Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can be difficult to understand for those who are unaffected. The disorder presents itself with many different symptoms; some affect communication, while others alter the way a person moves or causes cognitive disabilities. Autism is complex, but most children with the condition tend to focus on certain objects for a long time, rarely make eye contact, and generally seem to process the world differently than others their age.

One man decided to show the world an example of this, posting a video for Autism Awareness Day featuring two children. One of the children has autism, the other does not. The kids engaged in a simple test involving expectations and information processing that showed how a child with autism can interpret the world a bit differently. This difference in perception can lead to social and academic issues, but is not always a sign of low cognitive function. Rather, it is a difference in how the child processes the world around them.

Researchers have reported that the brains of children with autism can actually be better connected than those of their classmates without it. While regional connectivity during certain cognitive tasks did not suggest this finding, scientists found that scanning the brains of children with autism as a whole, when they weren’t focusing on a designated task, showed hyperconnectivity. Children with autism also have a small chance of developing special, savant-like skills, usually involving artistic or mathematical abilities.

Understanding the differences in an autistic child’s cognitive functioning, behavior, and processing is never straightforward, but check out the video below to see one example.