Looking beyond words: rethinking how we understand autistic communication

A new article in The Conversation questions autism as a spectrum, arguing this view overlooks alternative communication methods and limits how autistic lives and experiences are recognised.

Written by two autistic researchers, Dr Lou Harvey and Chris Bailey, the piece explains that autism has often been framed as a communication “disorder”, assessed largely through observation by professionals rather than through autistic people’s own accounts. This approach is rooted in “neuronormativity”, the idea that there is one correct or “normal” way to think, feel and communicate. As a result, forms of expression that don’t fit conventional speech, such as movement, repetition, focused interests or sensory behaviours, are frequently overlooked or misunderstood.

Drawing on their own research, and that of other autistic scholars, the authors show that autistic people communicate meaningfully in many non‑verbal ways. These forms of communication can express emotion, identity, comfort and connection, even when they are not easily measured or translated into words. Importantly, the article highlights that feeling and bodily experience are also ways of knowing, not separate from thinking.

Rather than abandoning diagnosis, the authors call for a shift in emphasis: from asking what is “wrong” with autistic people to learning how to pay better attention to them. Broadening our understanding of communication, they argue, would not only improve support for autistic people but deepen how society understands human connection more widely.

The full article can be seen here.

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