Executive Function

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I've asked around quite a bit ago, but I thought I would try and get some more perspectives.

While Executive Dysfunction is common in people on the Spectrum (including with me, if I am indeed on it), is it scientifically possible for someone on the Spectrum to have good Executive Function (e.g. planning, problem solving, analysis, short-term memory) alongside bad social skills?

Have a read of this comic:
http://the-art-of-autism.com/understand ... planation/

Essentially, the autism spectrum shouldn't really be thought of as a single limier spectrum, but instead of a multidimensional spectrum encompassing many different traits. It is entirely possible for someone with ASD to be NT or close to it in some of these areas, but severely impaired in others.

I personally also have pretty bad executive functioning issues, but not very much in the way of sensory issues.

So in answer to your question, yes, it is possible for someone with ASD to have good executive functioning.

Scientifically possible I don't know. But the answer is a resounding yes and I am an example. My Asperger's was never diagnosed, nor was face blindness or any other spectrum disorder I may have. I was born in 1948 and these conditions were not known. As such, I lived with the same expectations as NT's and was judged so.

In high school I took personality tests to find out where I fit. One tested my likes/dislikes against careers. I mostly liked things associated with law enforcement. I was a police officer, however, that didn't work to well. I stumbled a lot and finally ended up working as an insurance investigator, out of my home. It may have been an accident that my life happened as it did but I am grateful that I did those tests in high school 54 years ago. Life was never easy for I was always stumbling socially. I was a social hermit unless I had a friend to hang with. I'm sure that fear contributed to my isolation.

Yes, it is possible. We're all a mixed bag. I for instance have poor short-term memory, but really good analytical abilities (so I can solve a problem and then forget about it!).

As I mentioned, I've asked around about this before, with regards to a writing project of mine:

https://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=326033

From what I've researched online, EF problems seem part-and-parcel to Aspergers (and other autism spectrum conditions). With regards to the writing project in question, I vacillate between just doing it like I want on "artistic license," but also wondering about the believability.

There is a million reasons for one to have poor social skills, and ASD is just one of them. A very smart person with poor social skills might not have ASD, but may have been isolated as a child for their intelligence and thus didn't get that social learning time in. That's only one other reason too.

My boss and my team manager question my ability to learn and to plan. My boss told me that a learning disorder is inherent to autism, but I don't believe that. Especially because I am learning Japanese at this moment. She thinks that, because I ask a lot about tasks. She thinks it is caused by a learning disorder. I think this is caused by lack of information that she and her predecessor refused to give me. I have caught her on monocausal thinking (I will explain later in this message what that is).

The other so-called problem is a disability to organize. Am I a bad organizer? I question that. I am planning a voyage to Japan (from the Netherlands) and I have made a schedule for myself to know in what hotels I want to be, what flights I want to have, and I have yet to decide where to go to. In Tokyo, Shinjuku and Akihabara are two of the locations where I want to go.

At my work, they think I cannot organize my work. I think I can, but I am partially blocked by lack of information. Each year there is a planning of events at my school, but I don't know exactly what tasks are associated with those items. Then I do my job independently. My boss refuses or just does not give information about this, so that I can know what kind of work is related. Again monocausal thinking.

Now... what is monocausal thinking? That is: if you think that for a given fact is one cause which seem to be likely, but you ignore the chance that maybe there are other causes. In this case: If the boss notices that I am a slow learner, it could be my autism: a problem with processing information. But it could also be lack of information. But which one is true? You will only know that if you further investigate that. I have told my assistant boss that I want this tested. I won't deny my autism, but I will deny my learning disorder, and I will find a proof that I don't have that disorder.