Context Blindness In People On The Autism Spectrum

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Edna mentioned this thing I hadn't heard of and I'm sure I've got it.

Caetextia is a term and concept first coined by psychologists Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell to describe a chronic disorder that manifests as a context blindness in people on the autism spectrum. It was specifically used to designate the most dominant manifestation of autistic behaviour in higher-functioning individuals.

Caetextia presents itself as the inability to adjust behaviour appropriately to deal with interacting variables. People with caetextia may fail to consider the context surrounding the behaviour. This can result in people with caetextia experiencing elevated levels of frustration, anger, and anxiety when faced with a situation that requires giving attention to more than one interacting variable or factor at a time. This can be attributed to the inability to unconsciously draw upon the contextual information presented in a given situation as well as evaluate the significance of change with regards to the surrounding environment.

Caetextia can also exist in a temporary form prompted by stress, anxiety, or depression.

However I think many NT people in the modern world have got caetextia too! We are always expected to be perfect 24/7 and no leeway is given for temporary stress or moods or problems which make someone behave irrationally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caetextia

Recently (A few years ago) it was discovered that most of the blind and partially sighted people whose blindness is caused somewhere in the brain (Not the eyes themselves) are extremely likely to be autistic as some of their unusual behaviour which was assumed to be associated with being blind has been discovered to be masking autism so most never get to be assessed. (I am not sure how best to write the above. I do not mean to offend).
The reason for the blindness link to autism is simple. Autism is a condition where certain brain connections do not make it which causes the various autistic trates (And during brain development, the brain then will look to provide new growth elsewhere which is why some on the spectrum either end up hypersensitive or get their genius status from depending how the individuals brain has developed). Now these brain connections that don't make it can also cause sight loss, and the sad thing is that an untold number of blind people could have autism as a cause to their blindness and they are never assessed due to the blindness being the main medical focus for the health athorities. (In other words, the health profesionals are not even looking beyond the blindness as they assume other quirky or unusual traits are associated with this).

Gosh that is interesting, Mountain Goat.

The human brain is SOOOO complicated, it's not surprising so many people are different to each other.

fascinating! i had not heard of this new description of processing struggles.

Yes it is the member of WP called Edna something who mentioned it. I must find out her name.

But it sounds like me. Not understanding context is my middle name. haha. Luckily my daughter is the same and we have endless conversations about what things mean

I think autistic people have different contexts. We prioritise different things, and NTs can't understand us.

We only really understand what we experience but those who have not experienced things will naturally try to relate by using the closest experience (Example is to try to imagine what blindness feels like would be to cover ones eyes though it does not give the full experience... But there again blind since birth one may never know what sight is... But this is just an example, and why it is so complicated to describe to others and for them to describe to you. With other autism traits it can be even more complicated because having a brain that thinks in a different way or can be fluidic is something that takes a very long time to think deeply about by those who don't experience it, and also the natural reaction is to try to mould the autistic person to think or act like them because it is too hard from them to understand. (Issues can arise when both sides want to share but have no real way to meet in the middle. Is like two people speaking different languages but wanting to relate to each other).

I've never heard that word before but the definition reminds me of "Adaptive Functioning" deficits, combined with a poor ability to make inferences and predictions through nonverbal communication. It also sounds like difficulty recognising other people's POV, which is known as Mind Blindness.

Does that sound right?

Those three things are all measured in ASD testing but I've not heard it with one label before.

Yes it's an important idea. I just wish they'd stuck to the term "context-blindness" instead of inventing a new word for everybody to have to learn.

I think context awareness is a thing we can often get better at with practice.

I guess it's right? I only heard the word yesterday so I haven't researched it.

Oh you know they like a pretentious word for everything

Yes I try hard to recognise context now. And teach my daughter.

Would it encompass being literal? And difficulty multitasking? I'm "good" at those!

And, regarding the brain, I relatively recently stumbled onto this:
Hummingbirds? "A quantitative controlled MRI study of the brain in 28 persons with Asperger syndrome" 

I can confirm that I miss context and I really had to train my son to consider context, both in receiving and delivering information.

Dunno if I experience this or not.

I had to quote the entire post, sorry.

I forgot you were an NT.
That's OK.
You are forgiven.

I had profound "Caetextia" and didn't realise it until a workmate educated me about "context" when I was in my early 20s.
I took to heart what he said and became a grand master in understanding context, as some may have noticed.

I never considered Caetextia to be autism-related until I read your post now.
Never even came across the word before.
Here, have a gold star.

True dat.
I am the proof of dat.

But sometimes, we autistics are just plain wrong and don't consider the correct context or simply change it in "midstream".
It happens ALL the time, here and presumably on other autistic websites.
Thanking you muchly for bringing this up.
You qualify as being an honourary aspie if I have any say about it.