That girl from America's next top model.

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Says who? I don't believe there's a single study out there that would support that assertion.

There are a lot of aspies who learned vocal inflection and no longer have a monotonous speech pattern. They don't suddenly stop being aspies.


You're making a fully broad-based assumption that what you're saying is true. That may be true for you, but it is CERTAINLY not true for all aspies.

I was terribly disappointed to find that the rumors were true and Saleisha won. But then, if Jaslene--who talks like she has a mouthful of marbles--can be a CoverGirl... why not?

Look up Asperger's disorder, you'll see the stereotypical presentation of such described. You cannot learn something when you don't have the ability to do such, if someone can add inflection to their voice in a social setting, it means that it's relatively mild; like people with Asperger's who can make eye contact in a social setting. In that facet, it's mild. They won't make eye contact constantly and still keep the conversation going without fault. That doesn't equate to a severe and marked impairment.

"Severe impairment in reciprocal social interaction" and "Qualitative impairment in social interaction" doesn't mean, 'but don't worry, you can learn it!'

E: and BTW, I've learnt all of the correct social gestures due to observing humanity and "therapy"; it doesn't mean that I can utilize them; I can just spot them as easy as the next "normal" person.

I want you to find for me in the criteria where it says that all people with Asperger's are permanently locked into monotone voices, dissertations, no eye contact, etc. It's flat out false. It might be true for some aspies, but it's not true for all of them. You're taking your own experience and making it the definition.

Tony Attwood readily suggests that aspies can use acting skills to learn to fit in, and that some become skilled enough to have successful careers as actors. By your assertion, it must be possible to be a successful actor while talking in monotone.

Attwood's section on imitation (if the link works):
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZwQGsu ... Fml_vJhd4M

He asserts at the end of that section that many aspies are able to fake it well enough that people refuse to believe that they have a problem with social interaction. So, clearly, if they can fake it that well, they must not be aspies anymore, yes?

I see at least some of myself in her and I already have an official dx. Again, I don't think AS can be diagnosed from a video. Just because AS traits can be expressed in a video doesn't mean they must for her to have AS. (And I don't know how you can tell true eye contact from a video. Some of us can fake it.) It's important to remember that this is a spectrum, and not everyone displays every trait all the time. I sometimes speak in a monotone voice (especially when I'm nervous) but I don't always do so. I rarely use gestures, but I have done it before. It depends on the situation. Heather's "presentation" may not be stereotypical, but that in and of itself does not mean she was misdiagnosed.

d'ya know what is pretty aspieish? that list!

Thanks for posting that. It was the first thing that came to my mind as well. Danielismyname, are you saying that you think that the professionals themselves are mistaken?

I ended up watching just to see. I thought by watching Chantel that they deliberately put her in dresses with long trains in hopes that she would mess up and she did. Saleisha's dresses did not have those overbearing trains at the end like Chantels.

also, I don't think Heather is lying about being aspie. She's also on medication. Adderall and something else. I don't know what adderall does.

That's adapting by mimicking others, a common autistic thing; I did that throughout all of high school. He's talking about taking on fictional or non-fictional personas and acting them out, using stock phrases from borrowed sources. For example, I'll use many, many phrases from movie characters for one sentence replies; not here, but out there.

I'll still lack eye contact and whatnot, I'll just sound like a movie character that I've taken on.

yes. Sounds like an aspie trying to hold it together.

Hey Kitsy,

The Adderall she takes is for her ADHD. It helps a person with Attention Deficit Disorder be able to concentrate more and focus. It makes a huge difference in helping me with my ADHD (which I have in addition to Asperger's).

I think it was very brave of her to undertake what she did. I've always liked acting myself, but some of the demands are so intense, it's very difficult and I would think runway modeling would be even harder in alot of ways.

Is it as harsh as ritalin? Do you know? I wonder what Heather looks like through "normal" eyes.

as harsh as ritalin? you've got it backwards there, kitsy. Ritilan is like candy compared to Adderall.

wow, makes ritalin seem like candy. Thanks for clearing that up. I'm not really up to date on pharmaceutical drugs.

I am so sick of those stereotypes about AS. Someone doesn't have this, someone doesn't have that so therefore he/she can't have AS. So sick of it. We're all different. Some are more milder than others and some are more severe than others.
From the clips I have seen, she seemed normal to me, I could hardly find any quirks in here except she was by herself but just because it was hard to tell she has it doesn't mean she doesn't have it. I think it's great she is doing it. She is showing the world about aspies can be social and they can do great things and they are not bad people. The show showed people aspies can be social and make friends and not have any of those autism stereotypes. Only stereotype she had was drawing because I used to see aspies and drawings all the time mentioned in books and see them online and it always bugged me every time I read about aspies doing art because it sounded like art was an aspie thing and I have known NTs who are great artists too. There were great artists in my high school and they were NTs. Well some had dyslexia and I read dyslexics tend to be good artists too.
I have good mental health and have AS. Wait NM, it's not my real diagnoses. I was just put in that category to stop my school from putting me in a class with violent kids because PDD-NOS isn't a real diagnoses and autism would just give them the power to place me in that class.

I think maybe the reason why it was hard for me to see the AS in Heather was because I only saw parts of the show on here and now the whole thing. I had missed it because it never occurred to me to come in this thread till tonight.
I'm still reading this thread and will read more when I wake up.

Spokane_Girl I'm in agreement with you in the fact that 2 many people, including the professionals think we are all the same. When in fact we are all individuals just like everyone else, so when giving advice or diagnosing us it would help for them to remember that. Aspergers is just the way I'm wired; we are all different and have different symptoms Aspies and NT's.

With a condition like Asperger it is exceptionally hard because quite often no 2 people are the same. We may have some of the same traits, but we are all individuals in our selves, different personalities, different circumstances and each effected differently.

Far to often its the associated conditions we need help with, but the NT's continue to blame our Autism Spectrum Disorders for everything! Like with Heather she takes Adderall for her ADHD, not for Aspergers, or you could say she has a Syndrome Mix of symptoms, personally I think a lot of the associated conditions are part and parcel of being on the spectrum...