Why do auties think visually but aspies verbally?

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I have AS but I do think very visually. I have lots of inner monologues, but when someone describes any type of situation to me, I immediately get a mental image in my head.
That's why I asked my mother not to talk about her intercourse with her new husband, but she won't listen.

I think that there is a difference between visually oriented people,and nonvisual people. How to test for that -im not sure. Maybe its how you prefer to get your driving directions.


There are visual nt, and non visual nts. And there are visual aspies, and non visual aspies.

I have strong verbal skills, according to aptitude tests. But im mainly am a visual thinker.

If you need to give me driving directions- I prefer a crudely handdrawn map of how the roads relate to each other to a recipe of directions for "turning left here and turning right here..."

In fact- if you ask me "which continent has more countries- europe, or south america?" I can visualize both regions in my head on maps - and just 'read' the mental maps and tic the countries off. I would say that ability shows 'visual orientation'. another person might have the same ability- but its the human body- or a car engine they are visualizing rather than maps.

But non visual people might still be competent doctors, or car mechanics.

Full blown low functioning autisitcs often cant speak at all. So they would be nonverbal in thinking-presumably. But many full blown autistics here seemed to be very verbally skilled. So this aspies are always verbal, and autistics always visual, and nts are always ( verbål, or is it visual?- whichever the dumb belief is) are all just stereotypes.

Haven't read many responses so this may've been said already. My theory is that people with higher verbal than performance IQs tend to be more easily recognized as of noral/above-normal intelligence than people with higher performance than verbal IQs. That plus the fact that the HFA criteria require verbal communication difficulties a leas tin ealry childhood (not necessarily being unable to speak b ut stereotypies etc.) and AS criteria require no impairment in language in early childhood. So it may not be that auties are actually more ofen visual thinkers and Aspies cerbal thinkers but that those who are visual thinkers tend to be more easily diagnosed with autism and those who are verbal thinkers with AS. I personally probably have a much higher verbal than performance IQ (can't be measured cause I'm blind), but tend to think about equally verbally and visually.

I am confused by the difference in AS and HFA (as I believe is common) but this has given me another way to think about the difference, if there is any.

My son is aged 9 and would now be described as an Aspie no doubt.

When his verbal and performance scores were tested by the paediatrician his verbal scores were low. He was only 3/4 then. The doctor told me not to worry as his performance scores were fine and that's what would show up a learning disability. I don't remember the difference in the scores, the verbal stuff was delayed though and the performance stuff was not.

But now... a chatty aspie-type. Who loves designing golf courses, as well as talking about them. I would still bet he is a visual thinker but has learnt to translate well into language.

For myself, I have seen a counsellor and I find I spend a lot of the "conversation" visualising answers to his questions but I haven't got the right words to explain what I'm thinking - it is very frustrating. I end up giving up. When I was learning to drive my instructor would often stop and draw little diagrams of the manouvres that I couldn't understand when he explained them verbally and it helped me no end.

*DISCLAIMER -I don't know if I am on the spectrum or not. I fit with the criteria for females that I have read. Obsessively.

In the end I suspect that most people think in both ways but with a preference for one over the other. I am better at writing but I like to see a map of larger pieces of writing or I can't keep track of it.

Non-verbal does not equal mute. The reasons non-verbal autistics don't speak is not because they can't physically speak, or think, even if they are intellectually challenged.

Search on WP for the amazing video of the low-functioning autistic girl in at least one thread, she was considered non-verbal, and is highly articulate and communicates via the computer.

Being non-verbal does not mean that you can't think or that you can't think verbally, no matter what your mouth is doing!

Actually, I think in pictures but I'm diagnosed with Asperger's.

It's hard for me to think verbally.
When I must say something, I usually have to "translate" the picture I have in my mind into words, and that's hard.

I'm a very visual thinker and can draw very well because of this. I can't explain directions or tell the location of an object verbally; nor can I describe how something looks save for primitive shape and color. Yet I can still draw a map or navigate very well. I have Asperger's and not high-functioning autism (allthough in the US, after the DSM-V is enforced, it would be the latter).



This is a truth with some modifications. It's not like you either have difficulties with language or you don't have them. The people with AS who do not have NVLD on the side will typically struggle somewhat with language as well. In fact, I think it's silly that the only official distinction between AS and HFA is whether someone spoke before the age of 3 or not; a lot of people who are diagnosed with HFA, would probably benefit more from an Asperger's diagnosis.

I have Asperger's and I tend to think in pictures. I describe myself as more of a visual thinker.

I'm not quite sure I understand the OP's question; as far as what types of thoughts are seen in words or pictures... If I read something, I see it in pictures as I read it; such as if I'm reading how a machine works. It might say "The actuator lever is moved by the carriage arm, which in turn trips a limit switch closed, and starts a screw jack motor to raise the carriage", etc. I then "see" the machine operating in my mind.

When I write something technical, it's the reverse of the above. When I write something non-technical, I review the situation in my mind, and imagine a conversation or whatever it is that I want to get across in writing, and I write it as I see it.

Charles

By the way, whether you're VIQ or PIQ is higher doesn't necessarily indicate whether you think in words versus pictures. The two are probably correlated, but I know I'm a visual thinker with higher VIQ.

I'm pretty certain that means you're a visual thinker. It's always hard to imagine how to think in a different way from how your own mind works.

Maybe try reading up on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? It's wrong, of course, but it must have made sense to the people who came up with them, so they must have been very verbal thinkers.