Page 20 - Autism Awareness Session
P. 20
Social Communication & Empathy
There is a criteria and threshold, which defines Autism, which includes
difficulties in reciprocal social interaction.
It is important to remember that this varies from one autistic person to
another, depending on the development of the individual’s cognitive profile.
There are various difficulties, such as theory of mind, which refers to a
person being able to anticipate what another person is thinking or feeling
(Happé et al., 1996).
Further difficulties are explored by O’Callaghan. He carried out academic
research on autistic people. In his findings, he concluded that autistic
people lack empathy. It is now widely agreed that it is only one component
of empathy, ‘cognitive’ empathy, that is a difficult for autistic
neurotypes.
