Meet the 2017 Winner of Rubik's Cube World! And He Has Autism

When people think about other people with autism, they sometimes think of them not having social hobbies. Autism negatively impacts their social and communication skills and often makes social interaction difficult, after all.

But that is not the case for everyone, and in fact, having a social hobby can help someone with autism improve their social skills.

That is definitely the case for Max Parks, a teenager with autism who, at the age of 15, became the Rubik’s Cube World Champion in 2017, put on by the World Cube Association in Paris, France.

Winning that championship was not the only victory he has had with Rubik’s Cubes. The path of learning to solve these puzzles has also taught him many things about interacting with others.

Before cubing

Cubing is the verb used by people who not only play with Rubik’s Cubes but practice learning the skills necessary to solve them quickly.

Diagnosed with autism at a young age, Max did not learn the typical social skills commonly learned by toddlers and young children. Like many other children with autism he had difficulty with people looking him in the eye.

Max Parks’ father described the difficulty some people with autism have with eye contact as “someone who wants to invade their space and take from them without permission.”

To someone who is neurotypical, avoiding eye contact can be seen as disrespectful, which can further the social gap between people with autism and those without. Max did not intend any disrespect when he avoided eye contact, but it still came off that way to some people.

He even had difficulty saying hello to others.

But adopting solving Rubik’s Cubes as a hobby has helped with these skills.

Social and communication skills hidden as cubing lessons

Like most people who have autism, Max has issues with social and communication skills. Competing in these events has helped him learn how to improve both of those sets of skills.

He did not just practice solving a cube by himself. His parents hired a tutor to help teach him the algorithms and methods you can use to solve a Rubik’s Cube quickly.

These tutoring sessions had a secondary effect: they helped teach him how to interact with other people. His father described the sessions as social skill practice disguised as a cubing workout.

This is because Max had to engage with people, not just his tutor, but other cubers, to join in the championship. But the other people were not complete strangers since everyone had a common ground of wanting to solve the Rubik’s Cubes.

Having this common ground meant that interacting with the other people was less intimidating, allowing Max to practice social and communication skills in a safe environment.

Autistic folks often attach themselves to an activity, so when they get to explore that activity with other people, they get to engage with the other people on their terms. This engagement also opens them up to learning how neurotypical people behave.

The tutoring sessions lasted for hours, and while much of that time was spent focusing on the Rubik’s Cube, a good portion of it was spent engaging with the tutor.

Read on to learn more about these tutoring lessons and how they helped Max win big!

Photo source: Max Park on YouTube