My name is Colman Josiah Steiner. I am the youngest of five children. I was born on October 15, 1999, in Napa, California. I am autistic and live in a Level 4i home with five other men who are non-verbal. The reason I live in a Level 4i residence (the highest level of care outside a hospital) is because I also have a medical condition known as extreme anxiety disorder. I also have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) which is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity. I am occasionally impulsive. Impulsivity is the tendency to act without thinking. For example, I might blurt something out, buy something on a whim, or run across the street without looking. Impulsivity isn’t the same thing as rudeness or lack of self-discipline. It’s a behavior pattern that starts in the brain. The structure in my group home has allowed me to become more highly functioning.

I have finished high school and am now enrolled in Santa Rosa Junior College, where I take 1 or 2 classes each semester. As people get to know me, they realize that I am working to learn to communicate better with friends. I think in terms of concrete thoughts, so it is sometimes hard for me to understand other people's jokes or subtleties in communication.

I am very grateful to have wonderful friends who are willing to let me text or email them from time to time to see how they are doing and catch them up on what I am doing. This process also helps me learn how to communicate better and have longer-term friendships. I always appreciate your patients when communicating or interacting with me. My request that you please "don't skip steps when communicating with my autistic self" highlights my need for clear, direct, and explicit communication that accommodates literal interpretation and requires extra processing time from time to time. This strategy reduces my anxiety and misunderstanding by providing a predictable and structured communication style. My logic may also be different from yours. My autistic and your neurotypical communication styles could differ, and bridging that gap might require our collaborative effort.

Please don't get offended if I don't look you directly in the eye when communicating. Autistic individuals often avoid direct eye contact because it can be an intense, overwhelming, and stressful experience, not due to a lack of interest or social skills. Brain studies show atypical activity in social processing areas during eye contact, suggesting it can trigger a stress response rather than a neutral one. For me, the overwhelming sensory input from processing faces and emotions in the eyes is sometimes too demanding, making it more likely that I could look away to reduce my cognitive load.

Autism often involves difficulty with touch due to tactile hypersensitivity, where light or unexpected contact can feel overwhelming, painful, or upsetting. This can lead to an aversion to social touch, such as hugs or shaking hands, and affect daily activities like wearing certain clothes or being in crowds.

I have many hobbies, including collecting gemstones, which I also enjoy shaping and polishing. I also enjoy knitting, which I learned in grammar school while attending a public Waldorf charter school. I like to run and have been taking karate from the same instructor for the past nine years. I am working to earn my purple belt; the next level is brown, and then I will earn my black belt. I do extreme splits for exercise. I like to play pickleball as well. I also enjoy attending the Santa Rosa, California Institute of Religion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Thursday evenings.

I enjoy composing and playing my own music. I also like drawing and writing short stories.

I am linking below a few videos of myself singing songs I composed.

In closing, let me again thank all of you who have allowed me to consider you my friends.

AUTISM INFORMATION AND SUPPORT

Auticm Speaks

Five Ways to Support LDS Parents of Children with Autism