What is Central Coherence?

Central coherence is NOT a term you hear every day (or, I’m guessing, ever). But it’s kind of a big deal if we’re talking about social communication.

Central coherence is a fancy way of talking about how our brains pull lots of little details into a bigger picture or meaning.

Many brains do this pretty automatically. They are wired to connect the dots and make meaning from experiences. Other brains are more naturally detail-focused. They notice a ton, but the “what does it all add up to?” piece can take more time or support, especially in social situations.

Central coherence is the thing that allows us to:

• See a forest rather than just a lot of trees

• See a car instead of just wheels, windows and doors

• See a black car, a church and people dressed in festive clothing and guess that there’s probably a wedding happening, OR

• See a black car, a church and people dressed in dark, somber clothing and guess that there’s probably a funeral happening

• Understand categories (and how seemingly different things belong together)

• Follow the arc of a story instead of experiencing it as a series of unrelated pictures in a book

• Get why someone else is having the thought or feeling that they are having

This gets a little wonky, so let me see if I can break it down.

In the “forest vs. trees” example, there is a step between seeing a bunch of trees and thinking “forest.” That step is central coherence: your brain takes lots of separate tree-images and turns them into a single idea.

In the black car, church and people examples above, just one small detail changes the whole “big picture.” That is central coherence at work too.

Now let’s take it up several levels in complexity.

To understand a conversation, we need to understand the words and be able to pay attention to what someone is saying. With me so far?

But to actually participate in the conversation, we also need to understand the gist of it. Why we are having the conversation. Why the other person is saying what they are saying. How to weave in what we want to contribute in a way that fits.

This is COMPLICATED STUFF. It is a wonder that any of us can make ourselves understood by anyone else. Seriously.

I say this a lot, but I really want to make it clear:

Differences in social communication (or in central coherence) are NOT character flaws.

It is not that a person does not care about the connections between ideas or events. It is that their brain processes information in a different way. They may not automatically pull all the details together into a “big picture” or may need more time, more context, or more explicit support to do that.

This is about brain wiring and information processing style, not about effort, morals, or goodness.

And here is something important: brains that lean more toward detail-focused processing often have strengths that big-picture brains miss.

Brains that stay with the details can:

• Spot errors in computer code

• Notice tiny differences in patterns

• Catch inconsistencies that someone focused only on the gist will completely overlook

There are parts of life where quick big-picture guesses are helpful. There are other parts of life where big-picture thinking actually gets in the way and a detail-focused brain shines.

I do not want to gloss over the real challenges that people with social communication differences can face. Social situations and systems are usually built for fast, big-picture meaning-making, and that can be tiring, confusing, or exclusionary for people whose brains work differently.

At the same time, it is not all gloom and doom.

We need many kinds of brains. We need people who notice different things and who experience the world in different ways. It makes everyone’s lives richer.

We also want to support people who are struggling with the way their brain and their environment interact. This is where early support and intervention come in.

We cannot and do not need to “fix” who someone is. What we can do is:

• Change environments so they are more supportive

• Teach concrete strategies for making sense of social situations

• Build new pathways and skills that help meaning-making feel easier

• Honor and respect each person’s way of being in the world while reducing unnecessary suffering

In other words, we can help kids (and adults) who find social communication hard to navigate their world with more ease and confidence, while still honoring the way their brain is wired and the unique gifts that come with that.

Do you have questions about your child’s development or your parenting? Scheduled a free 15-minute call with me here ⬇️