Steve, you're yelling again.
Quote:
1. failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
having friends or peers that are not your age or grade level (if a child) or if you're an adult having lots of very young friends or very old friends, exclusively. It could also be that you don't have any friends and have a hard time socializing in work, play, class time. And that this interferes with what "normal" people consider life.
2. lack of social or emotional reciprocity
This is worded inappropriately. It should read that you lack expression of social and/or emotional reciprocity. It has to do with how you express emotions, empathy, sympathy. If your neighbor's dog is run over, do you mention how much it barked? Or do you simply say, "I'm sorry, I know you loved your dog very much"?
Another example is to show "happiness" for someone's good fortune, even if you don't care.
3. failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
repeat of 1
4. in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others
Neurotypicals "chat" and that is usually pretty hard for autistics. Also, some/many autistics lack understanding and usage of idiomatic speech. Some autistics are visual thinkers and words just come slowly with a lot of labor. They may be able to speak and be quite articulate, but it's taxing and they might rather be quiet. Some of us have a hard time knowing when it's appropriate to enter or start a conversation.
5. stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language
this can be memorized script used to express needs, wants, emotions. Like quoting a movie to show anger, "We'll see about that!" even if it doesn't quite make "sense" in the context. Using the same word to convey a thought or emotion.
6. lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level
This is up for debate. This sentence means that autistics don't play pretend with dolls, role playing or pat a cake when they're young. It also means that autistic play with toys is abnormal. That is, many autistics spin wheels and line cars instead of racing them or riding the trike. That doesn't mean that the autistic person lacks creativity, it just gets expressed differently.
7. apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
This isn't like OCD as I know it. I means needing to adhere to a schedule, in which all participants are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Fluctuating class sizes, different food choices, suprise trips, noises can all be very threatening. It doesn't mean never changing the routine, but needing to know what that routine is. I disagree with the term "nonfunctional". My son can be very flexible if I write down the proposed schedule and show it to him. But if he expects to go to the park and we stop at the bank first, he'll blow a fuse. Rituals are about destressing too.
I'm basing my answers on what I have read and discovered in my life and that of my family's.
Last edited by KimJ on 06 Nov 2006, 12:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
05 Nov 2006, 10:46 pm
