Are adult Aspies bad at playing with children?

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I think this depends on what part of the spectrum each of us is on. I've noticed that kids that are shy with others in the area are very comfortable talking to me, annoyingly so at times. "Yadda, yadda, yadda". It's nice to have that effect on them, but kids drain me.

I treat all kids as people, don't (can't?) talk down to them. So those under 7 or 8 I'm no good with, but once they can reason and speak like people I do fine, they always like me. I have no real imagination, so can't play games like cops & robbers with them, but I love to play board/card games with them. I always try to win, never let a kid win. That way, when they finally do beat me, they're so proud of themselves. So it's my honest approach to them that wins friends.

I agree with that, ed. Ever notice that parents that speak to their children with baby talk, the kids speak like that themselves. Yet you get (usually) older parents who speak wisely, their kids have an amazing awareness & grasp on the world at such young ages.

I tend 2 interact wid adults better cos 4 me dey come across a lot more mature where as wid kids i would find it difficult 2 interact cos dey come across me as immature but dats my opinion.

Well, the original post describes me completely!

I am petrified of small children precisely because I can't understand them at all. Once they get old enough to have a meaningful conversation with (but not old enough to be prejudiced), I am fine with them.

It's the really little kids that freak me out, the ones that make unintelligible noises that I am somehow supposed to understand.

Anyway, at our office Xmas party last month, my boss's partner & his two small kids showed up and I had no idea at all about how to interact with them. Everyone else was, while I was just sitting there staring blankly wondering how on earth they knew what to do, and wishing that the kids would go away before everyone else noticed my difficulties.

It is at times like this that I know I must be an aspie.

I am fine with very tiny babies (and animals) though. The problem is with that "in-between" stage where the kid is aware enough to expect something from me but I am clueless about what it is.....

I assume the original poster is correct in that the child is giving off non-verbal communication which most people can understand but which I am not picking up.

Interesting topic.

It depends on the kid. Just like adults, I can't relate to most of them, but there are some I like.

Babies are weird, though. They make me uncomfortable. I don't like it when they drool, stare, and make loud noises.

I've actually felt quite comfortable with my young nephew and niece.Maybe it's because
deep down I'm still rather child-like myself.

I LOVE kids, they are far easier to interact with since the NT world hasn't sucked curiosity and open-mindedness out of them, yet.

Kids are WAY easier for me to interact with than people my age, and I love them and they love me back lol. I volunteer a lot with kids, and they think I'm so cool because I'm older than them but still young. My mom often jokes that I'm finally popular - in the second grade! I can't say I'm great with 'playing' as in doing games where I have to play a role. But a lot of kids like how I treat them like older people and not idiots, calmly helping them with things and telling them about my car or what college is like (censored of course!) - I chat with them and help them out, without belittling them.

I'm pretty good with kids. I have nieces and nephews, and I get along great with them. I can easily get along with other kids as well. I've noticed that whenever I play with kids, I always happen to get on their level (so to speak). My behavior whenever I'm around kids becomes somewhat childlike (and it's something that happens unintentionally). So maybe this is the reason why I get along well with kids.

Depends. I have no clue what to do with babies, but as a male I'm not really expected to, which is a relief. With older kids, I'm OK - I don't really know what to do, but treating them as equals kind of compensates. The difficulty is if the parents are around, then it becomes too socially confusing. It's been ages since I've talked to a kid for any length of time, literally years I think, so I don't know now.

I voted, "Yes, I feel awkward around children".
Despite being female, I cannot stand kids, period-am not interested in interacting with them, so I avoid & ignore them to extent possible (another reason I hide at home rather than go out in public-there are children out there, yikes). Didn't like kids when I was one, either-they seemed just as (potentially) mean & dangerous as adults.

Like animals and adult humans-not sure how "good" I am with either. Still have frequent awkwardness, mostly with people (the cat doesn't provide detailed feedback)-but at least I'm motivated to practice relating to and affiliating with them (my cat & some people). The cat isn't a high-maintenence companion & I enjoy her company, so that works pretty well. My human relationships are more challenging and also more rewarding.

I think this might sum up my attracction to living/working with animals. I have a theory that most of the people at my work actually work there because they relate better to animals than people.


As for relating to kids, I'm really, really bad at it, but I'm bad at relating to most adults too. I think maybe my problem when it comes to kids is that I feel like as the "adult" as such I'm supposed to have this emotional maturity kind of thing and know how to "be the grownup" in a situation and I don't. I could never babysit or be a teacher or something because I couldn't make myself tell the kids what to do-- I'd feel too awkward and weird, so I'd let them do whatever they wanted even though I knew it was wrong. I'd make a horrible authority figure.

I'm great with babies, but not so much with older kids. I pretty much talk to them the same way I would an adult, I guess. I'm definitely not good at acting silly or playing games. I just don't get exuberant about things, and I'm not comfortable with using silly high-pitched voices or playing pretend or anything like that. Older children probably find me boring.

Yeah, I don't usually do any of those silly things either. With real little babies I might do a little 'cooing. But I've found that older kids tend to like being talked to like adults - as long as you seem interested in them.

It depends. I'm not sure I get along with them, but evidently they get along with me...

The only one I didn't get along with was (paradoxically) a LFA child, that, until I reached this place, was what I though was 'typical' Autistic. He was mute, rocked (likely stimmed), all the 'classic' conditions, I had no idea how to deal with him.

Now the missus, who's had course after course on children, run daycare, worked in schools; kids are her life. We have a granddaughter that comes around a lot. She seems to have taken to me some, although she has a bad habit of turning off my PC (she's 16 months, toddling and babbling stage... I get to hear that 'I let children walk all over me', and 'they all wrap you around their finger'...like I'm helpless around them. Wonder how that counts...