The Triad of Impairment

People who have an ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) have a triad of impairments. This involves impairment of social interaction, impairment of communication and impairment of imagination.

In relation to social interaction, children with AS (Asperger Syndrome) have major difficulties with recognising the social context of situations. This can complicate social interaction as the child relates with their environment as they see it, paying attention to very different aspects than neuro-typicals. Children with AS lacking social hierarchy which can often be mistaken as disobedience or disrespectfulness. Turn taking in conversations, choice of subject and non-verbal body language may also be the cause of some frustration for children with an ASD.

Impairment of communication is one of the elements of the triad of impairment. Verbal and non-verbal communication is affected and emotional empathy is connected to this. The reduced level of subtle skills in this area leads the child with an ASD to misinterpret and give out misleading signals to others. Being self contained, the desire to communicate for social friendship reasons will be lessened compared to neuro-typicals.

Impairment of imagination leads to restricted emotional empathy; being able to envisage a scenario without experiencing it previously is something that neuro-typicals take for granted, however a child with an ASD will generally have difficulty in this area. This leads to limited unstructured play and associated communication and behavioural problems; as neuro-typical children explore social relationships, problem solving scenarios and develop new vocabulary skills during imaginary play and friendship building.

Children with an ASD are often unable to filter incoming sensory information and they often find themselves over-stimulated or over sensitive to certain stimuli. The capacity to interpret the information may also be impaired and

“The timing of the beginning of sensory problems can often explain the different routes of their cognitive, language, communication, social and emotional development” (Bogdashina 2006).