Autism researchers (who are frequently not in the slightest autistic) seem quite obsessed with the idea that a central component of #autism is a 'deficit' in what is known as the 'theory of mind' - a posh term for understanding other people have different thoughts to you. /1

The idea is that an #autistic person doesn't understand that other people have different thoughts and feelings to your own. It's an incredibly strong position to take as, if it were true, #autistic people would be utterly incapable of any interaction. /2

I think a lot of #autism research has been constructed in such a way that has ignored some key traits of autism, and simultaneously assumed a lack of independent agency for #autistic individuals. /3

So a researcher may ask an #autistic person what someone might be feeling. The autistic person (if I know autism at all) will be extremely concerned in second guessing what the researcher wants. Maybe even panic. /3

An #autistic person giving you a response isn't the end of it. More work would have to go into identifying why that response was given, as #autistic people are extremely complicated and assailed by social disharmony. This impacts responses we give. /4

To many #autistic people, this interaction with a researcher will be the latest in a long line of deeply stressful social interactions, and the response given will reflect that. Yet none of this is taken into account. /5

The #autistic person's response is taken at face value, and the easiest conclusions attached to it. "Ah," they say, "This autistic person thinks the other person is sad because they are sad. This means they don't understand theory of mind." /6

When actually, the #autistic person may have a million decent reasons for their response. Classic over-thinkers, you're not going to get a knee-jerk gut reaction from an #autistic person. We don't tend to work that way. /7

Trouble is, this research into theory of mind doesn't seem to understand how #Autistic people work at all. And that was sadly the norm for a long time. It's slowly changing now but the damage was done. /8

For more info just Google theory of mind, Sally Anne test, false beliefs in others. It's a goldmine of fascinating, misguided stuff.

Here's the Sally Anne test...

Idea is that a person with ToM deficit would assume Sally would know the ball was in the box, because they know it.