Mildest part of ASD spectrum have no symptoms?

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I've noticed that sometimes people will say that the spectrum is so wide you can't generalize even to say something like social difficulty is common, they will say hey I know someone with ASD who is extremely social, or that they know someone with ASD who has no symptoms at all and is no different than an average person. Or say that the spectrum runs from non-interactive/low functioing to neurotypical/very high functioning.

But this just seems like an odd contradiction in terms, how could someone with Aspergers or ASD have no symptoms and be indistinguishable from a neurotypical? Would they not by definition then not have ASD?

To me it is like saying you're an asthmatic who has never had any symptom of asthma or an asthma attack.

I think this one comes from the misconception that autistic people universally lack interest in other people, and/or can't learn social skills.

There are people with ASD who are extremely social -- that doesn't automatically mean their social behavior or social abilities are normal. Example: If an autistic person approaches everyone he sees to strike up a conversation with them, but only ever launches immediately into a discussion about his favorite TV show and does not know how to diverge from the script he's come up with to talk about that TV show no matter how people respond to him, then I'd say he's extremely social even if he can't interact in normal ways. Someone talking about him might not mention (or maybe even notice) the unusual nature of the social interaction because the thing that is most relevent to them is that he is both autistic and extremely social.



There are also people with ASD who have learned ways to socialize successfully in at least some settings or with some people (granted, my definiiton of "successfully" might not be the same as yours or anybody else's) -- but that doesn't mean that their social abilities are normal or that they have no extraordinary difficulties with socializing in general. An autistic person who can only talk about a select few subjects might find places where talking about only those subjects is expected and be quite socially successful there -- like hobby groups, or employment as a guide of some kind (like in museums or on nature hikes) -- but be completely lost and unsuccessful everywhere else. Somebody who knows the autistic person only from the hobby group or only as a tour guide might have no way of knowing just how different the autistic person is.

It doesn't have to be social symptoms either...A person with some language problems might be able to write a very articulate and grammatically correct paper for school, but it might take them 3 months instead of the 3 weeks it would take someone with no language difficulties..If somebody just read the paper they might think the person's ability to express themselves in words was no different than the average non-disabled person's. To use an analogous example that doesn't apply to autism specificlly: A person who is very hard of hearing might learn to lip read exceptionally well, so that often/sometimes (even if not always) nobody could tell they were unable to hear what was being said to them. If people don't see the symptoms directly for themseves, sometimes they just conclude those symptoms aren't there....other times, they might see the symptoms and just not recognize them for what they are; A person who doesn't know a lot about autism might mistake things like lack of eye contact and stimming as nervousness, effectively not noticing symptoms by attributing them to something more commonplace.



One possible explanation is that people who say things like this have just never seen the asthmatic having an asthma attack, and don't gave adequate knowledge of what's required to keep the asthmatic from having one.



The spectrums of human behaviors/abilities that autistic people have in extremes, sure...the autism spectrum as a diagnostic category, no. The way I see it the spectrum of autism ends at the point where people become neurotypical, so that neurotypical people are not actually on the autism spectrum. (So I agree with you: You can't actually have autism without ever having any of the symptoms of autism....the autism spectrum is not so broad that everybody is on it.)

Being extremely social doesn't mean they have good social skills. If someone doesn't have any symptoms but are "on the spectrum" that makes no sense. Do they mean they outgrew the symptoms? By definition, they would no longer have an ASD. People still debate about rather they had it in the first place or not. I wonder too, if it wasn't autism, then what was it? Why would a kid have symptoms of it and then outgrow them? Can someone be slow in development and then catch up by adulthood? What if they were given help and therapy and they read about social skills and improved them because of the label they had so they knew what to fix? They had something if they had impairments in their childhood.

Being socially awkward does not always mean one is shy, introverted or a hermit.