Childlike in Nature?

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I find that compared to others my age ( 28 ) that I am very childlike in nature, not childish as in not helping around the house, not working, not studying or not doing whatever it is I need to do (although on occasion I am) but childlike meaning enjoys things that maybe someone younger should be enjoying such as shojo manga, all things pink and sparkly including my Nintendo DS, Hello Kitty or even commercials on television about new toys will hold my interest longer than most commericials. The only interest I have that isn't very childlike is my special interest languages. Is this normal for Asperger's? or am I weirder than I thought?

Last edited by EarthAngel19 on 21 Mar 2009, 10:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

We have a developmental disability that renders us younger than our chronological age. Attwood has estimated we are 1/3-2/3 of our chronological age, based on our level of severity with AS. So, yes, we are definitely slower to grow up.

My nurse practitioner explained to me that is why all I wanted to do was collect stuffed animals (16 white tigers) and play pc games all day long. The youngest I could be (according to the formula) is 13, and some of my behaviors are quite adolescent. My NP said that's normal, because parts of us are slower than others to catch up.

I still mature, but more slowly than the average person. My NP noted progress in my maturity level over time.

Besides the fact that i prefer different colors , yes we are childish in nature. In another post i mentioned a book by Christopher Gillberg where he talks about this.

Well my experience is that we tend to be too innocent for our age. We also enjoy things that other would consider childish. Personally i realized that my quest to find the "loyal friend" was quite a foolish thing to do, especially for me and my odd behavior.

Don't get me started..

I am 33, and i tend to even out around half my age or younger. It can be both a blessing and a curse.

I am younger than the early-20 something girls who hang around.

I am slightly older than some of the very young teens...unless they are street-wise.

Little kids get confused and think I am a kid too.

A 4 year old I was playing with guessed my age at 6...

I disagree.

I call it “Creative Bean Counting.” Like the way my husband exaggerates the value everything he does, and denies the value of everything I do. Or like the GNP, a system that can only see value in dead trees and sick babies.

Aggressive people want you to believe that only their games count, only their goals and rules count, only their methods of keeping score count.

You can do the same thing everyone else does. You can name your own game and count the beans YOUR way, which I'm sure would be way, way more honest than their way.



No, we don’t. We are just different.

I am not a person with an unfortunate genetic mutation: I am a woman. Deal with it. Being left-handed, having a different skin color, being gay, having a different first language, these are not defects. They are civil rights issues, and are not, in and of themselves medical issues. (One can have a real medical issue on top if it, a “co-morbid,” but that’s a separate part of the puzzle.) Having a difference can easily become a medical issue because society is so screwed up that they make it a problem.

Tony Attwood has his own limitations and bias. Sure, I read most of his “The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome,” and I couldn't get through a page without saying, “Huh? What kind of convoluted, twisted-inside-out nonsense is that?” I got your Gordian Knot right here, pal: The premise is flawed.

Ptolemy was the astronomer who, starting with a geocentric model, developed that convoluted mathematical system that accurately predicted the movement of planets and stars without letting go of the basic premise that the Earth was at the center.

As far as Asperger's is concerned, Tony Attwood is a new Ptolemy. In his own, NT-biased way, he describes an outward appearance fairly well, but does not seem to have talked to a real-live Aspie at all. What we need is a new Copernicus.

The fact that you can still enjoy something that is associated with younger people is not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. But while you're putting down some of your own traits, don't forget to count the good stuff.

The fact that you want to tell the truth is a very good thing, even though it is condemned by a corrupt culture. In some ways, we are way ahead. It’s just that they refuse to count those beans, and try to crush them before we even know that we have them.

Forget the jerks who want to believe they are important.
Count your own beans for a change.

Tahitii,

That was very well written. I differ with you about whether AS is a developmental disability. I definitely believe that it is.

However, I also celebrate it as a wonderful neurological difference.

As I've written here before, I'm disabled due to my condition. It has compromised my IQ by 60 points. Of course, based on your thesis, I doubt you believe in IQ tests either.

However, it is ok to disagree. I'm with you that we have a neurological difference that has advantages and benefits.

big kid.
do not really care about who writes what about it.

All i know is i live my own way and my own life and it is delightfully immature by the usual standards.

i am such a kid i do not even understand 9-to-5. I could mope about a failure to fit in.

Victim about it? heck no. i am enjoying it all the way to the grave. I shall be laid out on the funeral parlour table as a post-octogenarian hag with tattoos, wrinkles, cotton clothes, an ipod and an intravenous drip of embalming fluid containing rainbow coloured oil paint.

it's all about fun.
life is hard and i spend most of my energy trying to make it enjoyable.

You are fine, the false idea that X is childish and Y isn't is a bit of a farce, it's socially constructed. Truth be told, most "adult" things are very "childish", it's just a way for people to slur you to make themselves feel better about themselves.

Now that you mention it, I think I probably should add IQ tests to the list of things we shouldn’t take too seriously. I’ve seen the way you write. 60 is a lot of points. It sounds like they’re having trouble counting those points. And it sounds like you have some idea of what the results of a fair test would be.

Back in the stone age, I took a little intro course in college about psych testing. Special ed teachers are not expected to give the tests, but are expected to know what they mean. I came away with a lot of mixed feelings about the whole concept.
Even then, they said that the tests are admittedly biased, but that they are biased in the same ways that the world is biased and therefore the tests accurately predict how well an individual will do in this biased world. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that one.

Just wondering – if you could magically wish away any co-morbids, any artificial barriers created by culture, and any stress-related problems caused by the intolerance of others, would you still consider yourself disabled? (I know – if wishes were horses…)

That works for me.

^^ I believe I am often considered rather childish for my current age compared with other humans. For instance, I believe I may speak for a very long time with my niece, (who is happily ten years old) about our similar interests. However, I do not believe I wish to see that one's interests should need to be set to different ages. I do not understand why it may matter what age one is when they possess a particular interest as long as they are happy and not harming individuals.

Totally.

Though what's so great about giving up toys, plushies, and video games in exchange for playing bridge every second Tuesday and going to the opera once a month and competing in the rat race 9 to 5 climbing the corporate ladder in hopes of making enough cash to throw it all away on attaining the american dream of a spouse, 2.5 kids, 2 cars, a house with a lawn and a swimming pool out back...I'll never know.

Sure, the average person with AS is prone to inertia, and doesn't care about what is considered socially acceptable means of entertainment. This can lead people to believe that people with AS are immature and childish.

However, it's a dangerous precedent to assume that all people with AS are eternal children. It could lead to a greater incidence of parents trying to claim power of attorney over their adult children, and greater rates of institutionalization of young adults (because it's automatically assumed that they can't take care of themselves). Even if it doesn't come to that, it could still lead to the person with AS being treated like a child, which leads to learned helplessness. And then the whole thing becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

i am a great fan of learned helplessness. Number one fan.
the less i have to do in this world aside from my special interests the better.

I was never interested in toys. But I often arranged my sister's dolls in war formations to get larger armies. She started to cry.

I am very childlike in nature. I still watch children's cartoons and have a whole bunch of toys by my bed.

There's a difference between childlike and childish. I'm childlike, but I'm not childish.