This post continues a critical analysis of a list of memes titled What Not to Say to an Autistic Person . The first “not to” – “You don’t look autistic”  – was examined in the previous post . Here, we turn to two further entries on that list: “ We’re all on the spectrum ”  and “ Everyone is a bit autisti c .” Both statements are routinely dismissed as ignorant and/or offensive. Yet their persistence suggests that something more than simple misunderstanding is at work. These p

‘Autistic people don’t do metaphors’ Because of their literal interpretation, autistic children do experience difficulties in understanding figurative language. However, figurative language is a wide concept which means the use of words or phrases that deviate from their literal interpretation to achieve a more complex or powerful effect. It includes, for example: - s imile (a figure of speech that a simile compares  two similar things using ‘like’ or ‘as’): many autistic ch