Autistic Listening

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Davies, W. J. (2022). Autistic Listening. In Aural Diversity (pp. 90-100). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003183624-10

Publication date: 27 Jul 2022 Added to AutiHub: 23 Sep 2026 Type: Book chapter Article language: English

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Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)

Abstract

Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition diagnosed by differences in social interaction and communication. Most autistic people also experience atypical sensory processing (e.g., a heightened sensitivity to sound or texture). Nearly all autism research uses a deficit model, where differences between autistic and non-autistic people are characterised as impairments of the autistic people. Even the superior pitch recognition of autistic people is framed as a deficit. However, anecdotal accounts from autistic people suggest there may be much more to be discovered about autistic perceptual organisation if a deficit model is abandoned. Lay language reports from individuals suggest strengths in aural awareness, in soundscape decomposition, and in sensitivity to small changes at different scales. This chapter reviews anecdotal and structured evidence of autistic listening, from the perspective of an autistic psychoacoustics researcher.

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