Understanding Autism: The Reality of Living with a Spiky Profile

It is very easy to assume competence in one area based on known ability in another. But this can be particularly unwise with autistic people.

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When you are autistic, you get used to dealing in extremes. While others may use sliding scales, we may use a more binary system. My emotions, for example, tend to be neutral or extreme, with very little in between. I will either be completely unmoved by an event or be either distraught or ecstatic. I don’t really do being a little sad or a little happy.

A similar principle can apply to our abilities in different areas of life. We may be very good at something, or really struggle at it, with few things falling in between. There is not much that I am OK at, but there are many things at which I am hopeless and a few at which I like to think I a pretty good. This polarised spread of abilities is often referred to as a spiky profile, meaning that when strengths and weaknesses are plotted on a graph, the line rises rapidly from zero to the top and back again, with few points in the mid-range.

The problem is that, like so much else common to autistic people, the world is not set up for spiky profiles, nor do people appreciate what this can mean in practise. This, in turn, can lead to misunderstandings, unwise assumptions, or just mockery and abuse. For example, I have a degree in maths and can solve complex problems. But give me a flat pack piece of furniture to assemble, and I will struggle for hours to do something that others do in a few minutes. My brain can see how the equations work instantly, but cannot comprehend how 3 pieces of wood or metal are supposed to fit together to build a chest of drawers.

After many years of struggling to do things I find hard, I have now made my peace with my weaknesses. I now accept that there are some things that I cannot do, so at the very least, I need to seek help, and ideally, if it is something major or important, I should pay an expert to do it for me. I know I am also very lucky to be in a position to do so.

But the world does not expect this strange mix of competence and inability. People tend to assume that if you are reasonably competent in one or two areas, you are probably also at least ok at most other things. This is just not true for many autistic people, and it often seems hard for others to get their heads around how we can be very good at one thing and struggle with something else that seems so simple to them.

Perhaps the most extreme example in my own life is around speaking to other people. Put me in front of 100 people to deliver a speech or presentation, and I will enjoy it and, I think, do a decent job. But tell me to move around the room and speak to each one of those people individually, and I will flounder hopelessly. Most people would find public speaking a bit scarier, but would still be better at it than I am at individual conversations!

It all comes down to us all trying to make fewer assumptions about others. Almost nothing in life is obvious to everyone or applies to us all. Generalisations can be a handy shorthand, but they carry a heavy risk of making those they do not apply to feel excluded. Making assumptions about someone’s competence in one area based on their ability in something else, even something that seems quite similar, is unwise and unnecessary, especially when you know they are autistic.

But there is, of course, a very easy way to avoid making assumptions about someone’s ability in an area. You can just ask them.