We can all agree that social communication is important for development and that differences in social communication are a core feature of autism. But what we might NOT agree on is what social communication includes, how to define it, and how to classify it. Is social communication the same as social interaction, social orientation, and/or social reciprocity? Is requesting involved? How about joint attention? Are these all necessary for successful social communication? The list goes on and on. 

Such disagreements partly stem from the way society has viewed autism through a deficit-based, medical model lens. Even with recent shifts toward strengths-based language and neurodiversity-affirming care, we still don’t have many new tools to guide our services when working with autistic children…