Is autism a personality trait?

This was the question presented on Quora

Can some autistic Spectrum disorder equally be described as psychological traits/preferences which don’t match what other people prefer. For example, an extreme ISTP or an extreme inclination to the Conscientiousness trait?

My answer

I don’t think so.

The psychiatrist who diagnosed my son told me that we are supposed to be born with an invisible antenna that allows us to perceive and interpret social signals, e.g. facial expressions (especially movement of the small muscles around the eyes), tones of voice, and gestures, and give those signals meaning. This mechanism is an instinct, not learned. The NT child begins perceiving these non-verbal signals from birth, and already starts to have a fairly complex idea of the way people work.

The autistic child is lacking this antenna, and therefore is not getting the non-verbal signals, which are 90% of speech. The psychiatrist told us that, at 4 years old, our son still had an infantile view of people, i.e. that people existed only to serve him, e.g. “mom brings me milk.” He was not able to conceptualize that other people had feelings or that his actions could affect these feelings.

By contrast the NT child would start noticing Mom smiling back when he smiles within a few months of birth, ditto with Mom looking concerned when he cries.

NT children draw their security from referencing their care giver’s face. If the caregiver’s face is calm, they feel calm. If the caregiver’s face is upset, they get upset — and so forth.

The autistic child cannot do this. Therefore the autistic child draws security and comfort from rigid routines and systems. This becomes a preference, because of the disability. It’s not a preference the way an NT would develop a preference.

Also, autistic people are not true natural introverts. They may seem like introverts because they don’t make eye contact, and tend to give up on social interactions, because people react poorly to them. However, they are not true introverts.

My son was quite extroverted as a child. This made him get in trouble much more than an introverted autistic child would, because his behavior was more noticeably socially inappropriate.

My son has become something of a homebody, now, because persistent negative reactions to him have given him social anxiety, but he is not a natural introvert

See also

http://annalisse-mayer.blogspot.com/2019/08/on-quora-i-keep-getting-asked-about.html