A single sheet for the meeting where a young person is being called defiant, disengaged, or obsessive. Side A is six starting points for understanding Autistic experience through attention. Side B is what to change at home and at school, and what to ask for in the room.
It compresses the Monotropism Why Sheet, adapted from An Introduction to the Theory of Monotropism To Support Autistic Young People by Fergus Murray and Helen Edgar, at their request. The six starting points are taken from ‘Starting Points for Understanding Autism’, written by Fergus Murray, January 2019. Print it double-sided, bring it, and give it away — no permission needed.
Side A of B
Monotropism
A theory of Autism developed by Autistic people. In a monotropic mind, fewer interests are active at any one time, and each one takes a larger share of a limited pool of attention. Attention behaves like a tunnel. Inside it, focus is deep and detail is vivid. Outside it, things get missed.
Fewer things at once,
more attention on each.
moving the tunnel costs energy · being moved constantly costs everything
Sensory channels, or any other stream of information. A conversation runs words, tone, gesture and eye contact at once. Missing one is ordinary, not rude.
Sometimes nothing can be tuned out. Other times something is filtered out completely. Filtering is active work, and it gets worse when a person is worn out.
Task-switching is hard, and new plans take work. Starting, changing direction and stopping all cost energy. Warnings, time and recovery are the accommodation.
Usually things that relate to concerns and interests. Deep focus makes detail vivid, which runs both ways — more pleasure, more pain. Intensity is not overreaction.
It is hard to let things drop. Unresolved questions keep returning. Asking again is not manipulation — the question has not settled.
Reminders and visual aids help. Asking a hundred times does not work if it never registered. A dropped task is not indifference. It is outside the tunnel.
“In a nutshell, monotropism is the tendency for our interests to pull us in more strongly than most people. … fewer interests tend to be aroused at any time, and they attract more of our processing resources, making it harder to deal with things outside of our current attention tunnel.”
Fergus Murray · the theory formulated by Dinah Murray, Mike Lesser and Wenn Lawson, 2005stimpunks.org/why/monotropism
six starting points by Fergus Murray · 2019
reverse
Side B of B
- A safe space to rest and regulate, and to be in their own interests. Not earned, not withdrawn as a consequence.
- Flexible routines rather than timetables. Fewer events in a day means fewer transitions to survive.
- Cushion time around events, so a change of plan has somewhere to go.
- Visual reminders and checklists for the things that slip out of the tunnel.
- Low demand after school. There is often nothing left by then.
- Consistent staff, and preparation before any change of room, teacher or timetable.
- Flexibility and recharge time — and break time is often not rest.
- Sensory tools chosen by the student: ear defenders, fidgets, movement.
- Interests woven into the learning, with room for self-directed work.
- Timers and visual prompts, kept few enough to stay usable.
- how many transitions does this day ask for, and which can go?
- what notice do they get before a change, and who gives it?
- where do they recover afterwards, and is it actually available?
- is their interest built into the day, or held back as a reward?
- where we wrote “refused”, could we write “was in another tunnel”?
“The more a brain concentrates its resources in a few interests and concerns, the more we should expect these to be true.”
Fergus Murray · Starting Points for Understanding Autism · 2019free to print, copy, change and share — no permission needed
CC0 1.0 · we ask that you keep the source credit above
Foundation
One sheet · print double-sided · bring it to the meeting · share freely