Having special interests are 1 of the most common characteristics with someone with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), and it’s an important strength and way for them to relieve stress. Special interests make someone affected by this disorder happy and can influence them positively on their lives in which it can develop friendships, determine the things that they want to study, and improve their focus on career choice.
Many of them have a highly focused level of interest in a particular topic that they like, in which some special interests start in childhood and picked up later in life such as trains, cars, cartoons, etc.
For example, Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager with Asperger’s syndrome with special interest in climate changes & other related environmental matters use it to lead global movement for climate change, Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of the Pokemon video game series with special interest in bugs & video games, use it to develop one of the most successful video game series ever, as well as myself with special interest in automobiles (especially cars) use it to develop friendships with diecast car collectors, other car enthusiasts, and car reviewers, made me pick Industrial Engineering as my major for my study in college, as well as having an internship in an automotive industry.
Special interest is a part of diagnostic criteria for someone affected by ASD, which is a part of restricted & repetitive behavior associated with someone in this spectrum. That means he/she has narrowness of focus, suffers from inflexibility & persevere on preferred objects & topics.
A person with ASD has atypically intense & restricted interests in specified types of objects/topics, some even unexpected in his/her age/developmental level, even unusual in nature, such as a 5-year-old kid with an encyclopedic knowledge of elevators. High functioning individuals with ASD had more intense & interfering interests than their neurotypical (non-autistic) counterparts, and spending time on his/her special interest invokes feelings of love, joy & contentment.
Special interest for someone affected by this spectrum has fewer demands of involvement with other people, and more related to gathering factual information, play games alone, collecting/hoarding, cartoons, attached to particular object/item & other sensory seeking activities.
The prevalence of special interests in neurotypical people peaks at preschool years and become less common/intense at school compared to someone affected by ASD, which differs by the intensity of interest, type of interest, and inflexibility around his/her interest.
The interest of neurotypical people also has other interests, able to communicate with his/her peers around other topics and understand when to talk/share on his/their interests, while the ones affected by ASD are less flexible when engaging with his/her peers around interests.
Autistic people are less interested in socializing with others, so he/she seeks other interests to compensate that, and they have strong & almost obsessive level focus on something that sparks his/her interest.
For example, I had a hard time having friends in my childhood, but I’m madly in love with cars since elementary school and know things about cars, even knowing the type of engines (ex. V8, Straight 6, etc), brand origin (ex. Skoda is a Czech brand, Peugeot is a French brand), chassis code (ex. 2nd generation Honda Fit/Jazz chassis code is GE8, last generation Infiniti G37 is V36, etc), even the name of the engines (ex. RB26DETT used in the R32-R34 Skyline GT-Rs, EA888 used in VW Golf GTI, Audi TT S & S3, etc), which most people won’t even bother to know or memorize them.
Special interests have advantages and disadvantages for someone within the autism spectrum. The advantages include facilitating the development of expertise & rich knowledge, promote learning, motivate him/her to collect information, provide opportunities for social interaction & connection around shared interests, promote his/her well being, help him/her to make sense of the social world by applying the same methods of learning about his/her special interests to learn how to interact with others, facilitate social interactions with others with similar interests, generate positive emotions and coping strategies, provide basic skills for later employment, induce a sense of pride, can motivate him/her and boost participation in school-based activities.
However, special interests can interfere with interactions with others, can distract him/her from interacting with his/her peers, can isolate him/her socially if the special interests become too intense, increased difficulties with social reciprocity & communication in later development, contribute to family stress, interfere with other aspects of daily living, and restrict the development of a wider range of interests.
When someone with ASD talks about his/her special interests, his behavior, communication, social & emotional skills are improved, according to a study done by Winter-Messiers in 2007, and they express their interests differently. For example, there are 2 ASD people with special interests in cars, one of them expresses his/her SI through playing driving games, and the other expresses it through collecting miniature cars.
They also find/their special interests highly important & meaningful, in which he/she has little interest outside his/her special interest. That leads to him/her having sophisticated reasoning & great memory of facts, which can lead to professional development & mechanism for him/her to cope with stress. Special interests also calm him/her down & bring order to a stressful & unpredictable world, and spending time around it gives him/her time to breathe, calm down, & charge his/her personal energy.
It also used to block negative thoughts & feelings & ease anxiety when daily life gets too demanding, stressful & unpleasant, and regulate their emotions. Most people with ASD need more time for him/herself than its neurotypical counterpart because it restores & replaces the energy required to interact with others, as well as motivate & reward him/her to do required tasks. People within this spectrum can be intense & focused when talking about his/her favorite things.
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