Did/do you/your Aspie child have this issue?

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This goes for everyone on the spectrum please. Adult (if you can remember your childhood) or parents of Aspies etc. As the parent board sees a lot I've suspected the 8 year old of being on the spectrum. She does have a learning disability BTW. Outside of non socially appropiate behaviors (smacking her sister on the butt and she doesn't wear shorts at night) (She I guess isn't mature yet about her body as the 10 year old is). One issue I saw was yesterday while taking photos the lady kept telling her stay still and she'd move ever so slightly I always HATE the whole stay here etc. issue of taking photos myself so I was curious if others had this issue as well.

I can't stay still for photographs at all. With me, I think it's both that I don't love the way I look and that I dread the flash-- really hurts.

I put a lot of effort into minimizing motion when observed. While not as bad as my sister I do not like being in photos, especially if posed.

Pretty well inevitably however still I am I flinch at the flash.

My daughter moves around a lot but will sit still for a photo, even though she finds it hard to fake a genuine smile. I will stay still more than just about anyone I know, I'm either going somewhere or I'm there and not moving.

I don't think fidgeting is very unique to those on the spectrum, it's more the inappropriate social fidgeting and especially the repetitive sort, shaking of hands and such.

I'm H.F.A., and I remember clearly being taken to the photographer as a pre-toddler. I couldn't sit still, but it wasn't any kind of fear; it was fascination with all the cool lights, meters, shiny umbrellas, and equipment, and every kind of electromechanical attention grabber you can imagine for the Autistic mind. I was scared if I had to be held by a stranger for a pose for a picture (i.e. Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny at the mall), but I can't really say any of those fearful experiences have much to do with Asperger's or H. F. A. . It's possible that she is just too interested in the surroundings to care about instructions, or it could be that she wants to please, but cannot follow the instruction if she doesn't understand WHY she needs to hold still.

Depending on how her mind works (and you might be shocked), you might try explaining "why" a person needs to sit still for a picture. Explain how the camera shutter opens for a split second, and the object being photographed will smear across the film and cause a blurry picture if it moves. Take your hand and a flashlight, and project an image of your fingers onto a piece of paper and draw an outline. Tell her that this is what a photograph is. Then move your hand slightly and draw a new outline over the old one. Show her how now, the two outlines are causing the drawing of the hand to be blurred. Explain that if she is moving during that split second that the picture takes, there will be many, many "outlines" on the film, just like the outlines on the paper. I don't know if that will help her to hold still, but if it does, you may indeed be onto a good theory suggesting that she is on the Spectrum. I know that all this might sound goofy, but my mind will sometimes not let me cooperate with an instruction without scientific explanation. Case in point: My mother just about gave up on teaching me to ride a bicycle by the time I was about 10. Then to her (and much to my) surprise, we had a mechanical engineer-friend, who explained to me the law of inertia, and the counterbalance. I got on the bike and rode it for the first time, and within 5 years, I was riding motorcycles skillfully and safely on the streets of Los Angeles (God willing). I think I'd still be resigned to 4 wheels, had I never received the technical explanation of why a bicycle balances on 2 wheels, and how it is controlled by counter-balanced axes. And I'm not some kind of a genius or anything; I just need to SEE and understand why something is the way it is. I cannot accept "It just works that way" for an answer.

With all that said, I will also say that photographers' most common gripe when taking my picture (whether professional or family), is that my facial expressions don't photograph well. They say I look angry, or that I'm not smiling. I just fake it the best I can, but no photograph ever taken of me, reflects how I think I would want my facial expressions to look.

Charles

I still have this issue. Always have, always will.

A: Don't like the flash. I will flinch at that no matter how I try to force myself not to. Any photo taken of me with my cooperation uses natural light, no flash involved.

B: I don't like my picture taken, and will try to avoid it - and trying to make me pose or stay still will make me do the opposite. On the very rare occasions when I decide perhaps a pic ought to be taken, the person taking the picture just has to be prepared to catch me at the right moment. Even if I'm trying to co-operate, telling me to pose / stay still will have the opposite effect to what is desired.

For what it's worth, as someone who has spectrum traits and kids with a variety of characters (and issues) I have noticed that they can just get ticked off because the photographer is telling them what to do! I don't like being posed but I also figure that's just how they need you to be for the picture. My kids have been known to move on purpose to spite the person who is presuming to order them around.

Sweet little dears, hm?