Attending the National Autistic Society conference recently, I was left struck by the discussions surrounding Monotropism. Here’s what’s new!

Monotropism and Autism

Attending the National Autistic Society conference recently I was left struck by the discussions surrounding Monotropism. Monotropism appears to go further than many other theories in unifying different aspects of Autism, explaining the experiences behind the presentations, and would enable people to create environments where Autistic people feel stable and can in turn thrive.

The Interest System Model of the Mind

The theory of monotropism focuses on a model of the mind as an ‘interest system’ – the idea that in monotropic minds, interests pull people in more strongly. A monotropic mind focuses on fewer interests at any one time, and they demand more processing resources, making it harder to deal with things outside the current ‘attention tunnel’. This goes a long way to explain why changing from one area of focus to another, interruptions or changes to plans can all be challenging for those with Autism. It also highlights why, given the right environment, this high level focus and attention can be a huge asset in many fields  – leading autistic people to information and conclusions that would be missed by many.

Focused Interests in Autism

Whilst focused interests are not exclusive to those with Autism, it is a common characteristic of autistic children and adults that is so often missed when schools and workplaces aren’t able to facilitate learning and productivity in different ways.

Challenges for Autistic Individuals

There are so many different ways for autism to present and evolve – so many co-occuring conditions and the huge variations in any one individual’s experiences through childhood and into adulthood. No one theory can possibly capture them all, but research into monotropic minds is already helpful to anyone living or working with autistic people. Understanding how the mind is hyper focusing explains why when forced to confirm to the expectations of a polytropic world, those with Autism can feel overwhelmed and mentally exhausted, leading to frustration, anxiety and shut downs. Repeated exposure to high levels of stress and anxiety in this way inevitably has long term implications for mental and physical health.

The Challenges of Eye Contact

Many people are now aware of some these challenges for autistic people, in particular the difficulty some autistic individuals have maintaining eye contact is often talked about. But are they widely understood and accepted?

Autobiographical Stories and Monotropism

Without eye contact it is easy to repeatedly miss social and emotional learning opportunities and it can become a real barrier for people with Autism in real-world social interactions. Many theories have purported to explain this tendency to avoid eye contact, predicting that individuals with Autism dislike or find it unpleasant to make eye contact, are not interested, or are not able to understand the intentions or emotional meaning behind it.

Understanding that autistic minds struggle to focus on multiple channels of input at one time perhaps better explains why dealing with a combination of verbal communication, body language and eye contact can be challenging.

Research in recent years has begun placing more weight on the experiences of autistic individuals and their autobiographical stories – this may well be why the theory of Monotropism has been gaining more attention.

Resources:
‍
Me and Monotropism: A unified theory of autism, Fergus Murray – science teacher, writer and ‘autist’.

How do adults and teens with self-declared Autism Spectrum Disorder experience eye contact? A qualitative analysis of first-hand accounts.