Communicating Visually
It is important to understand how your child with Asperger's Syndrome thinks and processes information. According to a number of self-advocates with Asperger's, many individuals with Asperger's are visual thinkers. This means, quite literally, they think in constant streams of images and movies — not Hollywood movies, but life-event “memory” movies. This way of thinking is very different from most others. You may think in pictures too, perhaps more so if someone specifically directs you to do so by saying, “Picture this,” or “Imagine this.” It may be an unnatural way of thinking for you without putting forth great effort, but it is a flowing, seamless, and natural manner of thought for many people with Asperger's or even autism.
Fact
As a fun little role-reversal exercise, set aside time for a game with your child. Request that he read the rules to his favorite video or computer game (or some other element related to his passions). Ask that he read up to four paragraphs, plowing right through without pause, while you listen silently. Once he is finished, you draw exactly what he has described and see how close you get in accuracy. It may be eye-opening for you, and should cause you to appreciate his need for process time the next time you give him a list of verbal instructions!
If you were to think exclusively in imagery, and you were in conversation with someone, then you'd likely require some process time to mentally “call up” pictures and movies based upon your life experiences in order to follow what the person is saying. If you are discussing something relatively familiar or even appealing, then the flow of pictures may be effortless. But what if your communication partner is relating new information for which you have no prior knowledge or experience? You would have to be especially attentive and try to listen very carefully to make sure you understood clearly. Concurrently, you would be attempting to call up or form mental images to equate what you think the person is telling you (which is perfectly obvious to them).
