By Emma Davis
All cats are on the autism spectrum. That’s quite a statement to make, and
it’s exactly the premise of Kathy Hoopman’s children’s book of the same title. As it turns out, there’s a lot of truth to this exaggeration, and cats can be spectacular companions for someone on the spectrum.
Autism is a highly stigmatized neurodevelopmental disorder that affects every type of person. Recognizing the ways in which cats are helpful can help people who are autistic find peace and live happier lives and also help people who are not autistic understand the disorder better.
THE PREVALENCE OF AUTISM
While autism was first named in the 1940s, it didn’t spring out of thin air. Myths from northwestern Europe about changelings that trade places with children are often believed to have been invented by parents who were bewildered by their children’s autistic traits. Thanks to a lot of research and diagnoses in the 1980s and ’90s, estimates of how many people are on the spectrum have increased dramatically in recent decades.
Currently, one in 54 people are believed to be on the autism spectrum, and that only includes
those people with a clinical diagnosis. The perception that autism only affects young white boys can delay diagnosis well into adulthood for many people. Many people may not believe they know someone who is autistic, but they definitely do whether or not they themselves are aware of it.
CATS AS LOVABLE SUPPORT
At whatever degree a person experiences it, autism can feel like being an alien among humans. For many autistic individuals, animals are often easier to relate to as made clear by perhaps the most famous autistic animal advocate, Temple Grandin, who devotes a whole chapter in “Animals Make Us Human” to the behavior of cats.
“Basically, when it comes to autistic kids and animals,” Grandin has said, “some of them are instant best buddies—they understand a cat, they understand a dog—they’re best buddies with it, they just know how to communicate with it.”
In a separate interview, with cat behaviorist Anita Kelsey, Grandin described why autistic people are often compared to cats: “Dogs read humans well. There’s a lot of research on that, but cats are completely different. And I think their differences make them difficult for people to read.
“The hardest thing for people is that cats don’t have expressive faces. They don’t signal with their faces very much, and they have lots more bodily signals than either dogs or wolves. So when people look into their cats’ faces, they’re looking at the wrong place.”
While some cats are very sociable, cats are generally comfortable as loners. For autistic people, they’re a nice, holdable size, and the pressure from cuddling stimulates the animal to purr when it curls up on its companion’s chest or lap. This simple interaction can be fantastically therapeutic.
Aster, an autistic college student from Texas, talks about his own experience with his partner’s cat: “Petting his fur was a nice distraction, and his moods were really easy to read, which is nice because autism means not everyone is, you know? Even if no one else has my back, I know I can count on Charlie.”
While not all autistic people can be guaranteed to bond with a pet, a study done by Dr. Gretchen Carlisle of the University of Missouri, published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing, researched the benefits of having a cat in the house, specifically for autistic children.
This study, called Feline Friends, examined 11 families and observed how cats can be preferable to dogs in many cases. This is due to the fact that dogs require a lot of attention and can be overstimulating to many autistic people.
In a recent interview with TulsaPets Magazine, Carlisle says she was surprised by how quickly the children bonded with their pets.
“The Feline Friends study parents rated their bond and their child with autism’s bond as very strong just two to three days after adoption of their cat,” she says. “Parents did describe the relationship of their child and cat as growing over time, but their rating was strong from the beginning.”
Autism specialist Dr. Jami Hogan from Enid concurs. “Cats could offer effective support for those with autism because of the temperament of most cats,” says Hogan, a special-education principal with Epic Charter Schools. “Cats offer reliable relationships with humans and are generally predictable, quiet, nonjudgmental and affectionate.”
Even though dogs typically get the most attention as service animals, cats are fantastic for traditional service animal tasks, too, such as helping to soothe during any type of emotional meltdown. The Shelter Pet Project, a national advocacy group that counts Oklahoma native Olivia Munn among its spokespeople, interviewed a young autistic girl and her mother about their personal experiences with their cat, Lucky.
The girl, Anyha, says, “When I hold her, it makes me feel calmer; it’s like a sensory thing.” Her mom echoes this: “I’ve seen how adults react to my daughter when she has meltdowns— like she’s from a different planet—and this little animal just sat next to my child and was like, ‘You know, it’s gonna be cool!’”
Knowing more about autism helps friendship, communities and families with more harmonious relationships. Misconceptions about autism often lead to continued abuse; for the diagnosed, a beloved and trusted pet helps manage the day-to-day pressure of navigating society.
The stigmas surrounding autism are hard to break free from, but it’s valuable to face those social pressures with a trusted companion. Having a patient cat, pets who are on the autistic spectrum themselves, as Hoopman’s book suggests, can be just the relief needed for this large segment of society. Meow, meow!
