Down Syndrome people better social skills than AS people?

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@qawer

We have a neighbor who has a DS child and a ASD child. Both diagnosis have their own unique challenges.

If we are talking about being in the general public, she said people judge her much less with her DS daughter. Her DD can have the mother of all melt downs, and she never gets thr stink eye or those *what the hell is wrong with that kid glares*. With her son, she feels under the gun all the time.

Compare and contrast..

Her DS child has sensory issues. We were at an ice cream store and DD dumped her cone all down the front of herself. Sticky! She has a meltdown. People came running with wet napkins, offering to help clean up and buy her another cone. Her son as done the same thing.

*crickets*

No help offered. Everyone sort of just looks. The silence is deafening.

I think ASD can be just as handicapping as DS. My friend's DD can have the mother of all meltdowns in public, and people give her and her mother much less grief over it. Her son can have the same intensity of a meltdown, and the looks and judging are horrible.

I think society goes out of it's way now to help people who look disabled. I've known kids with ADHD/RAD or ODD and they get judged all the time. They don't *look* disabled, so people expect a certain amount of good behavior from them. That's not fair.

Why are an overwhelming amount of cases of DS aborted instead of cutting their little bundle of joy some slack by parents huh? It's an obsolete idea.

Off-topic, but being childlike as an adult can be a cultural thing too, like in some parts of Asia.

I had a coworker with DS years ago. She was always happy and respectful. People tried to treat her like a baby, though. She wanted a boyfriend and had a crush. He also had DS. No one even agreed that she should ever kiss a boy. She knew what sex was I think, but everyone kept saying how it was "in her best interest" not to do this or that. Yet, she was a better worker than many who have worked there. She would talk to me about her crush (they technically were in a relationship) and I was the only one who wouldn't lecture her.

I have no idea what other people with DS go through, but I hope people remember they are human just like us.

What I find most notably is that most things you see about DS are the happy things. My experience is that people with DS are depressed often and don't find life really that fun as they make it seem in some documentaries. I have heard this also from someone who works with DS people and have experience it myself. They often know they are treated like a kid and aren't taken seriously. People just expect them to be happy and cheerful and that is why they act like that. When all the doors are closed behind them and they are at home things are not so cheerful and happy.

The story about the mother with both a kid with ASD and DS is horrible. I did not know it was that severe. Thanks for sharing that Tawaki! I have seen it happen once with a kid with ADHD and a different kid with ASD. One kid was screaming and the other as well and the kid with ASD got a lecture and the other kid was screaming like a slaughtered pig next to them. So unfair and just illogical.

I do see people who have a clearly visible disability get bullied and mistreated often so DS is something special I think. The media has given a lot of attention to them and autism and other problems hardly get any attention.