There are a lot of autism characteristics that have specific terminology or even are a separate disorder. On this page you will find definitions of such terms. Feel free to request any definitions that you have heard of or read about on this site using the form on the home page.
Stimming
To overcome sensory input overload, stress and anxiety, a lot of autistic people engage in stimming or self stimulating behaviour. Stims are repetitive and can be visual, kinaesthetic, tactile, auditive, oral or olfactive. Stimming is usually soothing to the autistic person, and they will use it to balance out other sensory or emotional input or to energise under-activity of certain senses. Most neurotypical people associate autism with hand flapping and rocking back and forth (also the more obvious stims) but there are infinitely more possibilities. You can read a lot of examples at The Stimming Checklist and you can even add your own stims.
Infodumping
Another verb which describes an autistic behaviour is infodumping. Most autistic people have one or several special interests of which they know right about everything. They can talk for hours about that subject, monopolising the situation. It's way to compensate their inability to take part in a normal conversation. Infodumping is not a bad thing. If an autistic person encounters an neurotypical person with the same interest they might form a friendship based on that interest.
Alexithymia
A lot of the time autistic people are seen as robots, persons without emotions. This is absolutely not true. Autistic people even tend to feel too many emotions and most of them are very empathic because they pick up vibes from the people around them. The problem is that they have trouble identifying emotions. This is called alexithymia. Some people will have trouble expressing if they are happy, excited or exhilarated, others even might have trouble telling if they are sad or happy or they will feel as if they have too many emotions at the same time. Asking an autistic person how they are feeling might be a very dangerous question...
Prosopagnosia
Although only present in a reduced number of autistic people, prosopagnosia is often mentioned in its descriptions. It is the inability to recognise faces. This inability exist in different levels. Some people have trouble remembering people who they only saw briefly, or just remember people with distinct features. Others might recognise people just from the from or the back or their head. The people who are most affected by prosopagnosia might not even recognise their own family or themselves. This might be one of the reasons some autistic people don't like looking at themselves in the mirror (although it doesn't immediately mean they don't recognise themselves).
Echolalia
Related to verbal stimming, echolalia is the repeating of another person's words. This might be a form speech imitation that helps the autistic child to develop speech.
Stimming
To overcome sensory input overload, stress and anxiety, a lot of autistic people engage in stimming or self stimulating behaviour. Stims are repetitive and can be visual, kinaesthetic, tactile, auditive, oral or olfactive. Stimming is usually soothing to the autistic person, and they will use it to balance out other sensory or emotional input or to energise under-activity of certain senses. Most neurotypical people associate autism with hand flapping and rocking back and forth (also the more obvious stims) but there are infinitely more possibilities. You can read a lot of examples at The Stimming Checklist and you can even add your own stims.
Infodumping
Another verb which describes an autistic behaviour is infodumping. Most autistic people have one or several special interests of which they know right about everything. They can talk for hours about that subject, monopolising the situation. It's way to compensate their inability to take part in a normal conversation. Infodumping is not a bad thing. If an autistic person encounters an neurotypical person with the same interest they might form a friendship based on that interest.
Alexithymia
A lot of the time autistic people are seen as robots, persons without emotions. This is absolutely not true. Autistic people even tend to feel too many emotions and most of them are very empathic because they pick up vibes from the people around them. The problem is that they have trouble identifying emotions. This is called alexithymia. Some people will have trouble expressing if they are happy, excited or exhilarated, others even might have trouble telling if they are sad or happy or they will feel as if they have too many emotions at the same time. Asking an autistic person how they are feeling might be a very dangerous question...
Prosopagnosia
Although only present in a reduced number of autistic people, prosopagnosia is often mentioned in its descriptions. It is the inability to recognise faces. This inability exist in different levels. Some people have trouble remembering people who they only saw briefly, or just remember people with distinct features. Others might recognise people just from the from or the back or their head. The people who are most affected by prosopagnosia might not even recognise their own family or themselves. This might be one of the reasons some autistic people don't like looking at themselves in the mirror (although it doesn't immediately mean they don't recognise themselves).
Echolalia
Related to verbal stimming, echolalia is the repeating of another person's words. This might be a form speech imitation that helps the autistic child to develop speech.