Do all autistics have special abilities?

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I have really sensitive hearing by many measures, even if I struggle sometimes with hearing human speech clearly.

I have no special abilities.My mental health treatment has been blighted by those in the psychiatric profession who thought that if i was good at A then I should also be good at B. Failure at B was seen as a 'character flaw'. Asking for more help? Proof that I was a 'very dependent narcissist'.

Thankfully my (s) daughter explained things before I moved here. There's very little that can be done to reverse the damage of over 40 years of poor and hostile treatment. However I'm treated with kindness and respect not like I'm 'awkward,demanding and troublesome'.

It's accepted that I have strengths and weaknesses.My (s) daughter who has progressed from being a care worker to the local branch manager of a home care agency has helped many people with a large variety of a disabilities. That's a major plus point in making sure I'm doing as well as possible.

I think you are probably underestimating yourselves!

I think it depends how you define a special ability. What about:

- interest and knowledge in unusual subjects e.g. drain covers, road signs, beetle species? I think many autistic people have huge knowledge of certain areas that are their special interests, and are very observant with respect to their interests.

- ability to sense whether an environment is comfortable or uncomfortable for humans and especially animals? I think Temple Grandin has used her sensory abilities to make environments comfortable for animals.

- empathy towards others that are different and ability to judge others not from their externals but internals. I don't understand the idea that autistic people lack empathy. What I see on this forum is huge empathy and solidarity.

- very often a very high level of written expression. I see on wrongplanet forum that many of you express yourselves so clearly and eloquently in written form. I am sure the level of written expression here is so much better than the average on the internet.

- ability and tendency to finish things that were started. I think many people on the spectrum don't like to switch tasks, but instead finish what was begun. I think this is a strength.

- I think many autistic people have a strong sense of social justice, and fairness, and are not afraid to speak out when they feel something is wrong e.g. Greta Thunberg with respect to climate change, Bill Gates spending his millions on malaria/cholera research. I think the world needs people who speak out, and are not just 'sheep' who fit in.

What do you think?
I would guess that most of us do not have all of these strengths, but that most of us have at least one of them?

They certainly don't. I'm autistic and don't, my son is on the very severe end of the spectrum and doesn't.

Supposedly we're all supposed to be exceptionally good at math and anything involving logical as in Rain Man. But as a kid a lot of people said I was really smart and talented because I could read, write and draw cartoons really well. Reading, writing and especially art are kind of the opposite of logic, aren't they? They're all about creativity. With math you just can't be creative at all.

Meanwhile, I was really bad at math, and I'm pretty sure I have dyscalculia, even though I'm pretty also sure I don't have the disorders that I read people with dyscalculia normally have, such as ADHD, Turner Syndrome, Spina Bifida, or drain bammage.

I think you might have just been unlucky to have a teacher like that. There is no correlation between being a good architect/designer and the ability to draw. What's "good" depends on the teacher, school, customs, country, etc. ... I made some terrible-looking sketches for a project once and my teachers said "Finally you're starting to draw properly!"

But you like writing fiction, right? Almost every great architect will tell you that ability to communicate (in writing too) is essential to the profession, so you probably have a solid foundation to build upon if you decide to pursue a career in your field.

O.K. I will go against the majority here.

Yes, Aspies do have a type of superpower.

We think differently than others. When NTs come up with a solution, they make their decisions based on around a 55% probability of being correct. (So many times their decisions are wrong, DEAD WRONG.) But some Aspies (not all) work on a higher rating. We make decisions based on around a 99% rating. So when we make a decision we have a high probability of being correct in our analysis.

In other words most NTs have + and -.
Some Aspies have ++ and --.
And some Aspies are off the wall with +++++ and -----.

I will say one thing.

When a NT calls their friend on dial up phone - and gets the "this is a nonexistant number" message -every NT I have ever meet will jump to the conclusion that their friend has (a)fallen upon hard times, (b) failed to pay the phone bill, and (c) had their phone disconnected.

When I dial someone and I get that message I will entertain the notion that...there are ten digits in an American phone number, and that...MAYBE...I dialed one of those digits wrong.

And then I immediately redial, and ...so far I have always gotten the right number.

Everyone except me seems to assume that they are infallible. And will conclude that their friend has been carted off to the booby hatch before they consider the possibility that they themselves would make a mundane typing error.

Noone dials numbers anymore, they have numbers stored on their phone as a Contact. Do you have an old fashioned punch button landline?