Living Thoroughly: A User’s Guide for the Person with ASD andtheir Families and Friends

Abstract

Being thorough is one of the virtues of the person with ASD. For the neurotypical, such thoroughness can be tedious, if not downright frustrating, and inferred evidence of intellectual impairment, because thoroughness takes time. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the usual mental functioning of the person with ASD and to invite those who regularly interact with such a person to consider what happens for the ASD person. Along the
way, there will be attempts to re-label metaphors (thoroughness, inconvenience, action, integration, personhood) that are less stigmatizing and demonstrate the strengths of those with ASD