Myths/truths about maturity levels of people w aspergers

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i will take a statement made by an anonymous person who has done speeches and has a theory that generally people with aspergers are one-third their age in maturity. I really object to that in a way, and so has my mom in that we both agree that it's kind of a myth...in my opinion (i'm nineteen by the way, so this would make sense for someone who is still young enough to have plenty to overcome) i personally tend to be mature beyond my years in logically and intellectually thinking and making philosophical conclusions about the way people and beliefs are, while in other ways i can lack learning ablility and handling emotions with noticeable difficulty, i.e. letting my anger loose and making foolish decisions. this may be true of a lot of others not only with asperger's but perhaps in the autism spectrum overall. if you'd like to share your opinion as to whether your for or against anything having to do with levels of maturity and how people can differ in maturity in one way or another, please feel free to do so.

but then again, that's what forums are for so i'll take that back but you know. post away!

These things are secondary in the external "maturity". Maturity of emotions, social skills, image and ability to support relationships with another people are more important, than "bare" intellect and philosophy.

Yeah, I think the anonymous person refers to the socio-emotional aspect, making exact numbers is difficult but in general I think he is right.

I have found the opposite. I always made friends with people that were older than me, and when I was a little kid, they called me "little professor".

I had a simular situation in childhood and even now it sometimes can be easier to deal with people that older than me. But there is no contradiction: such communication relies more on the intellect and includes less emotions and "thin" social aspects. And adults have more tolerance to the "strange child" than peers (especially teenagers).

Yeah, we are (often) more mature intellectually but way less emotionally. The "little professor thing" of course refers to the former. It is quite likely to make friends with people older than you, since they are more likely to be interested in what you have to say and more prone to (unconsciously) offer you emotional protection. Fact is that one person's happiness and ability to function well in the world is not determined by intellect but by emotions.

I've never taken a maturity test. Where do I find one and what's your score?

I had always been emotionally immature. I once had friends my own age and then in 4th grade I started to have troubles with them so I went for the lower age groups and I did fine with them. We had things in common.
So I guess this myth is true about me. I had always been socially and emotionally immature.

I've always been a rule follower, with a great work ethic. Great morals. Any infraction of social etiquette totally due to poor awareness. The proverbial little professor.

Socially I have definately been very immature. Naive at times. But then, that's part of having any form of autism. T. hey're called splinter skills. You have pockets of above average skills, pockets of poorly developed skills.

The nice thing about skills, though, is that you can acquire them. Just at a different rate. Immaturity means delayed maturation, not lack of ablility

When I went to college there was both young people (around my age) and older people (50/60 maybe), and the latter group thought I was most mature out of people my age. I was really involved in left-wing politics back then.
I think in a way I am more mature than friends my age, because they are still out partying and getting drunk and I'm passed that. Even my sisters group of friends are still doing that stuff. But they still make me feel like I am a little kid, because of my unemployed/ still living with my mother situation.

It depends oon the person but you have to look at a few factors. The poster was probably remarking on the population on wrong planet while some are rather mature, others are using autism and asds as an excuse for their poor behavior. Its the same reason why where I used to live people thought of Asperger's as a whiner's disease the people they knew didn't take responibility and just kept whining about their deficits.

I will say and not saying this against you but I view controlling emotions as part of maturity due to the simple fact that when you mature personally you see where controlling your emotions is essential. I think everything in life worth anything involves work and I'm very much about self development as I challenge people's misperceptions about Asperger's (I'm really diagnosed with PDD-NOS ((all my other symptoms are Asperger's)) due to a language delay because of missing/having problems with a reflexive sound organ in my ear) all the time. I understand people's desire for a reason but it doesn't mean you stop working on yourself, and if your unhappy with anything related to autism and asd's or not you can change it.

Intellectual maturity is next to meaningless in adulthood as it really gets you nowhere. Being mature as an adult refers to emotional and social maturity. ie: how to behave yourself and how to treat others, knowing how to talk, what to say, what not to say and when to say it and when to shut up

Good examples of immaturity on WP are people that send posts saying they are going to leave the board because someone disagreed with them or said they were stupid. Or someone saying that so and so should "die" because they do not agree with them. Excessive complaining of how one is treated is another sign of immaturity as the older you get the more likely you realize you reap what you sow and people treat you how you allow them to treat you. In other words you learn how to nip things in the bud. And also not make excuses for everything.

Maturity is also becoming self sufficient and independent.

that would make me exactly 17... if only I could convince my body of that...

I'm sure that theory applies to some people, although 1 third is a bit extreme. I think I'm kind of mature. People who contact me through WP are always convinced I'm older than I really am. I'm positive I'm not a 6 year old in maturity anyway.

Judging maturity by age is immature in itself.

1/3. Wow, that's very precise.

I've always been socially young for my age, but intellectually, emotionally and morally mature for my age. There are actually developmental stages for all of these (except I haven't seen a scoring manual for emotional maturity). And I'm not sure if socially inexperienced is the same thing as socially immature. If you go by Selman's stages, it might not be. Too bad nobody tested me back when I was a kid.