Mosaicofminds wrote:
"Aspies like to talk about things, and sometimes they like to listen to other people who know a lot. It's not at all surprising to me that people with our sort of conversational style would be able to identify each other and enjoy each others' company."
FYI, in addition to aspies, a certain sort of intelligent person and some people with ADD are like this, too. Although I'm not diagnosed with ASD, this is one of the traits I relate to the most, and I seek out this sort of conversational style in others. Actually, this might be one of the main factors that determines whether or not I "click" with someone and whether they move from acquaintance to friend.
I notice AS traits immediately in people, but because I've met so many NTs and ADD-ers with AS traits, I tend not to assume the person actually has AS until I notice that the person has every trait in the DSM. However, I think I'm pretty accurate at pegging, quickly, the fact that a person is non-neurotypical in general. This was actually a problem once when I worked at a summer camp and encountered an indisputably non-NT child, but was not allowed to do so much as talk to the (bewildered) teachers about what I'd observed. I still regret that I didn't talk to them anyway.
I think that most people probably function well in more than one circle. Some NTs may unconsciously or even consciously shut out Aspies because they don't quite know what to make of them and some Aspies may do the same thing. There may be Aspiedar just like there is gaydar. I think there is also geekdar. Some Aspies may connect with some NTs and visa versa on the geek level. Not all Aspies are Geeks and not all Geeks are Aspies. There are probably other -dars.
24 May 2010, 10:24 pm
