Expanding Descriptions of Autistic Rituals and Routines: A Co-Produced Update

Abstract

Descriptions of rituals and routines inform autism assessment and diagnosis and remain influential when determining what being autistic means. Currently they present autistic characteristics as problematic. Examples slowly catch-up with research that shows their personal appearances and meanings. We explored what happens when descriptions of autistic rituals and routines are co-authored by autistic people. In this qualitative participatory study in the UK, 12 autistic adults contributed via interviews, written exchanges, and data analysis/writing sessions. We identified five themes using codebook thematic analysis: (1) ways of talking about rituals and routines; (2) meanings; (3) visibility; (4) what makes a ritual or routine autistic; and (5) when rituals and routines become detrimental. Rituals were frequently hidden. They had superstitious qualities that achieved a subjective sense of things being ‘OK’. They were behaviours, repetitive thoughts, and mental checks. Whilst there were both positive and negative impacts of performing rituals and routines, it was reliability, necessity, and devotion to them that characterised them as autistic behaviours. There is an important re-narration of the ‘inflexibility’ or ‘rigidity’ of autistic repetitive behaviours when authored by autistic people, which appreciates the demands of navigating neurotypical-default environments. Autistic adults emphasised a heavily-tipped scale in the direction of valuing rituals and routines over censoring them.