Both people with ADHD and people with ASD report having special interests or hyperfixations, but it seems that the term "hyperfixation" is more commonly used in reference to ADHD and "special interest" is more often used in reference to ASD. Is there really a difference or is it just semantics? Could ADHD hyperfixations also be an autistic trait since comorbidity is high between the two but co-occurance is often missed?

Ithaca College

previously called "restricted" or "circumscribed" interests, but now believed to be more related to information processing and cognitive strengths than repetitive behaviors. Can develop as early as 1-4 years old and occur mainly in children with ASD but neurotypical children can also develop intense interests (though there are differences)

Special Interests (SI)

Special Interets ASD:

-up to 90% people with ASD develop SI

-develop at a young age and persist into adulthood, people usually accumulate many special interests as they grow up

-little known about SI in adults, but speculated that people with ASD would be more drawn to systemizable interests such as sciences, mechanics, etc

Special/Intense Interests NT:

-around 30% of NT children develop intense or special interests between ages of 1-4 years old

-intense interests typically do not persist into adulthood

-interests more to do with people, imagined play, and social environments on a broad level

-speculated that adults would be more drawn to mentalizing interests such as sports, people, or games

Special Interests in ASD vs Intense Interets in Neurotypical (NT) Individuals

It was observed that girls with ASD interacted differently with their interests than boys with ASD or girls without ASD, with a notable amount fixating on fiction, dolls, and animals. These fixations usually were atypically strong, for example wanting to contact authors and write with no intention of making it a career or using it for school, animal fixations extending to wanting to be that animal or adopt mannerisms, and inserting one-self into the dolls' world instead of playing with others or just having the dolls play with each other.

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