Wondering About Finished Products

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I was thinking about my two spectrum kids who are in their 20's. They are, only now, progressing forward emotionally much better than as they did as teens and as kids, that I realize that just because someone is in his or her 20's doesn't mean they're mostly completely grown.

Then I wondered if spectrum people mature more slowly. Then I wondered if, because NT's can conform so much more easily, that walking in lockstep with society means that they don't have to keep working as hard with emotional growth.

Title of thread wasn't clear about what you meant, but now I get it.
I'm 34, didn't find out about AS 'til dx at 30. Have been "late bloomer" in social ways & "early bloomer" in intellectual ways throughout my life, and have had various aspects of my personality/temperament reinforced or emphasized at different points & phases.
I would think that all people, not just those w/ASD's, evolve across (each person's) lifespan. In a sense, no one is a "finished product" until the moment of death, when one no longer is "having experiences"-perceptions, sensations, emotions, cognitions.

Nothing's ever perfect, you just run out of time.

That can apply to people too. I do beleive that we develop slower than those around us. Accelerated intellect for decelerated social skills. Often, the lack of social skills undermine the intellectual as we are too emotionally pressured on to use the intellect very well until much later in our lives.

Heh, this coming from a 17 year old...

The rule of thumb we've picked up from everything we've been able to read.... Aspie's develop emotionally at roughly 2/3rd's their chronological age. In other words, at 10 I had an emotional maturity level of approximately 7. At 20, roughly 14... at 30 about 20 etc. Since males are notoriously "immature" in the teen years ANYWAY... it's an extra difficulty, but it does explain my college years to me... That's the figure we picked up from reading, and it was repeated back to me by the professional autism consultants from the local school system.

I think HFA \ AS folks develop differently. I do not think we conform to the standard developmental chart used to measure intellectual and social growth of NT's. I honestly think comparing AS \ HFA life evolution to NT evolution is like comparing apples to oranges. I do not suggest one is superior to the other but, I think they are vastly different processes each with their own inherant unique strengths and weaknesses.

I agree! It's not right for HFA/AS kids and the kids' parents to feel that the die is cast and the future looks grim because the kid isn't emotionally mature enough at the magic age of 18. The way I put it so that educators could understand my son, was that most NTs are given a 250 piece puzzle at birth to be finished by age 18 and my son was given a 1000 piece puzzle. All the special ed programs that they have aren't going to rush him into finishing the puzzle the right way by age 18. He's not broken. He just has a really big jigsaw puzzle.

From old age, when social and emotional don't count, the second childhood, and about time.

We are lifetime learners, most of the people I can up with never read a book after school.

We old children just kept learning, and while not being up with the KBABZ christmas present photo, my tech is not that much older. I had better, but I gave it to the kid.

I feel very in the time of now. School was not an education, but learning to educate yourself. Twenty years ago lifer student was a joke, then it became lifetime learner, and very accepted, but the workers were still counting the days to retirement.

I am shocked that Doctors have to be required to take ongoing education. With classes held at a golf course. Your lawyer has not kept up, Engineers say their education has a five year half life. AS/HFA go to engineering, and other fields that take continual update.

We are the perfect students and workers, to bad they what someone who can talk football.

At the rate knowledge is coming in, people are getting dumber by default.

I see a lot here that went to college late, or back for a second or third degree. It is a shame there are so few of us. Running this planet is going to take some good thinking.

Studies show that people with a higher IQ develop slower in social, emotional, and maturity levels.

Just thought that i should point that information out