How to identify someone being on the spectrum?

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The subtle ways are preferable, but any less subtle methods, like asking them certain questions, will be still useful, as long as they are reliable.

Judging by my experience, people who are better at social interaction (innately, as in being the opposite of autistic, so it mostly doesn't depend on the social skills) are also better at "feeling" who is socially awkward, and I find it extremely hard to tell if someone is socially awkward. This is very bad, because I know that I'll make friends with people more easily if they are aspies, even if I never tell them they are aspies (the cold reality is that most people won't accept it and they'll think I'm nuts).

Aww, doesn't anyone know anything about that? I really needed this information for this weekend, and I don't know any other forums where I can ask my questions. I'll bump my thread a few times, because it's important for me.

I diagnose people inside of my head for fun all of the time...

If you don't have troubles looking at people, you can usually start by watching the way they act... what things trigger them... and sort of how much their behavior fits into the definitions.

The key would be to know what those definitions are... If you already do, then I would say pay attention and see if people fit the definitions of what aspergers symptoms are. If you dont, then try reading as much as you can this week on what it means and what the symptoms are... then you just have to pay attention to people...

Of course, I've only been "sure" about maybe 3 people in my life that I know regularly, but I've known lots of strangers that "must be aspies"... and its ok if I am wrong since I'll never known them better... My favorite is this tall girl who works for a local political candidate's campaign who comes to my house to update on the campaign, put out signs, make sure I am still voting for her candidate... but she wont look me in the eye at all and has an expected sort of "walk"

I hope that helps... even a little bit...

I guess it's hard to tell who is exactly on the spectrum or not, but it's relatively easier to spot people who are close to it (BAP, semi-Aspie, have some traits, whatever).

People who are likely not see in your eyes or stare through your head, have little or no facial expressions (or only a few fake ones for disguise), speak in monotone (more or less, as it can be practiced), have a strange tint to their sound, are helpful without smiling intensely, move somewhat strangely and uncoordinated (probably slowly), speak little, stay out of chit-chats, react to speech or call relatively slowly or not at all, obviously off or awkward, have strange habits, hobbies, interests (may take time to figure out, as they often don't talk about it in public). They may be assertive, blunt, rude or too shy.

Avoid too kind, easy going people, even if they have some of the above traits (possible sign of mental illness, schizophrenia spectrum, narcissism, etc.).

Hope this helps.

I diagnose people inside my head all the time too.

Although I'm not very good at this. 6 years ago I thought my nephew was the coolest kid around. I thought for sure he was very popular at school and such. But it turns out he has AS and he didn't have many friends at all.

So I guess if I think someone is interesting they might have AS.

I really can't read people that well.

How to identify someone being on the spectrum.........DSM-IV ? I wouldn't try to. I'd just note the traits and leave it at that. The best I could say would be that somebody was "very likely an Aspie," if they had restricted special interests, unusual eye contact, little reciprocity in conversation, no small talk, few friends, unusual walk, talked to themselves, social anxiety or social fatigue, history of being bullied, difficulty switching from detail to big picture, literal thinking, liking for small glittery things, hyperfocus, skilled at repetitive tasks, need for rigid routine, trouble in getting help, fear of authority figures, fear of unclear instructions, sensitivity to background noises and interruption..........I think the danger is that it's probably human nature to be reductionist....once we start to label somebody as an Aspie, we might begin to think that's all they are, and become blind to anything that doesn't fit neatly into the pattern.

Look behind the ears. We all have gills.

I don't like to judge people just like that. I can recognise people who are severely Autistic, even children, but not so much people with a milder case because everybody's different. It's until you get to know somebody is when you find out what they're really like. Even then I can't always tell, if their condition is mild. I can sometimes tell they have a condition, but it could be anything besides Autism. Unless they're showing visible signs like flapping hands a lot or something like that. But otherwise, I just take people as they come really. I have a friend who has a mild condition, but I still can't put pinpoint what she exactly has. I don't like to ask, in case she might not like talking about it, because I don't like bringing mine up either. She did mention before that she has a disability, but she never said what it was.

It takes a lot of seeing amongst crowds generally.... especially frequent associations with test subjects....questions.... to start to glimpse the shadow of autism in another person

After this is becomes more intuitive, prolly based on instinctive genotype recognition, much like facial recognition software.

Creating an facial geometry algorithm would be comparatively easy, however a more accurate assessment of ASD in another, would depend on verbal data and personal history and health complaints especially.

How can you be an aspie if nothing is wrong?