Do ASD individuals have a distinct way of learning?

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I have noticed that while I have always been very intelligent, I sometimes cannot grasp certain concepts; to me, it feels that the reason is that I haven't started with the fundamentals. Like, if someone is trying to explain how a car works, I would much rather them explain each component individually and in detail, because then I can put the pieces together from there. But I often find myself disliking others' teaching methods, because they are teaching in the exact opposite way, and I just end up being very confused.

Is this part of big-picture thinking? I can see the big picture, but only if I can put the pieces of it together. I hate it when someone just gives me a really general and vague idea, because I can't make any sense of it and I get very frustrated.

If I am given basic details to build off of, then I can learn extremely quickly and even figure things out without being taught them, I just need the foundation. I was very good at math, because one thing builds on another and patterns were obvious to me. But apparently NTs don't learn that way, because that is almost never how things are taught otherwise.

Yes, I even think that the difference in dominant learning style could possibly be used as a criterion to distinguish whether someone is on the spectrum or is rather neurotypical.

I've summarised my thoughts on this topic in the following post http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp6303428.html#6303428

Gaps in my understanding like you describe, can really trip me up, but an active learning experience helps me with this. If you watch a young child playing unassisted, their intrinsic inclination is to experiment and explore, active thinking and problem solving, it?s a self motivated curiosity with its own rewards. Generally speaking, this is somewhat stifled in formal education; the (imo) short sighted business model approach to front line education leads to a requirement for efficient teaching methods.

I often like pictures or illustrations to accompany educational text because it makes it more understandable to me. I think in pictures, so I learn best with pictures. If I read directions on how to put something together, I need illustrations to guide me along. In school, I didn't like group work as it stymied what it was I was trying to learn. I preferred to work alone. I also do not like timed tasks as it frustrates me and can cause me to shut down.

My learning style has always been very much how you have described (L_Holmes), and that was actually a reason why my high school counselor thought I had Asperger's.

I am strongly able to relate to threads such as this (which seem to be increasingly common). It is actually beginning to confuse me. I cannot conclude whether other information is inaccurately positioned (e.g. that this differs as a result of NT vs AS wiring) or if I am just some unfinished project that happens to be placed in the middle of it all.

It is why I argue against so much here, because I am identified as being NT, but almost all that mentions an NT perspective, I disagree with, while in situations like this, I completely relate.

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Unapologetically, Norny.
-chronically drunk

What I find strange about my learning style is that when I was studying chemistry at college I could visual atomic orbital hybridisation which is essential for organic chemistry as well as the reaction trends of the alkali metals which is the sodium or potassium group of metals etc as well I found the idea of molecular geometry interesting and used this visual ability to predict bond angles as depicted in chemistry textbooks. Visual techniques was by imagining the long children's party balloons joined at the tied up ends and four together hypothetically speaking approximates a regular tetrahedron. Surprising that I did struggle with simple algebra and would have messed up calculus which would have been needed to be able to go to university for an undergraduate course. I was OK at geometry and some of trigonometry So I am not sure about my learning style because what I was also learning would have not been covered for at least two years and other areas I should have known that ages before. But that's Asperger syndrome or someundiagnosed higher learning difficulty for you without these difficulties I would have probably been an organic chemist by now by usung my Asperger syndrome because O chem is very visual like inorganic chemistry is, but physical chemistry gets rather mathematical. This is what I found back in 1986 the last year at college

I usually learn best from getting hands on, practical experience at doing something on my own, without anyone interfering with me.

I generally don't learn well from having another person teach me or explain something to me.

In school I learned best from reading ahead in the textbook.

With me I have to try and visualize what the person is instructing me to do Like if I'm doing math (which I hate) I have to try to visualize their way of working out a problem often I work the problem out my own way which is not the "normal" way and often longer then the normal way but it's the only way I can do it. Word problems are perhaps the most problematic. My instructor tends to have a one size fits all mode of teaching which I guess is ok being that the rest of the class is NT and "gets it" even tho I don't.

Normally, I'd ask them to explain it in a different way because I can't visualize it in the way they are describing it also I'm pretty literal in the way I think over the past summer my father asked me to get hedge clippers for him he described them as having as being black handles so I found the one's that had the black handles on it He told me it was wrong because the rest of the tool was yellow I told him he asked for the one with BLACK handles which it did. I reminded him it's literal with me so you say black handles I'm going to look for black handles....Sorry for straying off topic there