03/04/2019 Rethinking Autism: From Social Awkwardness to Social Creativity - Behavioral Scientist

EDUCATION

Rethinking Autism: From Social

Awkwardness to Social Creativity
By Scott Barry Kaufman
June 14, 2017

Image: J.K. Ro ing

A t a speech at the United Nations, writer and activist Steve Silberman noted
that “society is on the brink of a major transformation in its understanding of
autism and other developmental disabilities.” Silberman is right.

For years, the story about people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was
about the things they lacked. Principally, they were seen as lacking empathy and
“theory of mind.”

But emerging research suggests that the social dif culties found in people with
ASD are far more nuanced. We’re now understanding what people on the autism
spectrum have rather than what they lack. Even Simon-Baron Cohen, who
originated the social-de cit hypothesis, has broadened his view to include
autism’s strengths.

A closer look at ASD has revealed that rather than an inability for sociality,
people with ASD tend to have an unconventional social style. For instance,
people with ASD process social information more slowly, focus attention
http://behavioralscientist.org/rethinking-autism-social-awkwardness-social-creativity/ 1/6
03/04/2019 Rethinking Autism: From Social Awkwardness to Social Creativity - Behavioral Scientist

elsewhere than the eyes, and report trouble understanding the social cues
relating to sports and physical play. People often mistake these social responses
for disinterest, which can affect the potential for making friends. But it’s also
becoming quite clear that people with ASD do crave connection, and do care
about others. People with ASD report desiring friends, and when you ask them
how much they would care about hurting someone else, they care deeply about
how their actions affect the feelings of others—what is called “affective
empathy.” Again, this is not an inability: When those with ASD are given the
information that allows them to understand the point of view of others, they
have as much concern and compassion as do people without ASD.

We’re now understanding what people on the autism

spectrum have rather than what they lack, and what
they have is social creativity and an unconventional
social style.

But even though perceptions of autism are changing, there’s a deeper problem.
This research presupposes that there is a correct way of socializing with others,
and that the interpersonal styles of people with ASD are somehow “failed
versions of ‘normal.’” This assumption in uences how we help children with ASD.
Most well-meaning interventions for children with ASD try to increase their
social knowledge by teaching them the “correct” way of responding to
situations. For instance, a child may be taught that when a person says, “Hi, how
are you?” you respond with, “Fine, thank you. And yourself?”

But is this really helpful? A recent review investigated the effectiveness of social
skill interventions for youth with ASD, most of which promote social knowledge.
While the youth with ASD reported improvements in their social knowledge as a
result of the intervention, they didn’t perceive themselves as actually improving
in social skills. This split between social knowledge and actual social skills
suggests that the eld’s most prominent framework isn’t working.

Perhaps the problem isn’t with the interventions but with the whole model that
presupposes a normal. After all, if such social interventions were given on
typically developing youth, the intervention would rightly be criticized as
reductionist and simplistic. The social world is so much more complex and
dynamic than learning a social script for every interaction. Perhaps instead of
viewing people with ASD as “socially awkward” individuals who need to be

http://behavioralscientist.org/rethinking-autism-social-awkwardness-social-creativity/ 2/6
03/04/2019 Rethinking Autism: From Social Awkwardness to Social Creativity - Behavioral Scientist

“ xed,” we should instead conceptualize them as socially creative. They may not
do things the “right” way, but they do them their way.

Instead of viewing people with ASD as “socially

awkward” individuals who need to be “ xed,” we
should instead conceptualize them as socially
creative. They may not do things the “right” way, but
they do them their way.

In a clever study, Matthew Lerner and his colleagues assessed the social
creativity of 31 adolescents with high-functioning ASD (in other words, they all
had average to exceptional levels of IQ, and all met criteria for ASD). In the social
creativity task, they were asked to come up with novel solutions to social
problems. They were also given a standard social knowledge task that asked
them, in given social situations, “What is the right thing to do?” For example, the
adolescents may be given a scenario in which they are trying to get another
child to play with them. A response such as, “I would ask them to please play
with me,” would score very high in social knowledge but low in social creativity.
In contrast, a response such as, “I would pretend to call forth aliens to mind
control the kids to play with me,” would score very high in social creativity but
low in social knowledge.

Their ndings were elucidating. First, they found that social knowledge and
social creativity were uncorrelated with each other, as well as with measures of
IQ. Knowing correct social responses is different than being able to generate
novel, creative responses to those solutions; neither are accounted for by simply
having a high IQ.

They also found that participants with ASD did not differ much from their
typically developing peers in terms of the range of social creativity and social
knowledge. What’s more, only social creativity but not social knowledge
correlated with ASD symptoms. Finally, they found that social creativity but not
social knowledge was correlated with prosocial behaviors observed during free
play. It seems that knowing the rules for effective prosocial behavior does not
actually relate to using those rules.

These ndings are key because they suggest that social interventions that focus
solely on “getting it right” are not actually addressing the key skills that could

http://behavioralscientist.org/rethinking-autism-social-awkwardness-social-creativity/ 3/6
03/04/2019 Rethinking Autism: From Social Awkwardness to Social Creativity - Behavioral Scientist

help people with ASD not only increase their friendships, but also increase their
helping behaviors (which is sure to also increase their friendships). According to
Lerner,

“What emerges from the research is that rather than think about the task of
understanding social cognition of people on the spectrum and also how to treat
them, teaching them to behave in a way that better approximates the way other
people are doing it, it becomes more incumbent on us to understand people on
the spectrum, and meet them where they are, and really try to understand how
they are experiencing a situation. What are the skills, features, tendencies,
passions they are bringing to the table, and how can we use those to make this
social world they seem to want to access? How can we make it accessible and
rewarding?”

Indeed, a growing number of “Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral

Interventions” for children with ASD are taking this approach—from the Early
Start Denver model, which teaches social strategies to toddlers at home during
their already ongoing daily activities, to Connie Kasari and her colleague’s work
looking at opportunities for joint engagement and play with children with ASD,
to the emerging class of “drama-based group interventions,” which are applying
drama-based techniques in a group setting. For instance, one such intervention,
led by Matthew Lerner and his colleagues, aims to promote social creativity.
Rather than teaching social skills as rote knowledge, it uses improvisation to
teach ways to respond to unexpected social scenarios. The idea is that if
individuals with ASD can get comfortable with the exaggerated and ridiculous
situations of improv comedy, then in the real world answering the question “Hi,
how are you?” will be a breeze.

The emerging, novel approach to autism—which

meets individuals with ASD where they are instead
of trying to “ x” them—is transforming how these
individuals think of themselves in the world, and
what they are capable of becoming.

The activities are designed to be not only fun but also to provide shared joy and
connection among the participants. For instance, in one of the activities, called
“Gibberish,” one person speaks in nonsense sounds instead of words while
attempting to explain how to perform an everyday task like baking a cake.

http://behavioralscientist.org/rethinking-autism-social-awkwardness-social-creativity/ 4/6
03/04/2019 Rethinking Autism: From Social Awkwardness to Social Creativity - Behavioral Scientist

Another person must watch and translate the gibberish into words for the rest
of the participants to understand. Participants are encouraged to integrate
humor into the activities. Games like this shift the focus from rote responding to
sensitive and spontaneous reacting to non-verbal cues, and also promotes
perspective-taking and exible social cognition skills.

This emerging, novel approach to autism—which meets individuals with ASD

where they are instead of trying to “ x” them—is transforming how these
individuals think of themselves in the world, and what they are capable of
becoming. Framing matters. In one online discussion forum, a number of those
with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s discussed their creativity, giving
hope and support to each other. One forum participant called snarkysparkly
wrote, “So happy to read this post. I had wondered if being creative and
imaginative disquali ed me from being an Aspie… And now I also get to hear
from real, everyday Aspies that you can be EXTREMELY creative and still be an
Aspie!”

Indeed you can. In fact, although many youth with ASD do show dif culties with
spontaneous “pretend play,” it turns out this is not a suf cient condition to
differentiate those with and without ASD. Rethinking autism requires
understanding the experience of autism, and seeing beyond the unconventional
social behaviors to see who they really are, and what they can really offer. We’d
be remiss if we didn’t build off the strengths that already exist among those with
ASD. This research is not only revolutionizing how we view ASD, but also how we
treat anyone who thinks differently.

Scott Barry Kaufman

Founding Columnist
Scott Barry Kaufman is scienti c director of the Imagination
Institute and a researcher in the Positive Psychology Center
at the University of Pennsylvania, where he investigates the
measurement and development of imagination, creativity,
and well-being. He is the host of The Psychology Podcast
and has written or edited seven books, including Wired to
Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (with
Carolyn Gregoire) and Ungifted: Intelligence Rede ned.
 Twitter  Website

Further Reading & Resources

http://behavioralscientist.org/rethinking-autism-social-awkwardness-social-creativity/ 5/6
03/04/2019 Rethinking Autism: From Social Awkwardness to Social Creativity - Behavioral Scientist

Silberman, S. (2015). NeuroTribes: The legacy of autism and the future of

neurodiversity. New York, NY: Avery. (Link)
Kaufman, S. B. (2013). Q & A with Temple Grandin on the autistic brain.
Scienti c American. (Link)
Lerner, M. D., Mikami, A. Y., & Levine, K. (2011). Socio-dramatic affective-
relational intervention for adolescents with Asperger syndrome & high
functioning autism: Pilot study. Autism, 15(1), 21-42. (Link)

Saltz, G. (2017). The power of different: The link between disorder and genius.
New York, NY: Flatiron Books. (Link)

Understood. (2017). Video: Scott Barry Kaufman on Embracing Learning and

Attention Issues. (Link)

Asperger's Are Us comedy troupe. (Link)

AUTISM CREATIVITY MENTAL HEALTH

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU

EDUCATION
Making Play a Habit
By Lisa Gennetian

EDUCATION
Why College Campuses Need a “Pride and Prejudice”
Approach to Inclusion
By Tiffany Brannon
EDUCATION
Building Behavioral Science’s Intervention Resources
in Higher Education
By Ben Castleman and Ethan Fletcher

http://behavioralscientist.org/rethinking-autism-social-awkwardness-social-creativity/ 6/6