Autism and Visuospatial Challenges Deserve More Understanding

Recently, I received a question from an anonymous blog reader wondering how she’ll ever be able to accept herself. She has autism and, like me, struggles with visuospatial tasks – things like wrapping presents, assembling furniture, and following movies. She has a normal IQ but a very uneven cognitive profile and impaired visuospatial ability. The only difference between her and me is that my tests didn’t show weaknesses in math, and I didn’t receive any extra support at school, but otherwise, she could have been describing me! So, the question really resonated with me.

You’re Not Alone

Anonymous, you should know you’re absolutely not alone! Many autism researchers, including Tony Attwood, have written about uneven cognitive profiles, which are very common in autism. Attwood, for example, describes how some autistic individuals have strong verbal skills but weak visuospatial abilities, while others are exactly the opposite – highly visually gifted but with poorer verbal skills. However, personal stories are often missing from the research. Researchers rarely describe how it feels to have an uneven cognitive profile or to live with it; they mostly focus on objective difficulties and strengths. This can make you feel isolated, but you aren’t!

The Importance of Self-Understanding

To accept yourself, it’s often important to understand why you function the way you do. So, I’m going to talk about visuospatial difficulties in this post. Some people argue that knowledge doesn’t help because the difficulties will remain regardless, but I disagree. Adults with autism often feel relieved to receive a diagnosis and an explanation for why they’ve always experienced social challenges. If self-understanding is important for many autistic individuals, why wouldn’t it be equally important for people with visuospatial difficulties?

CVI Isn’t an Official Diagnosis

Cerebral visual impairment, or CVI, is unfortunately not an official diagnosis, but a term used to describe individuals whose brains have difficulty processing visual information, leading to visual interpretation difficulties. Their eyes work perfectly fine, but the brain struggles to interpret what it sees. Some call it visual agnosia. I’ve never written about CVI on the blog because people can get very fixated on diagnoses, and CVI lacks a diagnostic code. Note that agnosia can occur in different senses – for example, auditory agnosia involves difficulty interpreting and understanding auditory input – but this post specifically concerns CVI/visual agnosia.

How CVI Manifests

CVI is due to brain differences and can lead to various difficulties, such as orienting oneself, using multiple senses simultaneously, recognizing objects, animals, and faces, finding things in cluttered environments, drawing, following movies, understanding how to assemble furniture, following visual instructions (i.e., understanding what to do when someone shows you), and remembering and describing what you’ve seen. I’ve only listed a few examples here. In reality, CVI can present with many more difficulties, and you don’t need to experience everything I mentioned to have CVI.

Under-Prioritized in Sweden

I feel like I fit the description of CVI, but visuospatial difficulties are so under-prioritized in Sweden that only children are assessed for the condition. My doctor suggested that it’s common for an autistic brain to process sensory input differently, which can manifest as sensory sensitivity, but also as difficulties interpreting those inputs. This, in turn, can lead to difficulties similar to those experienced by people with agnosia.

Considered Part of My Autism

My potential CVI was therefore considered to be part of my autism – despite the fact that neither visuospatial difficulties nor uneven cognitive profiles are mentioned in the diagnostic criteria for autism. Because an uneven cognitive profile is considered common in autism, my assessing clinician didn’t pay much attention to these difficulties, simply noting that my tests revealed significant deficiencies in my visuospatial skills. Because so little is talked about regarding CVI, many autistic people can blame themselves when their visual skills don’t meet societal expectations.

It’s Not Your Fault

Now that you have a little more knowledge about CVI, you can continue to research the topic and remind yourself that it’s not your fault you have an uneven cognitive profile. Also, consider that others might find it easier to accept cognitive difficulties if you have a simultaneous visible disability, like Down syndrome. But many can struggle to accept that a verbal adult with an average IQ can’t manage to make coffee with a coffee maker at work, even after their manager has patiently demonstrated how it works (I’m referring to an incident I experienced at a previous workplace).

Never Okay

If, like me, you’ve received scolding or been questioned about your visuospatial challenges, remind yourself that it’s the other people who are ignorant and treating you unfairly! It’s never okay to scold or question a person with cognitive difficulties who is unable to perform as expected due to those difficulties. And this is true regardless of whether the difficulties are due to age, dementia, or an invisible disability. To accept yourself as you are, it’s important to avoid the wrong people and surround yourself with those who accept you.

The Best Decision I Ever Made

Often, it’s important to recognize and accept your limitations. When I watch movies – the last movie I probably saw was Titanic more than 20 years ago – my brain gets incredibly tired because it has to focus on everything. I often daydream during movies because I can’t bear to strain my brain. But I chose to focus on Titanic and remember how unbelievably exhausted I was afterward! That’s why I stopped watching movies over 20 years ago, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! So, be kind to yourself and never force yourself to participate in challenging activities unnecessarily.

Focus on Your Strengths

Finally, I think you should focus on your strengths, because that’s where your potential lies! If you feel drained after forcing yourself to wrap presents – stop wrapping presents in the future! Ask someone else to do it, or use gift bags. There are solutions to most problems!

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Book Me

Please reach out to me via the contact form if you’d like to book me for a lecture on autism or an interview about my life with autism. You can find more information about me and my lectures here.

Don’t be afraid to reach out for help if life feels hopeless! Here’s a list of helplines and phone support services in the US you can contact if you need assistance. For people outside the US this page lists helplines for people in need of immediate mental help support during a mental health crisis.