Autism simulator...

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I thought about this, they have drunk driving simulators now to show ppl what its like to drunk drive to help them understand, now if people can see the way we do, i always wonder if people would still want a cure or that people would see autism through a different light and understand more. Does anybody else ever wish there was like an autism simulator, where you can put on this virtual helmet and see through an autistics eyes, feels what an autistic feels, understands what an autistic understands?

Yeah, but it would take an autistic to build it. It would be nice if other people could feel how I feel when I'm very stressed. Full flap mode is not a pretty sight, but a little empathy for those times when I'm out of control of myself would be nice.

No! That would be awful!

Or how about how a NT sees?

...unless, I guess, you're NT, then that would'nt be that fun

The best you could come would be simulating sensory overload or some other negative, external aspect of autism. You can't simulate the different pattern of processing information. Perhaps the social difficulties could be simulated by putting someone in with a team of actors who all are following arcane and unintelligible social protocol that they refuse to explain.

sure that would be cool but only for certain symptoms and stuff i like people to be able to know what its like to be on sensory overload

I agree, it would be hard to implement, unless there was a way to switch someones thought patterns. There is a schizophrenia simulator that seems like it would be pretty realistic, though this disorder has more to do with the auditory and visual aspect.

Link to demo: http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/feature ... zophrenia/

Actually, there is one. I did not try. But there was one you could sit in at the annual NVA convention five weeks ago in Netherland.

(NVA: Netherlands Autism Association)

Wow im suprised nobody said this.

It would be impossible because we are all soooo different, bla bla bla.

Yes, you would have to take the most common things about autism and put them together into a theoretical autistic average before you could make a simulator; and then you'd have to warn people that this is not necessarily applicable to every autistic.

I would like to see this for real. I have often tried to explain to my wife what it is like to have AS. And I am so thankful that she puts up with me willingly and lovingly. But still, a NT cannot know what it is truly like unless they have it.

Since we are on the topic of a simulator for AS, how many of my fellow Aspies, or other autistic spectrum people, would like to see the world through that of a NT as another fellow-poster mentioned? I ask this because when I was diagnosed with AS, they told me that they could offer me coaching skills to help me, and I expressed that I didn't want to lose those attributes that I had from AS that made me "me." They said I would not be changed in that way, just that they would offer me ways of coping with social skills, etc.

At the place where I was asessed, the lady who assesed me says she does workshops where she simulates AS to show NTs what it's like.

I heard they had a simulator where you could feel what it was like for someone with Paranoid Schizophrenia. As you can imagine, it was scary as heck. Gross too, like the food paranoias, just ewww..

http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/feature ... zophrenia/

Here is an easy, and very interesting business idea.

1. You invite NTs to a "camp" about how it is to be autistic. You charge them dearly for the service.

2. You put together a group of Aspies, and take ONE NT at a time to the wilderness. All the Aspies will have
to be trained to "turn off" all their coping abilities, and will be fully natural. At the camp, no Aspie would be allowed
to act NTish. The NT will not understand anything, and his/her social abilities would be worthless. After a week or so the NT will go nuts, and then the camp will be aborted, and the NT would have learned the lesson.

I think the NT could learn quickly enough to cope. There would be a great deal of culture shock, though, I think. Especially if one or more of the Aspies happened to be texture-sensitive to clothing.

I would be fascinated to know what life is like for an NT. They seem confusing and different to me, like people from a different country.

Glider--they can't make you non-autistic; but you were right to be cautious about which kind of therapy you went into. A good therapy will focus on teaching you how to communicate (how to understand others and get your own ideas across), rather than just how to look normal. It's a good sign if they allow you to use some unconventional method of communication; for example, if they don't insist on eye contact for those for whom it's too distracting (I was once advised to try looking at the forehead)... "Social skills training", unfortunately, can fall into either category. You probably wouldn't know which one it was until you tried it; not that you can't quit if it turns out to be patronizing "here's how to act NT" lessons... Of course there are also the childishly simple classes that only cover materials most Aspies learn by age twelve, and those are merely a waste of time.

Not if the group of Aspies is selected out so it only consists of individuals with atypical communication. Then the NT would not be able to read anything from nonverbal communication, and you cannot quickly learn to cope with this situation. It takes years of practise. Another way would be if the group of Aspies knows each others very well before. Then the NT would be an outsider that knows nothing about the common experience of the rest of the group. Kind of the same thing as when a group of NTs talks about sports or social happenings all the time in front of Aspies not interested in sports or social happenings.