Losing grammar skills as I'm getting older

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I'm 32 now and use to be able to spell everything correctly. I've noticed since I've gotten older I'm forgetting to spell the simplest words. It makes me feel like an idiot. Is Aspergers degenerative or something?
I'm also forgetting words in general or the words I want to use in a sentence. I'm forgetting proper names and how to phrase things.
I'm also using the wrong words frequently and have to go over what I had just written to make sure I didn't make a blunder. For example in my SUBJECT I wrote "losing grammar SCHOOLS as I'm getting older" instead of skills. Arghhhh!! !

I don't think that this is a characteristic of Asperger's syndrome--it must be something else.

Sounds like a little bit of a thought disorder. Autism shares the "negative symptoms" of schizophrenia, I suppose it's possible that simply having an ASD can express itself in a slightly degenerative way. Personally I feel like my writing is slower now than 10 years ago even though I don't make any mistakes, which has puzzled me a bit, but it might be due to me expecting more of myself now or my memory of how I used to write might just be off. The fact that I'm using something else than my native language 80% of the time now might also distort my writing a little, sometimes not entirely sure what language to express myself in, even though my Swedish vocabulary is far greater of course.

I've noted that, too, on occasion. But I think it's probably more from disuse - or from being exposed to grammar/language that is not formally correct. What I hear on the street and on television and what I read in most popular press is full of grammatical errors. I rarely hear or read the language spoken/written correctly. So, in a way, it's as if my brain is saying "what's the point?" The farther out from my school days I go, the less important grammar is in my daily life and, thus, the less emphasis I seem to place on it, intellectually.

I've got about 20 years on you, and I'm happy when I can remember the blasted words at all, on some days. I often substitute words that are in some way similar. I can tell if a word is spelled correctly by what the word looks like. So, very often I can see that a word is spelled incorrectly, but for the life of me I cannot find the correct spelling in my head. Thankfully, there are spell-checkers these days.

I do note that it's worse when I'm tired, under stress, or have a lot of things juggling in my attention. And that it gets worse when I focus on it.

Maybe I relized somethig of these before in my case also, as growing up. RENEW is the option, for us aspergers people, is convenient we don't stop learning new things everyday if we don't want to lose everything we fighted for, ...

Practice. That's why. When we're in school, we're writing all the time, being corrected, and generally reading a lot, too. When you're seeing the accurate words and accurate grammar infront of you, it's hard not to soak it up to one degree or another. When I was reading 1-2 books a week, as opposed to 1 book every 2 months now, I guess it was natural for me to absorb more, and I was writing more, too. I don't think it's just you, I think it's most people, AS and NT, when we don't practice something we lose the skill. I can't do calculus now, either, but I bet no one thinks that because of that, I've somehow degenerated. It's just not a skill I regularly use in my life anymore.

As for getting the wrong words, yes, I do that all the time. I've certainly read that sometimes those with AS can visualise something, yet not find the correct word. It's definitely a problem I suffer from, and occasionally I'll eventually come up with a similar word instead of the one I'm looking for (this is also something I find really stressful - one of only two things which can still cause me to stim by flapping, the other being my OCD).

This sort of reminds me of whats happening with me. Its just because you havent exposed yourself to mindgrowth for a really long time. When this happens you begin to lose what you know. Just stimulate your brain more.

i wouldnt worry about it ace, didnt you read that article that it doesnt matter if the word is spelt correctly only if all or most of the words are there?

I don't think AS affects memory as you age, are you taking any meds that may cause cognitive blunting such as anti-convulsants etc. Gingko is great for memory and theres nothing better than a daily crossword to sharpen the vocabulary. Lots of reading and word games, would'nt splash out on nintendo brain training. I bought an english grammar book the other day I think my writing skills have always left a lot to be desired, theres probably software out there to improve language skills.

Is this internet related specifically?

I tend to think that people communicating on the internet misspell words more often because of the rush in typing, the fact that not too many folks will correct them for it, and the time issue between the thought, typing it out, and seeing it on the screen but probably not really reading it for correctness.

My diagnosis... YOU'RE NORMAL!

Seriously, if this is only happening in your writing, then it's probably not a brain problem thing.

"Thought disorder" is a horrible conclusion to leap to as a first thought with an autistic person.

LANGUAGE problems is what it is.

And some of us as we get older do lose things.

wrote this a long time ago for people experiencing loss of various skills as they get over, which is common.

I've experienced a drastic loss of speech over time, but my thoughts aren't disordered.

It isn't school. If ANYTHING, school now makes it WORSE, at least in most places in the US. I used to marvel at how I did some things SO easily, etc... with NO grammer. Then I thought about it! You know WHY? Because I learned words through PHRASES and did the rest through patterns. THAT is why a toddler that never even HEARD of grammar can use the correct tense, prepositions, pronouns, etc...

It was YEARS before I finally saw a show that spoke of the same thing.

Anyway, to further support my claim, I made a mistake when I was about 16. It was so embarrasing that I don't even want to say it. I caught myself 3/4 of the way through the word. That was the FIRST time I made that mistake. I have probably done it like 3-4 times since. That is once every 15 years or so. And I used to LAUGH at people that made that mistake.

And YEAH, my grammar IS worse than it was. I think learning other languages hurt that a little.

So why do I say school makes it worse?

Let me give you an example of how some students might speak...

That is an exaggeration ONLY in that I tried to fit so many examples into such a small space. I tried to get the "grammar", spelling, phrasing, and expletives "correct", etc... ALSO, thankfully, most of the time I wasn't exposed to that. The WORST time was about when I was 14-17. Fancy that, that is the time all this garbage started. BTW this now doubles the number of times I have used such expletives!

I guess I should be happy I don't ever talk like that. My little conjugation problem doesn't seem so bad in comparison. Still It makes 2 things clear. School doesn't keep it in check, and is a veritable cesspool when it comes to exposure.

Ever since I and others around me got out of school I've noticed we've all degenerated in terms of spelling/maths ability, I think it's just disuse and not Asperger specific.

I have developed the same sort of degeneration in my spelling/grammar/english/whatever skills and have often wondered why, but I don't think it's an age related or school related problem, as I am 16 and still in school. If there is a specific condition that leads to this, I'd love to find out what it is.

I was just wondering...do you ever get the feeling that you've not so much "forgotten" a word or the name of something, more like you've "misplaced" the word somewhere in your mind? It's a very hard feeling/concept to explain. Sort of like you know the word you're trying to say or think of, and you know you know it, but it's just floating around in your brain somewhere, just out of reach? Probably just me, but it'd be cool to know if there were someone else who got the same sort of feeling.

That's called "having the word on the tip of your tongue", colloquially, and it's common to have it happen a little of the time. Not so common to have it happen a lot of the time.

My grammar and vocab descends into chaos as soon as I'm with other people, its the nerves!