Rationale: Interests are extremely common among autistic people. 75 to 95 percent have them. An interest may involve collecting items such as postcards or dolls, listening to or playing music in a repetitive way, or focusing intensely on a narrow topic, such as insects fighting. Special-interest topics may be commonplace — things such as trains, gardening or animals — but people on the spectrum sometimes gravitate toward more quirky fascinations such as toilet brushes, tsunamis or office supplies.

Rationale: Change can be expected or unexpected, big or small, voluntary or involuntary, and everything in between. Just because change happens does not mean you have to enjoy it, seek it out, or thrive when it does. Change does require a response. Autistics may dislike change because it disrupts the known and introduces the unknown.

Rationale: Routines create structure, calm, and consistency. Routines can be micro, such as how you put on your socks, organize your books, or prepare food, and routines can be macro, such as how you schedule your weekend, how you travel to new places, or the route you drive to work. When routines are disrupted, delayed, or changed, coping can be difficult to nearly impossible, even if you initiated the change.

Rationale: Repetitive behaviors, more commonly referred to as stimming, can involve a part of the body, the whole body, or the body plus an object. Stims may also be vocal, such as repeating speech, humming to speech, or making specific noises. Stims can be used to calm when stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed. They are also used for enjoyment and entertainment.