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Terminology Autism/Asperger's

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anbuend
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01 Oct 2008, 3:30 pm

For a more elaborate description of the same thing, try this article, which is good to point people at when they make those distinctions as well.

A quote from it:

Quote:
The orange column on the right of the diagram summarizes what most people probably think of as "autism" -- that is, the externally-visible things that generally get people suspected of being, or identified as being, autistic in the first place.

This is where we see such things as diagnostic checklists, observations about a person's developmental milestones (and when/if they meet certain expected ones), outward actions, language use, body language, tone of voice, social/educational/occupational success (or lack thereof) in the absence of modifying factors, etc.

What is interesting, and perhaps a bit unnerving, is that this category is at once the one people tend to put the most stock in (in terms of identifying autistics, in terms of determining what educational supports we might need, etc.) and the one most subject to cultural biases, personal biases, misinformation, and the ever-changing social lens through which different kinds of people are generally viewed.


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Danielismyname
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01 Oct 2008, 11:49 pm

It's impossible to determine if another person who has the same outward traits as I do is manifesting them due to the same internal feelings or not. It's a massive assumption to say that another person with the same disorder that I have feels the same as I do, but perhaps of a differing severity.

Subjective explanations of internal feelings are very vague to me, and I've yet to see someone explain how I experience the world like I do; I find other people with Autism just as confusing as "normal" people when they explain their internal world.

In fact, how my mother explains the overload she experiences due to her neurological disorder that is completely unrelated to Autism is closer to how I feel inside when we're in the same situation compared to any I've read from someone with Autism/Asperger's (but this is only one facet we share).



Kelsi
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02 Oct 2008, 12:09 am

NicholasGray, I don't mind at all. But as Danielismyname points out, I probably shouldn't have used the term 'the same' - rather, I should have said 'similar'. Of course there are differences between us. Each of us is unique. But we are more similar to each other, than we are to NTs.

Danielismyname, I didn't actually mean that we have 'the same internal feelings' - I meant that HOW we experience emotions is different from how NTs experience emotions, and that all people on the Autism Spectrum experience emotions in a way that is similar to each other (or at least is more similar to each other than to NTs)

I believe that to autistic people, emotional experience is like a tap with only 3 positions - on full-blast, tightly turned off, or a very slight drip :D .



NicholasGray
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02 Oct 2008, 9:12 am

Thanks for making this such a productive thread. I enjoy when discussion leads to a clearer picture instead of just a lot of bickering and name calling. DanielIsMyName, that clarification is well put and much needed. Kelsi, I will make the appropriate change to your quote then if I have occasion to use it, Thanks.

btw, on a completely unrelated topic: DanielIsMyName, I just saw one of the other discussion threads where you were being touted as an aspie sex symbol. Congrats. Just thought you would like to know.