised to the fact that a reticent child in the classroom does not necessarily fail in understanding the teaching material, but in the ability to communicate what they have learned orally.
Not every autistic child prefers writing because some really like to talk. But for those for whom it is the other way around, it makes a considerable difference whether the environment allows them to use the channel that suits them – or whether they have to constantly struggle through one that costs them energy without giving anything back.
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