Persons with autistic disorders experience difficulties in the performance of simple, everyday activities, as demonstrated here by a selection of their self-reports. This article discusses neurological and perceptual causes of these problems. The "network of recallable actions" model shows that the performance of everyday actions, while extremely simple for most people, is problematic upon closer examination. Three hypotheses are presented regarding the reasons, according to action psychology, for autistic persons' problems with everyday tasks. Examination of these hypotheses may lead to the development of intervention strategies based on principles of action psychology.

Keywords: autism, action theory, neurology, perception, psychology of action.