Social interaction
Social interaction describes how we understand and communicate with other people. It includes verbal communication (spoken words, written words, signs, or symbols) and non-verbal communication (tone of voice, eye contact, facial expression, gesture, posture and other types of body language).
Some people find interacting socially comes naturally, while other people can feel like everyone else knows the rules but them.
There are lots of reasons why social interaction can be difficult, and it is important that you find ways to communicate and interact with others that fit with who you are and what works for you.
Below is some information that some people may find helpful to understand or make sense of social interaction.
The National Autistic Society (NAS) have lots of useful information about communication and social interaction. It importantly outlines the shift in understanding from seeing autistic interaction styles as wrong, to them simply being different. They also have links to an online community support page, where you can share your experiences or questions with like-minded people. You can find out more at:
The book titled ‘The Asperkid's (Secret) Book of Social Rules', 10th Anniversary Edition: The Handbook of (Not-So-Obvious) Neurotypical Social Guidelines for Autistic Teens’, written by Jennifer Cook, also provides lots of useful information about making and keeping friends, dating, social media, talking about neurodiversity and much more.