**NEW QUESTION PG. 12** Autism: Yes, you may ask my opinion!

[ursusarctosana]

Quote:
LOL. When I was younger (late teens) I played Connect Four with my mother. I beat her twenty five or twenty six times in a row. Now that I'm older I'm not so good at it anymore.

Here's a link to an article about people with autism being suspected of having 'super vision':

http://sfari.org/news/autism-often-accompanied-by-super-vision-studies-find

Interesting you brought this up. There are some games on Facebook that are easy for me. Both are pattern games that involve finding words. I score higher than any of my peers on two of the games, but the game where I have to create words is difficult for me. Many people would wonder why I can do so well at one and not another. I also notice that my friend with autism is able to beat me or score in the same range, above most other people at these two pattern games.

I think this is what aids my ability to take photographs and causes me to be interested in Macro subjects. I have a strong desire to photograph insects and have worked with the Macro feature on my lens to take close-ups of my chicks.

 

[ursusarctosana]

On the topic of 'super vision' having to do with response times in eye movement and detection, this idea corresponds with some of Temple Grandin's theories about animals and people with autism from her "Animals in Translation" book. It makes sense to me because a lot of the things animals are bothered by also bother or startle me. I've read somewhere that perhaps people with autism are connected strongly to the primitive part of the brain and the fight or flight channels. This makes sense to me and explains why I can often tell what is frightening my animals. I always have to tell other people that their body posture or their movement is scaring the animals, that they need to back up or approach from a different angle. Maybe there's a direct response in the fight or flight area of the brain in a person with autism so a person with autism is more aware of these sudden movements (individually) and less able to process the environment overall as a neurotypical person would, meaning a neurotypical person would be able to sensorily digest the fact that he/she is in a room full of moving people and, therefore, the neurotypical brain would not even process the stimulus to the fight or flight channels.

I don't know if that makes sense. That's just what I think.

There is also an extreme difference between processing movement and processing the body language cues humans use during communication. They say something like 93% of communication is non-verbal--all the subtle facial expressions, etc. This is the part of communication that makes autism a nonverbal communication disorder because all of the subtle nuances that are effortlessly processed by the neurotypical brain are lost when communicating with someone who has a nonverbal communication disorder. People may ask, "How could you not tell I was upset?"

Well, if the person didn't a) get my attention and b) say, "I am angry about ______!" then, I'm sorry, but I may seem insensitive and unaware of the person's feelings.

This also leads to thinking people are mad at me when they're not. They may be sad about something in their personal life and I will misread the cues and decide it is something I have done or not done. It may not seem like it, but this causes significant issues when it comes to the workplace or being a part of any kind of team, having to work with other people. They have to be extremely patient and put up with the fact that I will ask over and over again if they are mad, that I will doubt their answers, because I am relying strictly on intellectual processes to determine what is going on. I often draw conclusions that are far more complex than what is really happening and I never feel completely satisfied unless I can find a conclusive, evidence-based reason why someone is doing, behaving, or saying certain things.

I can tell jokes, but I don't get jokes. I can be sarcastic, but don't get other people's sarcasm. This leads to a lot of people thinking I "get it" when I really do not. They also think that somehow I can stop doing the things I do that bother them. This can cause disputes, especially in the workplace, if a person with autism is entitled to accommodation from neurotypical co-workers. It can get really ugly and resentful. This, in turn, creates an extremely confusing, hostile work environment that many people with autism cannot understand or deal with.

To an outsider the person may appear neurotic or as if they are expecting all this special treatment, especially if they appear so-called "average" on the outside. People have so many expectations and they do not seem to do well when it comes to understanding all that complicated wiring on the "inside" of an organism, all the stuff they cannot see.

 

[Momma_Cluck]

Reciprocation, eh? It seems I have to play by neurotypical rules or else! I find that I can't chat with people or make friends because everyone is talking about People Magazine and none of that makes any sense to me. I don't care about what celebrities are doing and I don't understand the fascination with celebrity culture just like people who do do not want to listen to me talk about raising chickens....

I know what you mean!
My DD comes home from school SO confused, all the girls want to talk about is the latest boy bands, Gossip and shopping... SHE want to talk about the newest Breed of Chicken she found, or the range and habits of Arctic wolves, or The WONDERFUL print she found by her( for now) favorite Artist, and the Artists TOTAL history.....

My Son, tho 'ready" for college mentally/scholastically is emotionally still about at age 13-14... and NOT ready to leave home... but is warming up to the idea of the Dorms, especially knowing he won't go until AFTER community college (for prep classes).
HIS forte (aside from reading) is ANYTHING to do with Computer technology, Animation, Comic books and Video Games... the "stereotypical Geek"... as he puts it... and can go on and on for hours on the subjects... ask him a question, be ready for a OVERLY detailed answer....

We have ALL been "awkward teens" in some way.... but being "in the spectrum" is awkward teen x 100000!!!!

 

[ursusarctosana]

Quote:
I agree. It is difficult for other adults to comprehend what is meant when I tell them that I have the emotional maturity of an eleven year old. They look at me and use words like "professional" and I've even been called "classy". Now I can chuckle at it, because I am always so up-tight I just sit there and my posture changes around other people. I have even worked extremely hard to find clothes that work for me, though it is hit or miss on that one. These details are easy to miss. I may be able to stand by the deathbed of a loved one and make sure all their needs are met while everyone else falls apart emotionally, but if someone I am extremely close to does not keep a promise (say they smoke a cigarette when they promised me they wouldn't) I may have a complete meltdown and act out in ways no one would imagine I'm capable of. It's like I revert back to childhood. As long as everything goes according to plan and there are no surprises that take place to interfere with my need for sameness, I am fine. I think it is these kinds of detailed behaviors that could cause a person to be misdiagnosed.

But it is the detailed answers that are highly prized in the world, is it not? Take, for example, textbooks...someone has to write them. Technical manuals written to specification. Many people do not have the analytical brains to do this.

Being a teenager can be complete hell for a person with autism. I agree. I had unusual circumstances, bad circumstances, and was forced to become an adult when I was fourteen. I remember being nineteen and going to live with my grandparents and wishing I could stay there forever and ever. I have always been afraid of being on my own. It was a relief to find out that it is a legitimate fear, that I didn't have to force myself to attain a level of self-sufficiency that I could not handle. I have been extremely fortunate as there have been a select few people who have looked after me since I turned nineteen. How I came upon these saints is probably a mixture of discriminatory techniques I've used to protect myself over the years and the fact that I'm aloof.

 

[seismic wonder2]

I remember when I was little I had to go to the "Reading Room".
Because they thought I had a learning problem.
Now I know I had mild signs of autism.
I still don't communicate my feelings well like other people- especially the lovey dovey boo yah,
I see direct eye contact as a threatning gesture,
I have perfect pitch,
can't do simple math like add subtract, multiply or divide, but complex formulas like physics and calculus make perfect sense to me,
I have several hundred electronic schematic diagrams stuck in my head and can draw them without error,
I have more than 15,000 sets of 10 diget numbers rattling around in my brain,
I still remember 126,326.9 odometer miles my dad told me to remember when I was 7 from the 1973 Buick,
I feel better when I can rock when standing(makes my wife seasick), I collect "thing" like rocks just because I like a particular one.

 

[AngieChick]

Quote:
After years of working in speech therapy trying to teach him "sportsmanship" we finally pulled DS out of PE. He just can't do competitive sports, and that's okay. Honestly, he's done pretty well in school for many years now but for the past few weeks we have been struggling. We are fortunate to have teachers who are totally on board with us (they have been witnesses to these meltdowns and care about him). I suspect that the increased organizational and social demands of being middle school aged is proving to be overwhelming to him. So, we are going to let him not do outside classwork (except for math) and see if that eases up on him. I know that to some with neurotypical experiences their first reaction is "well, his is going to have to get used to it for High School, and easing up will just teach him to take the easy way". And for a neurotypical child that is probably correct. But for him, he thinks so black and white and will try to get good grades (as he is now) because "that's the rules" that those worries just don't hold true. We tried it the other way, and he's pulling away from school because of the anxiety. So, our new goal is to make it an environment that he can deal with. I have seen too many children pushed and pushed who end up not attending school because they just can't handle the increased anxiety. We are trying to be flexible in our thinking and come at it from his pov and act on it in a way that will benefit him in the long term and not necessarily the way that "common sense" dictates. Fortunately, socially he doesn't really stand out at all at this point. We have a very high ASD rate in this town. So he has friends and does well.

Also, he is puppeteer extraordinaire. You can see some vids starring his puppets on our blog (here) . He is genius

 

[gapeachy]

what do you think about the controversal link of autism to vaccinations?

 

[Wifezilla]

I don't think there is a link. I think there are a lot of people out there hoping it was the vaccinations so deep pockets could pay for their children's ongoing care needs.

Well, if the person didn't a) get my attention and b) say, "I am angry about ______!" then, I'm sorry, but I may seem insensitive and unaware of the person's feelings.

This is why abi and I get along so well. I am very direct and blunt. I don't expect people to read my mind. If I am ticked off at you, you will know it and know exactly why!

 

[Crunchie]

Quote:
This is why abi and I get along so well. I am very direct and blunt. I don't expect people to read my mind. If I am ticked off at you, you will know it and know exactly why!

I think that there were a lot of parents out there, possibly devastated by a diagnosis that they didn't understand and were scared to face (because they didn't understand), looking for an answer to the question "WHY?"

This conversation is fascinating to me. I have never been diagnosed as being on the spectrum (and for other reasons don't think that I am), but I do share many traits with those who have Asperger's (thinking in pictures and finding patterns in everything, for example, are a few of those traits). So very interesting...

 

[AngieChick]

Quote:
This is why abi and I get along so well. I am very direct and blunt. I don't expect people to read my mind. If I am ticked off at you, you will know it and know exactly why!

I think that there were a lot of parents out there, possibly devastated by a diagnosis that they didn't understand and were scared to face (because they didn't understand), looking for an answer to the question "WHY?"
.

I agree and would like to add that I think that vaccinations are scary to a parent to give their child, and the idea that it caused autism verified those fears. I know people who did not have their children vaccinated due to it. Also, it is difficult for some people to separate out real science from pseudoscience. Sometimes they are presented with part of the picture (there was one smaller study done) and not the rest (that there have been larger studies done that refute it) at the sources they are looking at for information. I think a lot of people tend to do this.

I am more of the "prove it" type, and a touch cynical. If I hear a theory I tend to research deeper to see if there were other mitigating factors influencing it, etc.