Processing space

This is the additional time required to process new information or unexpected changes. Compared to non-autistic people, making decisions, responding to questions or accepting suggestions may require longer (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2020; Vicario et al, 2020). Understanding this aspect of autistic experience and having the patience to wait is invaluable. It may appear that an autistic person is not answering or did not understand, and so the temptation is to repeat or rephrase the question, both of which can re-start the processing time thus further delaying resolution (Haydon et al, 2021). This is complicated by the fact that some autistic people, particularly those with co-occurring attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, may have become distracted (Young et al, 2020), so a simple prompt such as ‘are you still thinking?’ can sometimes be helpful.

Autistic SPACE: a novel framework for meeting the needs of autistic people in healthcare settings | British Journal of Hospital Medicine

Another aspect that the online group users reported as making the outside world difficult for them to live in was a lack of time to process their surroundings, and events around them. Many of the group users referred to needing more time to process information, in order to make sense of it and respond to it, or use it effectively. They described situations in their everyday lives where they struggled to process information in the time expected, and how they found this very stressful. For example, they described how they struggled in face-to-face social interactions, particularly in public spaces, which required them to process conversations, alongside environmental distractions, in a timely manner:

Talking to people exhausts me … I struggle to keep up … I find it hard to go out because of meeting people and having to talk … I can’t stop analysing the conversation afterwards, I find it emotionally draining … it takes me hours to do things that other people do in a few minutes …

River, HC

At work, I always need longer than the other people to process the information and understand its meaning…I worry they don’t realise I have autism, and they won’t know how to communicate instructions to me

Lee, HC

The quotes above suggest that, in addition to needing to have extra time to accomplish tasks, feeling pressured to ‘keep up’ with other people was accompanied by feelings of worry, and of being emotionally drained. As mentioned by Lee, above, needing more processing time than other people could be an issue in workplaces, or in educational settings:

I realised that when people try to teach me things, if I don’t understand it at first, it never clicks for me, even though I try really hard…this is particularly true for tasks that don’t have any rules, where it’s different every time so making notes doesn’t help…my brain can’t seem to process it

Lee, HC

During the assessment the psychologist found that I have a processing impairment…this helped me to get support from my uni…I was given extra time for tests and this was a huge help and in the end I completed my degree successfully …

Riley, LA

These quotes show how needing more processing time affected some group users’ employment and educational performance. Acknowledgement of, and providing accommodation for, the need for more processing time could be helpful, as reported by Riley, above.

A comment by Mike, in the LA board, suggested that needing more time to process language was linked to being a ‘visual thinker’ (which could also be related to a preference for visual information, as discussed in Section 4.3.5.2.2):

So many of us with autism are visual thinkers and take longer to process spoken language

Mike, LA

The online group users described their strategies for alleviating the lack of processing time, such as, using text or written language, which they could read and reread as required, or accessing disability accommodations:

I like to write down the advice that people have given me so I can read it over …

Jake, NH

I can understand and learn new tasks very well so long as it’s explained very precisely and clearly, and I can write myself detailed notes along the way …

Lee, HC

Other strategies included planning for extra time to process what was needed, by finding ways to spend time alone, or resting:

I need to have time for processing everything so I can make sense of it all …

Morgan, LA

I did gain a lot from it attending a social event – it will take me some time to process it but I will benefit from it when I do.

Sheila, LA

I need a lot of sleep – I go to bed early and if I don’t take a nap I feel ill with tiredness…I think it is that with autism my brain is overloaded and needs time in the afternoon to process what has happened in the morning.

Drew, HC

Overall, this sub-theme has shown that needing extra time to process information was an important issue for many of the online group users, who described how this affected their ability to take part in socialising, and in educational and work activities. It was also an area where accommodations made by individuals themselves, and by employers or education staff, could be helpful.

The role of informational support in online groups for people on the autism spectrum – White Rose eTheses Online

The acronym ‘SPACE’ offers a simple framework for autism-specific accommodations: Sensory needs, Predictability, Acceptance, Communication and Empathy plus physical, processing and emotional space.

Autistic SPACE: a novel framework for meeting the needs of autistic people in healthcare settings | British Journal of Hospital Medicine

This is a style of communicating which lots of neurodivergent people prefer – including myself. Asynchronous communication is when you send a message without expecting an immediate response. Examples: receiving an email and responding minutes, hours, days later / responding to a text later in the day / getting back to someone / waiting until you’ve got home from work to call someone / sending a response 2 minutes later. There are many advantages to this method but the main one is that the person has time to process the information and plan what it is they want to say. Real-time communication is often rapid and demanding. Executive functioning and language processing differences mean that for neurodivergent people responding quickly can be a huge difficulty.
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Synchronous communication (immediate responses like in a conversation) can cause significant anxiety for an autistic person because not enough time is given for them to process and plan what they want to say. It’s why job interviews are incredibly difficult for autistic people because they have to think on the spot and produce responses immediately.

Communication Features | AutisticSLT

Sometimes the appeal of visual information was related to its more concrete and lasting nature, when compared to transient and time-sensitive forms of information, such as spoken language. This was linked to the need to spend time processing the content of the information, sometimes iteratively, and managing competing demands for attention, as already discussed in Section 4.3.5.1.

This need to remember, and repeatedly read, information is illustrated by the following quotes:

I struggle with social understanding, I feel like my brain gets exhausted … to learn anything at all, I have to write down everything that’s said to me otherwise I just can’t keep up – I’ll be still trying to process one bit of the information when the next bit is said, and I just can’t remember it…

Lee, HC

I prefer messaging as I can read things again to make sense of them … if anyone asks me something face to face or on the phone, I freeze up…

Louis, NH

I write down my feelings and worries … and I write down advice from other people so I can remember it and reread it when I want…

Jake, NH

The role of informational support in online groups for people on the autism spectrum – White Rose eTheses Online

If an autistic person is pulled out of monotropic flow too quickly, it causes our sensory systems to disregulate.

This in turn triggers us into emotional dysregulation, and we quickly find ourselves in a state ranging from uncomfortable, to grumpy, to angry, or even triggered into a meltdown or a shutdown.

This reaction is also often classed as challenging behavior when really it is an expression of distress caused by the behavior of those around us.

How you can get things wrong:

• Not preparing for transition
• Too many instructions
• Speaking too quickly
• Not allowing processing time
• Using demanding language
• Using rewards or punishments
• Poor sensory environments
• Poor communication environments
• Making assumptions
• A lack of insightful and informed staff reflection

An introduction to monotropism – YouTube

Further Reading