Autism and the Fascinating Power of Associative Thinking
And what happens when your mind doesn’t think in a linear way
Diego, my 26-year old son with autism and intellectual disability, loves the word “similar”.
On one of our runs the other day, he began to recite this litany of similarities between movies: “Holes is similar to Indiana Jones”, “Talladega Nights is similar to Elf”, ” “Slum Dog Millionaire is similar to Jungle Book,” “Aquaman is similar to The Little Mermaid…”
He would’ve gone on indefinitely had I not interrupted him to ask, “How’s movie X similar to movie Y?”
Holes and Indiana Jones are similar because “they both dig”. Talladega Nights and Elf are both comedies. Slum Dog Millionaire and Jungle Book are both in India. Aquaman and The Little Mermaid are both in the Atlantic.
Diego’s psychiatrist calls Diego’s recitations “flights of ideas”. I call it “associative thinking”. The following are a few more examples of how it works:
A few months ago, as I was paying for repairs on my car, Diego saw a stuffed duck toy on a counter. He took his cell phone out of his pocket and said:
“I’m gonna take a picture of the duck. I love it. I’m gonna take a picture of the duck because I eat duck from Costco. I…
