Visual vs. Non-Visual Autistics

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- Writer
- Philoshopher/"intelectual"/this kind of thing
- College professor (of the type that studentes hate but write good essays)





I disagree: I think that a person with low intuitive understanding of social interaction is probably a better writter (or a thinker in the fields of politics, social sciences, etc.) than a person with high social skills. Why? Because people with low social skills analyse social life, while people with high social life simple live social life, without thinking about that. Then, at an intelectual level, people with low social skills have (at least, after some age) a more deep understanding of society (the kind of theoretical understanding that is useless in day-to-day life but very useful at the levels of fiction or social theory).

Btw, look to biography of many writers and philosophers: George Orwell, Emily Dickenson, Thomas Kleist, the sisters Bronte, Rosseau, Marx, Nietchze, etc. Many of them were "socially inept, verbal persons". In many ways, this is the stereotype of the European-style "intelectual" (contrast with the American-style "nerd")

^ I agree with this point and i stressed it in a thread a few weeks ago. It is spot on in my view. People with heightened social skills are too busy socialising to be writing. Those on the peripheries like us - outsiders - analyse to the hilt and are often the most acute observers of human interaction. When this skill is developed and fused with fiction writing - it becomes literary force to be reckoned with! (hint hint greentea.......

I have to agree with this. I am an Aspie, who writes fiction. I seem better able to manipulate my characters and understand the outcomes, than I would in real life situations with real people. Often I can understand a particular social situation better, in retrospect. I am just not able to grasp it while it is happening.

The correct terminology would be verbal/non-verbal autism. Not visual and non-visual. Which can be broken into hemispheral left/hemispheral right atypical development. Again this is taking about the higher functioning part of the spectrum.

For example purely non-verbal autism would probably be NLD in its purest form. Thinking purely in verbal language, deficits in visual-spatial relations, etc.

I would not speculate which is easier or has more job prospects, but you are selling the nonverbal really short.

Jobs for NLD folks excell at: librarians, archivists, english teachers and professors, philosophy professors, history professors, social science professors, beurocrats, substantive research analysts, policy analysts, legal researcher, etc.

Basically people with poor visual/spatial concepts and social skills, with strong verbal skills have ALOT more options than you realize. Trust me my knowledge of regulatory frameworks has landed me plenty of jobs.

Also being a good technical writer does not require good spatial and visual skills...it is purely a verbal skill.
Ps...I write requirements, and business proceedures, so technical writing is a big part of my job.

Those sorts of careers are good for some people with NLD. I know there is one NLD girl here who works in a library. but I have NLD and am really disorganised. The sorts of careers I have always been oriented towards are things like sales, counselling, etc but I need massive social skills help before I can achieve any of my career goals. Having visual problems and not great organisational skills makes me run away from careers with a lot of structure.

I'm sorry starygrrl, you seem to get verbal and non-verbal autism confused, in this post and in another of yours I have read, you use "non-verbal" to refer to verbal people such as NLDers.

BTW, my terminology was fine. I was mainly talking about visual abilities, so I used the terms visual and non-visual.

Librarian or archivist would not be good job for those with NLD. These jobs require extensive use of visual memory because these jobs rely on remembering where things are. To be a librarian you don't need to understand what's in the books, you need to know how to locate them.

Sorry if this is coming of as an attack, I just wanted to make some corrections.

No offense...do you really know what librarians or archivists do? They are not as visually or spatially intensive as you might think. I HAVE NLD and I am an archivist/librarian. Much of my job is describing how indexing systems should work and be organized. Additionally, I have to be familiar with reams of regulatory law. This is a purely verbal skillset.
Also remember folks with visual and spatial problems navigate through the world verbally or through "factual numbers". Libraries are designed to find things using factual numbers and verbal information as cues to where things are, the best people I know in terms of navigating libraries are people who know these systems, which are designed with verbal information. The entire design of a library, while it exists in space it was designed for people who are verbal thinkers...everything is marked. Also knowing a library does require knowing an overview of its contents...again, verbal information. In addition when you get to technical librarians you have to know what books the library has, needs, and needs to get rid of, and whats going in and out...verbal information.

Seriously...don't think you know better on this, I am an archivist/librarian. Libraries are not as spatially oriented as you think. All libraries were designed around factual systems and understanding those systems is more important than understanding the space they are in. These systems are not really designed around spatial concepts, the library of congress is designed around numbers with word descriptors for example.

Usually when they list ideal professions for people with nonverbal deficits librarian is high near the top. Why? Libraries are organized in a way that nonvisual people think about space, through factual information and words, not visual/spatial information.

Alot of people with nonverbal deficits spend alot of time in libraries, they are pretty much designed in a way that is condusive to verbal thinking. Next time, don't make this observation to a person who works in the profession and who has visual/spatial deficits.

Ok, I didn't know you were a librarian. Anyways, I have NLD but perhaps it manifests in a different way because I could not do this job. I love reading books I just can't keep track of them.

Many technical writing jobs couldn't be done by a person with NLD. A person can't tell someone how to take apart a computer if they have no mechanical ability, and cannot understand how the components of a computer fit together. Some jobs, like how to work a remote control wouldn't be to challenging for someone with poor spatial skills. Although, I don't know of a technical writer is responsible for drawing the pictures, or if they work with someone else who does this. It seems companies would want someone who can do both.

Everybody manifests differently, AS/NLD/SPD/HFA/PDD-NOS, manifestation is highly individualized. That is why it can sometimes be difficult to diagnose and an individual may have co-morribund diagnosis, which may not make sense on their face, but on an individual level actually do make sense.

Ever since I learned of my condition, I have been trying to discern what type of thinker I am.

Earlier today I decided to take a spatial reasoning IQ test on "fun education". I don't know how credible the site's tests are but according to the extensive examination of which I undertook my visual IQ is 75. 75!

My results were as follows:

11 out of 18 - 61% Everyday Physics

11 out of 16 - 69% Worldly Knowledge

28 out of 41 - 68% Patterns and Shapes

27 out of 42 - 64% Directions

19 out of 26 - 73% Common Hand Tools

I am now beginning to think that I belong in a carehome or an institution for those whom have severe learning difficulties.

Sorry for bumping an old thread.