And in response to a 2020 Twitter post by autistic blogger Pete Wharmby — “Anyone #autistic managed to make a living from a special interest?” — dozens of people responded that their passions had led to jobs as diverse as librarian, TV producer, tattoo artist, train conductor and paleontologist.

Clinicians have historically called them circumscribed interests, and they belong to the category of diagnostic criteria for autism called “restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities,” which also includes movements such as hand-flapping and an insistence on rigid routines. A distinguishing aspect of special interests is their intensity: They can be so absorbing that they are the only thing the person wants to do or talk about

In addition to occasionally launching a career, they reliably build self-confidence and help people cope with emotions. Studies also suggest they can help autistic children gain social skills and learn.

This research is also changing the scientific understanding of what special interests are. Experts used to consider them an avoidance activity, something autistic people did to manage negative emotions such as anxiety. But increasingly, studies reveal that these interests are intrinsically rewarding.

Instead of trying to erase or squelch special interests, teachers and clinicians are starting to leverage them. Educators are working them into the curriculum.

. “Sometimes you hear this phrase, ‘To meet the child where the child is,’” says neuroscientist John Gabrieli of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If this is their natural motivating capacity, then rather than try to suppress it, it might be more helpful to the child to build on it.”

And in a 2014 study of 76 adults with Asperger syndrome, people reported spending an average of 26 hours per week on their interests

Some special interests are transient, others lifelong. Bill Davies, professor of acoustics at the University of Salford in England, who is autistic, says he was always interested in sound. “As a kid, I was very into patterns of words, rhymes, bits of tunes. I liked repeating them,” he says. “When I found out you could do a whole degree in acoustics, I didn’t want to study anything else. I still don’t.”

A 2020 study of nearly 2,000 children on the spectrum showed that they had, on average, eight special interests at a time. Van Kirk estimates she has had about 100 so far. “They often interweave with one another,” she says.

Winter-Messiers and her colleagues found that talking about special interests reduced other autism traits. For example, children who spoke at first with flat affect became enthusiastic when discussing their special interest. They fidgeted less, made more eye contact, and their speech shifted from vague comments such as “Uh, I don’t think so, I just, whatever,” to complex, vocabulary-rich statements. Many of the young people were also better able to initiate conversation and organize their thoughts. “We found it across every single major area of deficit,” Winter-Messiers says. “It was incredible.”

For the autistic children, listening to a story about their special interest activated key language regions in the brain much more strongly than hearing a nature tale. Because much of the learning that takes place at school is auditory, Gabrieli says, the results suggest that working a special interest into a lesson could be a way to engage children with autism.

You can’t withhold a child’s special interest when their special interest is in their brain,” she says. And discouraging a special interest can cause distress. In a 2000 study, a boy who was fascinated with the calendar described how he felt when his interest was devalued. “I was so much knocked down, in the sense that my passion with time was just a waste of time,” he said.

We have pathologized some of these things with autism that really, if we flip them and view them as strengths, the outcomes are going to be so much better,”

Research shows that beyond such practical benefits, a special interest often has deeper value. “It reduces stress. It helps the person to calm down when they’re upset,” Smerbeck says. The top-rated item on his survey? “These interests seem to make my child genuinely happy.”