The Autism and Creativity Connection

 ~ Clearly Muddled Blog ~

Recently, there have been studies on the connection between autism and creativity. It’s cool to hear that professionals out there are seeing the part of autism that parents have been seeing for a long time.  Sometimes we need to wait for it to show up, but when it does, it’s off the charts original.

Josh sees things in his environment as equal, and he doesn’t necessarily connect objects through their relationship with one another.  What that means is that if I put the pepper shaker in the bathroom soap dish, he might notice it, but not because it belongs in the kitchen.  That freedom to see things as separate are evident in other areas of his life and are also the very things that drive me up a giant wall of crazy!  When it comes to creativity though, not having boundaries or limited thinking is beautiful.

Meanwhile, I draw stick people. That’s as good as it gets, so far.  And Josh will be the first to say that even those stick people are drawn poorly. A smiley face at the end of my pen looks confused, with one eye always bigger than the other, and what should be a curved up happy grin turns out to resemble the mouth of a stroke victim.

There is an autism and creativity connection. What I think is so freaking awesome about that is the glimpse it gives me into the way Josh sorts information, or more accurately the way it is not sorted. Imagine living without the rules that dictate how something is used or where something belongs. I’m aware that I’m saying Josh lives with a lack of rules! Weird, right?! The guy that MUST have rules, doesn’t have rules when it comes to creativity. Wow.

I would draw a picture of a stick person looking astonished by this revelation, but I’m pretty sure it would look like a horse vacuuming up spaghetti noodles.  Nobody needs to see that.

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Listen to the Podcast: JHA051: Autism and Creativity | http://sonyaking.com/jha051-autism-and-creativity