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cataspie
Toucan
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Joined: 10 Jan 2008
Age: 46
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06 May 2008, 8:30 am

I keep having mental blocks when asked a question my mind just shuts down and the question can be as simple.EG:What year are we in?,how old are you?,where did you go on holiday?.
I can talk for quite a while about things and go very deep and i have overheard people say im very clever.
What is it with verbal questions that shuts my mind of for a while?
I started to talk when i was about 4 and had problems with following instructions for quite a while.I remember going to speech therapy and being told to perform tasks like moving one pig into the pen and two sheep out and also having to say 'how now brown cow'with voice tone included.I struggled with letter sounds th and f i often mixed up the two and found that hard.Many of the things i struggled with would proberly be classed as HFA but i also had trouble with hand eye coordination which is classed as an aspergers trait.I was always left untill the last for games with people moaning if they had to have me on the team and i could never hit that ball in rounders or understand the rules.Now im older i have no arm swing and look stiff (my mother say).
I can't play badminton because i watch the shuttle cock and can't seem to watch it and hit at the same time.
I can cook well and even press the button for the washing machine while cooking so that should meen i can multitask but then theres the problem of i have just missed other things that where important because i was focussed on something else.



cataspie
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Joined: 10 Jan 2008
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06 May 2008, 10:24 am

With questions it seems to be im almost put off course because its unexpected,i often talk to myself and only alot to a certain person.I think if i planned better for being asked something i would be ok sometimes its ok and i can answer but sometimes i have a shut off.Questions asked in a different way can sometimes be a problem like'how are you feeling in yourself'got me speechless a few weeks ago.



Microban
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06 May 2008, 10:26 am

From what you've described, it sounds alot like Mutism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_mutism



bookwormde
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06 May 2008, 10:46 am

It sound like part of the evaluation that they did when you were young was a CAP (central auditory processing) test, if you can get the results or get retested it might help.
It has to do with the transfer of auditory information to short term memory particularly in the presence of competing information. If you are an aspie then with your preference for visual input this can cause some challenges, this also include reading since reading is really “talking to ourselves. This is also one of the common spectrum markers.

Just as a funny anecdote, when I was younger people would ask me my name, and it would take me a moment to think about it and remember what it was. Names have never been important to me since they are and abstract social construct, which import very little information other than upon occasion, gender.

As to the bigger question it is hard to give an opinion with the information you have supplied. In “un-familiar” social setting do you have to expend a lot of intellectual effort trying to “figure out” what to say or do or in figuring out what other people are “thinking” from their faces or body language? This is a good clue although a lot of Spectrum adults do not even realize that this is not neurotypical.

bookwormde



bookwormde
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06 May 2008, 10:49 am

As to Microbans comments; selective mutism can be maladaptive co morbidity to extreme anxiety in spectrum individuals particularly if they are undiagnosed and unsupported.

bookwormde



cataspie
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06 May 2008, 12:40 pm

bookwormde wrote:
It sound like part of the evaluation that they did when you were young was a CAP (central auditory processing) test, if you can get the results or get retested it might help.
It has to do with the transfer of auditory information to short term memory particularly in the presence of competing information. If you are an aspie then with your preference for visual input this can cause some challenges, this also include reading since reading is really “talking to ourselves. This is also one of the common spectrum markers.

Just as a funny anecdote, when I was younger people would ask me my name, and it would take me a moment to think about it and remember what it was. Names have never been important to me since they are and abstract social construct, which import very little information other than upon occasion, gender.

As to the bigger question it is hard to give an opinion with the information you have supplied. In “un-familiar” social setting do you have to expend a lot of intellectual effort trying to “figure out” what to say or do or in figuring out what other people are “thinking” from their faces or body language? This is a good clue although a lot of Spectrum adults do not even realize that this is not neurotypical.

bookwormde


In an unfamiliar social setting i say very little and sometimes it sounds like people are talking just strings of words that have no meaning.Sometimes i watch people and try and figure things out but it makes me feel very alienated because i know i will never be like them.Most of what is important to them and there thinking seems very strange and i often analize alot.I used to call people humans when i was a child and thought of myself as not one of them.I don't look much at faces and have very poor facial recall.I know with people to watch out for double meanings which has caused me some trouble for getting it wrong.I figure people out by the rule that most live for the pecking order and that is what most things are about.That puts me off socialising even more the pecking order means little to me.
Sometimes in family settings i listen and pick up on something i find intresting in a topic thats spoken about and i over think the detail and become oblivious to everything else.My mind is at times like watching a film,when i look and see people again and comment on what has been said i find out that they where talking on that subject about half an hour ago.No one knows what im talking about and i sound odd(thats what my mother says).
I think mutism sounds like it could be right and maybe a co morbid but i can't rule out being on the spectrum because i could be.