By Rebecca Burgess
For version in Spanish click here.. French version click here. For printable PDF version click here. This is a great handout for Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month (April).
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Rebecca Burgess is a freelance comic artist and illustrator living in the UK. She has an interest in history and folk songs that runs through alot of her work. Her obsession with comics runs into her spare time, where she draws two webcomics! Rebecca also likes to play video games, explore the countryside and dress like a time traveler!
Rebecca’s tumblr where this comic was originally posted is here:
theoraah.tumblr.com
Archie is a character in a webcomic –
hccomic.smackjeeves.com
Other blogs you may like: 12 Things That Make me Weird
Baby Talk: Why do people talk to Autistic Adults like they were Infants
Thank you, Rebecca!
A very clear presentation, which raises scads of individual questions, which it should!
Bravo!
I have reproduced this wonderful post in its entirety on aspiblog.wordpress.com (having also sharfed links on twitter and facebook) 🙂
I have been describing the autism spectrum in exactly this way for some years now. I explain the spectrum as ‘a colour wheel shot with shotgun pellets’ and that each autist has their own unique ‘constellation’ of traits, disabilty and gifts. It was so uncanny to see your comic show what I’d been trying to convey so precisely! Great minds think alike, I guess. 🙂
Thank you so much for this! I feel like I understand the situation much much better now <3
Thanks, Rebecca,
Like Ruth above, I have been trying to communicate the multifacetedness of ASD for many years. Your comic strip is so visually powerful and so accessible for so many people. I am a great proponent of the spectrum nature of pretty much everything and particularly other developmental conditions such as ADHD, dyslexia and weak working memory. I have been producing my own free resources to support teachers and parents for over five years now on my Happy Learners website and I found your comic truly inspiring. Stephen
We are newly diagnosed and still learning. This is by far the best explanation I’ve seen.
Thank you.
I am 84 and often wondered…now I think I am newly diagnosed (a bit late).
Betty
The first thing you say about language conversations really pinned something down for me! As a neurotypical person who’s had relationship with people on the spectrum, I’ve always been very puzzled by this “delay”, and your explanation helped me realize something important.
I can’t help thinking that something is very very wrong, when someone often “pauses” the verbal and non-verbal interaction, and her/his expression is more or less blank, as this would be usually a bad sign when interacting with neurotypical people, signifying, that you’ve hurt their feelings, they are reluctant to talk to you, they don’t really like you at all or something along those lines. It stresses me out to no extent when the interaction doesn’t flow properly, and I’ve had to build a set of survival skills for this type of situations.
My normal way of interacting might also be hard to get, if you have problems interpreting tones, non-verbal cues, small gestures, fine tuned humour, innuendo and double entendre. I’m also very quick. Alas, the puzzlement definitely goes both ways. I must say that learning to be very straight forward with some people has been very educational. 😀
This is great!!!
I have often heard people use “being on the spectrum” with no understanding what it actual means.
Rebecca this is a fantastic way for everyone to understand what Autistic Spectrum is. Very clever.
Thank you a lot for this comic! I’ve made a French version if someone want to have it or to put in the website.
Unfortunately, dear Rebecca, your character Archie is very confusing for me.
It does not help that Archie offers no proof to claim that “someone who is neurodiverse in some areas of their brain will also be no different to the average person in other areas of their brain.”
He knows this because?
Who is the neurodiverse?
I believe most sincerely that the world is not eager to embrace diversity. But when someone who is diagnosed “on the spectrum” does not earn some understanding and respect from another person that is because almost every human is unable to do a certain set of things. The particular struggle of a person “on the spectrum” is not different (or harder) from the experience of everybody else.
It is not ASD but the whole world which consists of many traits (which I’d define as “sensibilities”) or ways in which the brain processes information.
The world consists of many different races, religions and cultures. These are also ways in which the brain processes information. Each person within a given race, religion and culture, has a different set of traits or ways in which the brain processes information. These traits (or ways) could create difficulties in everyday life when encountering people with a different ways of thinking.
Language can be confusing for everyone. An example, British children in general are good at understanding the rules of cricket while citizens of the United States are so hopelessly lost during a four-hour cricket match that some have come to believe that cricket is just a big joke the British are performing to confuse the rest of the world.
Another thing too I was thinking about while going through this comic strip: If one autistic person is sensory overload in loud and crowded spaces and another autistic person is very happy in loud how could both belong to the same spectrum?
They might be suffering – it seems to me – from different conditions. It could even be possible both don’t have autism at all. Besides conversation will be hard for every one if you are caught in loud and crowded spaces. And felling very happy in loud crowds is criteria for ASD? If a spectrum is too wide (that embrace all people), it loses its boundaries; it is not a spectrum at all.
Archie says, “Each person with autism will have a set of traits all in different areas of the spectrum. The areas where they don’t have a trait will function no differently to a neurotypical brain but maybe affected by circumstances.”
Why has everyone failed to show me specifically the different areas of the spectrum which cannot be explained by some other reason except “autism”?
Archie says, “Not every autistic person acts the same way and we are capable of varying strengths and weakness.”
That is the case of everybody else.
if there is any solace, it is this: Archie is not alone.
As Someone who has ASD I can say your comment is an example what I dislike about most people. I am different to you and you don’t understand why. As a result you dismiss ASD as “Everbody is different”. For me ASD has meant I am extremely isolated socially but hey I’m just different right? Nothing “wrong” with me as far as your concerned. It is people such as you that are the reason I’m isolated from society as you expect too much from that which you do not understand. I found the Comic strip a useful tool for helping others to understand ASD. Yet you seem to have too many preconceptions that you hold to rigidly leading you to misunderstand. I hope you can change.
Claudia, if you want to learn more about Autism, you could start with the diagnostic criteria outlined in the DSMV.
My understanding is that the brain of an ASD person is wired completely differently to that of a Neurotypical person (non ASD), mindblindness, empathy, and coping strategies, understanding oneself differ between the two neuro diverse persons.
As no two people on the ‘spectrum’ or not are the same. Traits of ASD are generally similar but some will be more pronounced within each individual. Just like neurotypical people who have their strengths and weaknesses.
I don’t believe this cartoon strip is meant to competely and fully explain ASD at it’s fullest. But it is a very good starting point which has the potential for education, discussion and further exploration to a wider society
Wow! This is fantastic. I have a young son with ASD and our family has been learning as much as we can (as quickly as we can) about all things autistic. This is by far the best explanation/representation of the spectrum that I have yet encountered and I have already shared it far and wide. Thank you, Rebecca 🙂
My very clever 12 year old grandson has been diagnosed on the autistic spectrum. He has problems reading how a person is feeling about what he may have said or done.(especially his Mum and sister) How can you tell when he is having trouble understanding or just being plain naughty, as all children can be, to get his own way? How is discipline applied fairly and for the right reasons. He plays games on his tablet/p.c. continually and can be horrible if his (now single mother) stops him or disciplines him. He bullies his younger sister if she uses the devices as he is always in the middle of a game, or so he says. His Dad is a great deal stricter which he seems to accept.When we as grandparents take him and his sister on holiday, without Mum or any electronics at all, he seems to mix socially very well with all the other kids and makes friends. How much of a con man is he?
Steve, your grandson is not being a “con man” at all. He is operating by the rules he understands. Clear, literal, fair rules with clear consequences, and consistent repetition, may eventually sink in. I encourage you to read Asperger Syndrome in the Family : Redefining Normal, by Lianne Holliday Willey, The Way I See It, by Temple Grandin, Connecting with Your Asperger Partner : negotiating the maze of intimacy, by Louise Weston, for many examples of Aspergers (clever autistic) vs. Neurotypical (not on spectrum) responses, and to keep reading about Aspergers. Do not attribute devious motives to the boy. Believe that he just has not had the rules explained finely-grained enough, clearly enough, to understand. He may be clever in some ways, but because of autism, he learns from only one specific case at a time, and autism keeps him from generalizing. Try forums at wrongplanet.net. You could have been describing me or my son.
Hi Rebecca… I love your stuff… thank you! I would like to ask you if the association I belong to could you use one of your illustrations to insert it in an informative leaflet?
Many thanks. I look forward to hearing from you
Hi Anna, we have printable links for Rebecca’s cartoon as she has said it is okay to print and share. – Debra
I would like to make copies of this comic strip, but the link to the PDF isn’t working. Can you please direct me to another link?
Thanks for this great explanation.
Rose
Rose, I’ll look into why the PDF is not working.
Thanks!
Hi Rose, I have a PDF that works now so you can make copies.
Thank you, Debra!
Bravo!! The ‘spectrum’ is so much clearer now!!
This is great, but you should have had it edited before publishing. The errors are distracting.
STUNNING. I’m an 40+ yr old adult recently diagnosed & a health professional and I thought your strip was intelligent / informative but it also made me laugh a load.
I’ve noticed some people being a little pedantic but I saw no errors & wouldn’t have cared if there were any (proof reading can be exhausting!). I hope you are happy with it as a lot of people here clearly are too. I’ve attended ASC training & I reckon this would go down a treat (& is needed). All the best.
This is such an excellent depiction of what the autism spectrum really looks like. I have been saying for so long that there is no such thing as severe and mild autism! Could I use this as part of a strategy I am using? Obviously will credit the author.