It’s Not You, It’s Neurology: Why Autistic Communication Isn’t Broken - Just Different

By Sam Hillview-Close*

So apparently, autistic people can communicate just fine. Who knew?

(Well… autistic people, mostly. But now there’s a study, so everyone can calm down and believe it.)

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh have thrown a very polite academic spanner into the old stereotype machine. Their new study shows that autistic and non-autistic people are equally effective communicators. The real bombshell? The supposed “communication difficulties” often pinned on autistic people might actually be more about mismatched styles, not missing skills.

Let me put it this way - it’s not that autistic people can’t communicate. It’s that autistic and non-autistic people often speak slightly different dialects of Human.

The Game of Neurodivergent Telephone

In the study, 311 people - autistic, non-autistic, and mixed groups - played a high-stakes version of the children’s game “Telephone.” One person hears a story, passes it to the next, and so on, until the final person has to recall it out loud. Like a storytelling relay race, but with more anxiety and fewer juice boxes.

Here’s what they found - whether the group was entirely autistic, entirely non-autistic, or a mix of both, the effectiveness of communication (i.e. how much of the original story made it to the end) was basically the same.

That’s right. Autistic people were just as good at passing the message along as anyone else. No malfunction. No deficit. No urgent need to be “corrected.”

But Did They Like Each Other?

Now here’s where it gets even more human. After the task, participants rated how the interaction felt - friendly, awkward, easy, hard.

Turns out non-autistic people felt more comfortable with other non-autistic people. And autistic people? Yep, they felt more at ease with fellow autistics. That might sound like the end of a high school drama (“we just get each other!”), but it’s actually important - it points to the fact that much of what we call “social difficulty” is simply a mismatch in communication preferences.

It’s like putting a Brit, an American, and an Australian in a pub and asking them to define the word “pants.” They’re all right. They’re also going to be confused.

Not Broken, Just Different

Dr Catherine Crompton, one of the lead researchers, put it beautifully: “Despite autistic and non-autistic people communicating differently, it is just as successful.” Read that again. Then imagine if we’d been building therapy programs, social support systems, and educational plans around that truth all along.

This isn’t just academic navel-gazing. The implications are huge. For decades, autistic people have been measured against a “typical” yardstick - told to make more eye contact, soften their tone, read between the lines (even when there are none). This study adds to a growing body of research showing that autistic communication isn’t a deficit, it’s a difference.

Imagine the relief of finally realising you’re not socially broken. You’re just tuned to a different frequency. The problem only kicks in when people refuse to adjust the dial.

So What Now?

This study doesn’t mean autistic people don’t need support; of course they do, particularly in environments designed for one narrow type of brain. But it does mean that the support should stop trying to “fix” what isn’t broken. It should instead focus on bridging communication gaps, fostering mutual understanding, and creating inclusive spaces where differences aren’t just tolerated, they’re valued.

Because at the end of the day, it’s not about being “normal.” It’s about being understood. And sometimes, that starts with recognising that there’s more than one way to say: I hear you.

* Sam Hillview-Close is a former business executive, public health administrator, Board member, writer and blogger. Sam is also a proud neurodivergent individual.