Dont you think "studies" of aspergurs are discrimi

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i read some of the "signs" of aspergurs and it dosnt seem accurate. there diagnosis seems to make us
seem like we have the personality of a computer. i read somewhere on the internet aspies "lack common sense" i have a lot more common sense than a lot of people i know. what basis do they study aspies on. post any discrimination you see in diagnosis

Wichever profesor did that research seems to lack common sence himself.
Because that has to be one of the dumbest thing said period.

I think the base group for the statistics defintely affect the accuracy. I recently mentioned this on another message board after someone posted some info from a group doing RDI. It gave really low percentage for the number of people on the spectrum who are able to live independently or have peer relationships. So, the question I asked was where were they getting the statistics from - people who were clinical enough to be diagnosed with ASD (20 to 30 years ago)and then under the care of a therapist. So, that would exclude all those who were either undiagnosed or even though they had an ASD did not see the need for any kind of "treatment". If the base group is not accurate for the overall population than the results will not be accurate. Same as if information is collected based on schools or community mental health service programs. One person was telling people not to lie, but to stress the difficult and extreme behavior of their children in order to get more services or even to qualify. So, if someone looks at the results from places like that then they are more likely to see only the extremes of behavior and once again not get an accurate picture.

I sort of remember a small segment about autistics and common sense in Temple Grandin's "Thinking in Pictures," but I am not going to go back into the book right now to find the actual paragraph it was mentioned in. This book, however, focused more on severe autistics than it did with AS, and I have read some rather loose studies on AS on the Internet that kind of said similar things.

Here's the deal: As long as people keep going for these tests, you know, all these autistic research centers and so forth, expect this. Many of these research projects provide a one-sided concept of whom we are. This is just what I mean about us being statistics on a piece of paper. All the information we are providing through these research projects gets calculated and manipulated in a scientific manner and then it is output to the public. So, much of the reports you are reading are based on a lot of that calculated output.

The thing is that I am definitely not against science, but we need to know how this information is being used. And, as long as we don't, then we are being manipulated to meet their ends. Such manipulation may have a positive or negative impact, but that should be our collective decision to make.

- Ray M -

Saying we lack common sense is just another way of saying we don't do what people expect us to do. I have had that one thrown at me all my life, but it's usually for something like not inferring further directions from something someone said (like my mother telling me to do one chore, me doing only that chore very literally, and not doing one that most NTs would consider connected or a "no-brainer") or because I say the wrong thing or react the wrong way to something a person says, causing offense.

This is how I put it:

Specialists who are trained to treat Aspergers are trained to treat it as a pathology. Meaning they only look at the negative attributes, just as a doctor might look at Flu symptoms. I really hate it when they do that, because they never look at "Albert Einstein had it!! Wow!!" It's just like people who only work because they get paid, not because they enjoy it.

Like everybody said, double-blind studies are almost impossible with stuff like AS, so all this 'research' is really just junk to fit the researcher's preconceived notions about AS. A researcher with different opinions will interpret the information differently.

And of course there is no emperical way to measure 'common sense'.

The problem I've always had with studies is that they only cover the symptoms. I've never seen a research paper about aspies and how to improve their lives- especially in school. Personal stories are not taken into account. We're not just a walking mass of symtomps and dysfunctions.

Not all aspergers symptoms are problematic. What's wrong with being a "Walking enclyclopedia" on a topic? It's come in handy for me, I don't know about anyone else.

It's going to depend on how you define common sense. As the NT mother of a boy on the spectrum, I see a lack of common sense all the time in my son. Before we knew he was on the spectrum, I called him my $1.98 boy - it is common to simply round numbers and if he asked to buy something, I'd tell him he can't, he doesn't have two dollars. "But mom, it isn't two dollars, it's a dollar ninety-eight." Since his grandparents are in retail, his dad explained AS as a condition where he would wait for someone to pay $2.02 and not waive the two cents.

There are plenty of cause-and-effect situations that we've encountered as he grows - well, if you put the sink stopper down and don't turn off the water faucet, you will flood the bathroom. Or when he plays water guns with friends and screams for dry clothes (well, of course you're going to get wet -- you were playing in the water!). Yes, we have to leave at 5:45 - but, mom, it doesn't start until 6.

And, there's also the poll here about burning your mouth - of course I'll sip a hot beverage to test it, I just do. Same with something out of the oven - of course it's hot. My son will grab the hot cookie right off the cookie sheet that was in a hot oven and then be surprised when it burns his fingers.

To me, those are all examples of where common sense has failed him. We don't even think in terms of "common sense" anymore, we just try to explain cause-and-effect. But others that are unaware of his condition will shake their heads at how he lacks common sense.

no they are not. I was ask if my blood test results and the sample itsself could be used for a molecular gentenic study on chromosome 15 with differecences from normal people but then again who is normal?

look at these sites

http://www.fitnessfinders.net/fitnessti ... utism.html

http://www.pinerest.org/education/condi ... ergers.asp

If you read up on any medical diagnosis they are all written in a negative sounding way. Not just Asperger's.

Attwood and Gray wrote up a positive one.

Figure 1: Discovery criteria for aspie by Attwood and Gray

A. A qualitative advantage in social interaction, as manifested by a majority of the following:

peer relationships characterized by absolute loyalty and impeccable dependability
free of sexist, "age-ist", or culturalist biases; ability to regard others at "face value"
speaking one’s mind irrespective of social context or adherence to personal beliefs
ability to pursue personal theory or perspective despite conflicting evidence
seeking an audience or friends capable of: enthusiasm for unique interests and topics;
consideration of details; spending time discussing a topic that may not be of primary interest
listening without continual judgement or assumption
interested primarily in significant contributions to conversation; preferring to avoid
"ritualistic small talk" or socially trivial statements and superficial conversation.

seeking sincere, positive, genuine friends with an unassuming sense of humour

B Fluent in "Aspergerese", a social language characterized by at least three of the following:

a determination to seek the truth
conversation free of hidden meaning or agenda
advanced vocabulary and interest in words
fascination with word-based humour, such as puns
advanced use of pictorial metaphor

C. Cognitive skills characterized by at least four of the following:

strong preference for detail over gestalt
original, often unique perspective in problem solving
exceptional memory and/or recall of details often forgotten or disregarded by others,
for example: names, dates, schedules, routines
avid perseverance in gathering and cataloguing information on a topic of interest
persistence of thought
encyclopaedic or "CD ROM" knowledge of one or more topics
knowledge of routines and a focused desire to maintain order and accuracy
clarity of values/decision making unaltered by political or financial factors

D. Additional possible features:

acute sensitivity to specific sensory experiences and stimuli, for example:
hearing, touch, vision, and/or smell

strength in individual sports and games, particularly those involving
endurance or visual accuracy, including rowing, swimming, bowling, chess

"social unsung hero" with trusting optimism: frequent victim of social
weaknesses of others, while steadfast in the belief of the possibility of genuine friendship

increased probability over general population of attending university after high school
often take care of others outside the range of typical development