Could someone explain...

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What constitutes "special" interest? What is "interest" without "special" interest?

A special interest is an interest that means the world to the person who has that interest. A person's special interest could define the identity of that person.

Yep, CockneyRebel nailed it. She is a good example too, because she LOVES the Kinks. This also might be an example of an "unusual special interest" because of all the things one could be interested in, why the Kinks? I'm sure she has a lot of good reasons.

Yeah, but if you look at the things people are interested in here, some of them have lists of 8 to 10 things, I consider myself to have a (wide?) range of interests (art, music, philosophy, film, religion, health, politics), and yet I am diagnosed and (some) people say that I have "narrow" interests. So if these constitute "special" them what is not-special, and is that even an interest?


(I'm not obsessive over one thing, though I was as a child, and as far as I can see not many of us here are. You are, obviously.)

For me a "special interest" is something that becomes a passion where it is something that I think about and want to be involved in a large part of the time. It can be something that others might consider a "normal" interest, but what differentiates it as a special interest is the degree to which the person engages in and thinks about it. I've had many special interests over the course of my life, but I usually only have one at a time as it can be so absorbing.

OK, let's forget the "special" bit and replace that with "narrow". Are, for example, the interests which I listed "narrow"? And if they are, what is "interest" like for someone who does not have "narrow" interests?

My sister raised a similar point the other day, pointing out that NT children tend to go through phases where they are fixated on something, and this is very true. Some little boys are fixated on trains or dinosaurs and can tell you everything about them, while some little girls...well, I don't know what little girls fixate on.

However they generally lose this intense interest by the time they are about 8 or 9, whereas I think for children with AS, at 8 or 9 they are at the peak of their obsessions.

I think a "special interest" is more likely to be considered unusual, or unusual for the age. It's also tends to be more narrow in focus than you would expect.

When I was 12 I watched the weather channel for a few hours a day, but I couldn't really tell you much about weather. I had a thing for the doppler radar they just installed. I just wanted to know where the precipitation was and if a tornado could possibly form. I expanded my knowledge on tornadoes, but I still couldn't tell you much about weather or tornados. I could tell you tornado facts and statistics, a little about how they formed and what types of storms were likely to spawn them. I would go on about this every time it rained, and and I correctly predicted the second tornado on record to ever touch down in my city, ending a long standing debate I had with my family over whether tornadoes could occur there.

Meanwhile, most 12-16 year old girls were occupied their time with friends, clothes, boys, music, and the likes.

So perhaps a special interest is best defined as a obsessive fixation in a subject of narrow scope, of a subject that is either unusual or not age appropriate.

Perhaps is has something to do with focus and task switching. A special interest will allow hyperfocus, to the exclusion of nearly all other stimulus. Switching to something that is not special is difficult. If the hyperfocus is intense enough, switching task can be next to impossible and forcing someone to focus on something else results in agitation or out right anger.

When engaged in other tasks, any external stimulus that cues thoughts about a special interest (a photo or sound, for instance) will immediately cause abandonment of the original task and bring the special interest to the forefront of the mind.

Example: Sex sells, right? So it's common on TV to see a bikini clad woman on a beach. I love to surf. If there are waves in the background, I will not notice the woman first, I will notice the waves.

I live 500 miles from the ocean. My interest is so special that I surf on the Great Lakes in the dead of winter - right up until the lake freezes. I will drive 8 hours to the ocean to catch a hurricane swell. I am 52.

I saw a scene on T.V. where some guy walks up carrying a surfboard. Someone asked him how were the waves. He said they were blown out. I could tell from the ocean in the background that this was utter bollocks. The conditions were excellent. What was the T.V. show about? Well for those few seconds when the ocean was in the background, I couldn't tell you. And when the camera panned and the background switched, I waited for it to pan back so I can see the ocean again. Never mind the all hot women doing yoga in the main scene. They irritated me because they were blocking the view.

That's pretty special, wouldn't you say?

A large collection of blind canes could count as a special interest.

When my son was in kindergarten, they did a unit on sea animals and he became interested in whales, particularly orcas. He began amassing every detail of information he could find, and shortly was teaching the kindergarten teacher what he had found. We fostered this interest by taking him to SeaWorld where he often was able to finish the sentences of the trainers who were presenting on each of the animals, and could point out behaviors, specific species of toothed whales, and things like gender of animals that one would expect from a college student studying marine life rather than a six-year-old. He lost this interest along the way, although he still loves orcas if they happen to come up.

I think many NT girls are interested in fashion, but in a broader, more general way - when I was in college, I got interested in the history of fashion, and could draw typical dresses from every decade of several centuries, while discussing fabrics, shoes, undergarments, social situations where certain clothing applied, etc. I became a costume designer for my college theatre company...but I still am not able to decode how NT fashion works, I guess it's not specific enough for me.

I don't know if this helps...part of the problem is that I don't know of any other way to be! It reminds me of how we call them "english muffins" but in the UK they call them "muffins." I don't think I have any other kind of interests.

It seems social acceptance plays a big part. If an NT male, for example spends an inordinate amount of time talking about sports stats or muscle cars, that's fine. But an autistic person would probably not be able to talk about stuff like insects or mars with as much enthusiasm without someone concluding there must be something wrong with them. See It's hard to quantify how special or narrow a subject interest is, but if the interest is the least bit eccentric compared to the more usual interests, it's called a special interest. NTs have them too, occasionally. It's just that as they approach adulthood they learn better how to be more conservative about the weirder ones, and adopt others that have a stronger social motivation. Autistics have a much harder time letting go of interests that have no social foundation. That seems to be the only difference to me.

My son 13 will be so focused on an interest that he will describe it as his "work" that must be done. I think in general a special interest can be something that would not normally be expected in the age or gender range of NT people. Amongst my special interests as a teenager were specific types of english sports cars, as a younger child I had a huge collection of hot wheel cars, hundreds of them. My father was disturbed as to why his daughter would have such weird choices especially when I insisted I had to go to the yearly Auto Show, he refused to go with me as he could not accept my interest, luckily my mom indulged me.

My daughter now 12 not knowing anything about my special interests worked on school reports last year about World War II German tanks, for the last year she has been obsessed with Dodge Ram trucks! We had a good laugh the other week when I finally told her of my interests earlier in life.

My "special" interests are only unusual in terms of their intensity i.e. the amount of time per day I spend thinking about them ( and having repetitive fantasies about them) and how completely absorbed I get in such thoughts. Mine typically involve preoccupation with a culture (country or historical period ,and so are not unusual in terms of content (although there have been a few strange ones...) , nor are they unusual in focus ( I do NOT spend every waking minute engaged in them). I also do not talk incessantly about my interests (although I did when I was a child). I actually try to hide the intensity of my interests from others knowing from experience that it will be perceived as strange. I have also made certain very important life decisions based on pursuing my special interests, i.e. they do become my identity in a sense.

This is a very interesting point; I agree that that's one important piece of it. I think the second one is the intensity - people who memorize sports statistics, for instance, have chosen a special interest that has a social foundation - except the depth of their interest goes far beyond the social aspect of it.

I have one that is a good example.

I have always been obsessed with cars. I wanted anything with wheels, that I could ride, since I could talk. I begged my parents for a motorbike, my license, drove anything I could drive. I washed and waxed their cars constantly. I have had the same type of car since I was able to purchase my own cars. This last car I was determined to keep it perfect. I researched and tested every car product on the market. I'd order samples, join forums, talk to anyone that would talk to me about it. I found out all the ingredients, what ingredients protect the best and why. I researched sponges, towels, and even found the perfect wheel brushes. I know the best wash, cleaners, polishers, wash mitts, towels, glass cleaners, plastic, rubber, tire cleaners and perservers. I can argue with anyone on it, even the guys that have the million dollar collectable cars. I don't spend that kind of money because I have to drive it but I know about the products they use and why they use them. I know more than anyone I've ever met. There is no place on a car I don't know how to protect and restore. I love it, I love my day I spend with my car--like once every couple of weeks. It is awesome. I also know the best sound systems. I could go broke with competition sound but I scaled it back to just awesome. I do love my competition wires and off the scale amps and components. My car would be ridiculously tricked out if it wouldn't be such an eyebrow raiser.......

see there you have it...could you stand another 2-3-4 hours talking about it???? lol noone can that I know of ....even gearheads don't care this much

I love cars, too--- but my specific interest is Oldsmobiles. Anything related to them, too. And yes, I have one in my garage. Hotwheels and Matchbox just weren't enough... but I have lots of those, too. Mostly Oldsmobiles, of course.
But i wouldn't turn down a '69 Challenger or a '56 Ford, either. I'd just much rather have... another Olds!
There's even a national club for Oldsmobile enthusiasts... and yes, I pay my dues for this one. It's the only time/place where other people share my passion for this.