Not being very aware of surroundings.

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Oh yes! My DD is 13 and I still grab the back of her shirt to move her one way or the other to avoid walking in someone's path or hitting a display of green beans at the grocery. She trips over furniture that hasn't moved in years, falls on the step (going up, not down, thank G-d), runs into walls and doors. It isn't all the time (except at the grocery) but enough that she always has a bruise or two on her arms or legs.

As she's gotten older she's gotten more aware of her surroundings on her own. She is especially careful when it comes to safety issues since I drill it into her so crossing streets aren't a problem.

But is it safe to say, is it confirmed that as you grow older, not being aware of your surroundings can become less severe or can we even overcome this specific symptom, as we grow older ?

My almost 4 year old son does not seem to notice much, even if something is blatantly outlandish or out of place. For instance, I had my eyes dilated a while ago and came home wearing those plastic sun glasses from the doctor's office. He didn't notice them AT ALL. This is just one instance - I have tried a lot of things to gain and keep his attention, but he just does not seem to notice things.

Does this interfere with learning, do you know ? I worry about him 24/7. He is still non verbal and I wonder if he will ever talk or have any interest in ANYTHING, aside from visual stimming.

But is it confirmed that not being aware of your surroundings grows less severe or we can conquer it altogether as we grow older ?

My 13 year old is very much like this. Less so on the street. He has been trained (along with all the other neighborhood children) to keep an eye out for vehicles and to immediately get to the ditch in case someone yells "Car!" So in this very quiet residential area, I consider him pretty safe to play in the street with the group of 4-8 boys who are all helping each other keep an eye out. He has had a lot of practice in looking out for cars and listening for one of the others say there is one coming. (And the drivers on this street look for kids, which is good because the neighbor's NT kid was the world's worst about not getting out of the street--several times cars had to stop and wait while one of the other boys went and moved him). For him it is about specifics. I trust him to walk on this residential street. I don't trust him to walk alongside the busy highway without me watching him as closely as I do my preschooler.

In general though, we still have to explicitly tell him to move when he is blocking someone both in the home and in public. He bangs into things, knocks things over, doesn't know the proper location of things that have had the same location for years, gets too close to people, etc.

As far as gets better with age...

He is more logical and teachable with age. He is better able to listen to and understand instructions. Broader strokes of these things have gotten better (knowing that people have personal space) and he responds to very subtle prompts regarding these now, so they are less obvious, but he still needs the prompts.

Here is a good synopsis of some different proprioception problems which can be treated with occupational therapy.

Being clumsy, having poor awareness of surroundings, touching too hard are usually related to proprioception, not inattention.

http://spdlife.org/aboutspd/senses/proprioception.html

I have done that a couple of times. It's usually when my mind is focused on what I am going to do next. An example would be when I fetch a UPS waybill from the printer by the front parts counter. It is like my mind ran ahead of me into the warehouse whereas I am just walking back there...it does not always catch the parts guy walking around the corner. Most of the time I am ok if I stick to the present and not what I will do. I am ok if I put effort into not thinking ahead when I am enroute to somewhere. I am a visual thinker and usually visualize what will happen next.

That's a good point. He is still in OT, but at 13, I have been wondering when they are going to say, "Well, he's 13 (14, 15, whenever this conversation happens) we don't really think anything else is going to change at this point." Already a lot of what they spend their time on has shifted toward daily living kinds of things. How to find numbers in phone books, how to makes lists to keep himself on track, how to break things down into steps that can be handled, much much less focus on the fine motor and coordination aspects of things this last year.

I was like that as a child. My son is much worse. Actually, I am still like that, but I am within normal enough parameters to get by.

Based on purely anecdotal evidence I would say that with me it was kind of a hyperfocus/lack of joint attention thing. it could have been proprioceptive. too for all I know. I would be hyperfocused on something and not be paying attention to things in my environment, if that makes sense. My son's detectability tends to be special interest hyperfocus driven vs. environmental observation driven, also, based on my observations. He also has poor proprioceptive sense so that could be it, too.

But is this an classic autistic problem or an Asperger's problem ? If it's both, then aren't there therapies, treatments, counseling, and if necessary, medication to help people / kids / adults that are autistics / Aspies not only overcome or make their symptoms grow less severe, but to help them look like and be people who doesn't have any mental, emotional, or physical disorders, but also allow them to live a normal life.

Most autists have, due to the way their brain is linked, another kind of processing and working with informations, their brain receives. The for NT normal way to process informations about their surrounding is for an autist sometimes simply an overload of information. (Simply imagine you had do stare all day into a television, showing music clips from the 60ies with psychedelic colours, that have additional stroboscopic lights and with speed death metal music instead the 60ies songs.) The brain seeks to protect itself from that normal overload on information by focusing on things (inside or outside your head) that dont bear as much informations, and that allow them to be blind on the other information that are overloading you. You could compare it with the blinkers of a horse.

This focusing on a comprohensible item, thougth, ... or whatever is not bad itself, its simply an protective ability of the brain, to avoid being overloaded with information all day and prevent exhaustion. You simply need to find a compromise between fading out to get yourself the "silence" you need and being able to "fade in" again from now and then to prevent accidents.

It seems, that whatever he uses to "fade away" into himself, is not available in the car. So he is forced to stay in NT-reality, and cant protect himself against the "normal" information flood. When he comes home you can compare with the "NT being forced to watch psychedelic videos with stroboscopic lights and speed death metal sound all day." After some hours you are simply done and then all talking and discussing and logic wont help you, you dont have left any ressources to withstand anymore information terror, and need to rest to gather some ressources and energy again, that allow you to withstand again random information disturbances.

My partner said once as a joke, that he wanted me to wear a T-shirt saying "No, my partner does not beat me." when he goes swimming with me, because I always have some bruises somewhere. ^^

I am not sure I understand the question? I am an Aspie (unofficial, informal diagnosis) my son is HFA(formally diagnosed). We both have this problem to different degrees. I do not know if it is more common among one category of autistics than another. or why that would matter in terms of what "fixes" are available.

I am also not sure if your latter question is about this or about everything. Autism is not fixable, there are therapies for some "symptoms," drugs for others. Some other things are best left alone and somethings have no fixes, as autism is not fixable. Each family makes their own choices about what they think they should do.

Its as if you would ask, if I simply can remove my eyeglasses or lenses that I have for my eye disability, so that I can look like a person that isnt eye-disabled, to live a normal life.

I simply AM shortsighted. And removing my glasses, may please other people that think that eyeglasses are ugly, but only because I look for OTHER persons normal then, doesnt mean that I have any beenfit from it. I´d simply run around halfblind, which isnt an advantage in any way.

As I simply have autism, and acting as IF i was normal doesnt help my symptoms, my issues, and the problems I have to face because of my autism, in anyway. As removing the eyeglasses simply leads to me running around halfblind, which is no advantage, simply learning to act normal also doesnt help. As I need glasses to be able to act as normal as possible (simply with some glasses on my nose), the same is it with this behaviour. Autists need this "fading out" of reality, because it allows them to relax from the overload of information. Forcing an autist to stop behaving like that, which is simply only possible by stopping to fade away from now and then, simply leads to ... an overload of information. And because autists are simply normal humans as everyone else, after some time they react as every human does when he is overloaded with sensory inputs for a too long time: Getting ill, panic attacks, depression, burn out, aggressivity, exhaustion ... This is a normal human reaction to sensory overload, and normal humans experience that as well, they simply have other triggers for sensory overloads. So forcing myself to stop "fading away" to act as normal is as useful as taking away my eyeglasses to look like normal. Maybe it pleaes some egoistic bastards, but I myself dont have an advantage from that.

Sure, I dont have an advantage from getting hit by a car either. So its not about black and white, but simply about finding a balance with enough "fade out" time for you to relax from sensory overload and the knowlege to "zoom back" when it comes to crossing streets and so on.

You also can find middle ways, so as example I reduce informations to basic stuff. So when it comes to traffic I react to "moving car", "going person", "child-attention" and so on, but when my partner as example asks me something about the car we just passed or whatever, I cannot answer him, because I simply only memorized the essential information: Moving car. If there were 1 or 5 person in it, if it was silver or red or which kind of brand or whatever, I normally cant say if I am not told to watch for it before.

But forcing yourself to stop with that behaviour, to act normal, is not good because this is no "symptom" of autism, but its a solution of your brain to deal with your autism. Simply as the stronger arms of a wheelchairdriver are no "symptom" (means part of the disease) of cross section palsy, but its a solution of the body to deal with the lack of leg movement. Simply find a balance for the need of attention, and your need to rest.

I hadn't thought of it in terms of the fading out to prevent sensory overload. I don't believe this the issue with my son most of the time. I think he is more of the motor problems/hyperfocused on his interests thing most of the time. After reading that description, I saw that that is what I do when shopping. I keep my head down, and only see people in terms of how to avoid collision. My entire focus is on my list and where the next item is on the shelf. People tend to think I am horribly rude, because I can walk right by someone that I know. Even know well, and not see them at all.

Haptonomy and mindfulness both helped me to be more aware.

This is like my son (10 this week). He has a really good sense of direction, but it is more than that - he just knows where he is in this world - in a literal sense (like where he is in a building and how to get out, the best streets to take to get us there faster). I think he has it all pictured in his head. I was driving him home from preschool when he was 4 and I was taking a different route and became concerned about running out of gas. My son was able to direct me to the nearest gas station, one that I never go to, but have passed a few times - it was really strange). My daughter (NT) who is 7 doesn't know we are nearing our house until we are a block away. My son knows were approaching home from miles away.

Although DS is aware of his surroundings, he is not really aware of who is in his surroundings. Like at school, he knows there are kids all around, but he rarely pays attention to who the people are - a friend will walk by and he does not notice.

My DS is very responsible as well.