At what age do you think your social skills are stuck?

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Sora
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21 Feb 2009, 12:02 pm

When I see the 6 and 7yo's I work with, I experience that they're far more socially mature than I am in their social skills and their social thinking (not in their reasoning in which I have a lot more experience).

Even the special ed children, though roughly 1 to 3 years behind in different areas of their development and obviously less developed and skilled socially than their peers are still better at social things, have a lot more empathy than I.

So my social skills and empathy are probably somewhere stuck at the level of a toddler or a baby despite that I am hf. How reassuring that a part of me will remain younger than a 3-year-old until the day I die (this is sarcasm).

At what age do you think your social skills are stuck?

Some things to think about when trying to answer that:

Was there a point in your childhood when your contact with peers suddenly worsened because you couldn't keep up socially? Maybe at that point your peers moved on socially beyond your abilities.
Or did you start out totally isolated from your peers even as a toddler?

If you have or had the chance to experience the social interaction between non-autistic children, how do you feel you compare to their social ability/social reciprocation?


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21 Feb 2009, 12:06 pm

Sora wrote:
When I see the 6 and 7yo's I work with, I experience that they're far more socially mature than I am in their social skills and their social thinking (not in their reasoning in which I have a lot more experience).

Even the special ed children, though roughly 1 to 3 years behind in different areas of their development and obviously less developed and skilled socially than their peers are still better at social things, have a lot more empathy than I.

So my social skills and empathy are probably somewhere stuck at the level of a toddler or a baby despite that I am hf. How reassuring that a part of me will remain younger than a 3-year-old until the day I die (this is sarcasm).

At what age do you think your social skills are stuck?

Some things to think about when trying to answer that:

Was there a point in your childhood when your contact with peers suddenly worsened because you couldn't keep up socially? Maybe at that point your peers moved on socially beyond your abilities.
Or did you start out totally isolated from your peers even as a toddler?

If you have or had the chance to experience the social interaction between non-autistic children, how do you feel you compare to their social ability/social reciprocation?


If you think it is stuck, than you must have full blown autism rather than AS, because without an intelectual imparement you will still be able to learn and grow. I was trailing by about two years until recently, now i am all caught up.



Callista
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21 Feb 2009, 12:11 pm

Um, no, people with "full blown" autism, including those who also have cognitive delay, also learn as they get older. They do tend to learn more slowly than Aspies, but that's the only difference.

I approximate my raw social skills at something like a six year old's level; but I have some skills a six year old wouldn't have, mostly linguistic skills rather than social skills per se, such as the use of logic or analogy to communicate something. So my social functioning in general is something unique, not at the level of any age of NT, but something completely different.


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outlier
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21 Feb 2009, 12:30 pm

I started out with worse interaction skills than my peers, and was isolated from about age 3. When observing children younger than 10, they still have better interaction skills and social reciprocation than I do. I'm going to be around some later today, so will be able to better judge the skill gap and maybe repost in this thread what I observe.



Asterisp
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21 Feb 2009, 12:42 pm

Sora wrote:
When I see the 6 and 7yo's I work with, I experience that they're far more socially mature than I am in their social skills and their social thinking (not in their reasoning in which I have a lot more experience).

Even the special ed children, though roughly 1 to 3 years behind in different areas of their development and obviously less developed and skilled socially than their peers are still better at social things, have a lot more empathy than I.

Nice to read you have a job, so soon after finishing your school.

But to get back on-topic...
When I would take my interaction with children at my volunteer work as a measure, it would be good until the age of twelve. So are my social skills stuck at the level of a normal twelve year old? Well for a part that could be true.

When I look at my own times in school, the seperation between me and my peers was a the age of twelve/thirteen.

On the other hand there are other traits important in social traffic, like responsibility. Mine is higher than average, yours probably as well. That compensates for a lot.

That age comparing focusses only on part of your personality and I would not put too much faith in it.



alba
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21 Feb 2009, 12:43 pm

It's really hard to say. Feels like the level of a hostile uncooperative teenager.....somewhere between 13 and 16.



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21 Feb 2009, 1:14 pm

My therapist is an AS specialist and he does not agree with the statement made by an AS expert that we are 1/3-2/3 our chronological age emotionally. It may have been Attwood that said that.

I'm 40, and sometimes I still feel like a teenager, but typically it's like a young adult, like early twenties. My entire lifestyle is like someone that age.



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21 Feb 2009, 1:27 pm

It depends on the person and the conversation. Some people I naturally have a very easy time talking to, while other people I can't think of a single intelligent thing to say around them. I think that's why some people find me very fun to talk to, and others find me dull as a rock.
Also, it depends on what they're talking about. I'd say my social skills are about average if someone's talking about my interests, but if someone's talking about their jobs or something like that I tend to get quiet and not contribute much to the conversation.



Sora
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21 Feb 2009, 1:41 pm

Asterisp wrote:
Nice to read you have a job, so soon after finishing your school.

I do voluntary social work for a couple of months, but it's paid, so it's a job.


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Apep
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21 Feb 2009, 2:10 pm

Social skills change and can regress. There were some ages when I had it together (in certain ways) more than now. Of course, I don't think that is a function so much of social skills but rather of coping with the anxiety.

Until I was 25, I felt like a teenager, emotionally. Here's to hoping I've made it to my early 20s.



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21 Feb 2009, 5:07 pm

My 3 year old nephew is better at reading other people's emotions and expressing his own emotions than I am.

The point at which my peers started socially developing beyond me was around age 13.



princesseli
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21 Feb 2009, 5:59 pm

Sora wrote:
When I see the 6 and 7yo's I work with, I experience that they're far more socially mature than I am in their social skills and their social thinking (not in their reasoning in which I have a lot more experience).

At what age do you think your social skills are stuck?

Some things to think about when trying to answer that:

Was there a point in your childhood when your contact with peers suddenly worsened because you couldn't keep up socially? Maybe at that point your peers moved on socially beyond your abilities.
Or did you start out totally isolated from your peers even as a toddler?

If you have or had the chance to experience the social interaction between non-autistic children, how do you feel you compare to their social ability/social reciprocation?


Yeah often when I see younger children, I analysis the way they interact and compare that to the way I was when I was a kid and just see how easily they'll adapt to people at such a young age even if they dont know them.
Right now if I were to guess where my social skills are at right now, is probably around 13/14 years old and Im 20. Im slowly progressing except the way I talk in casual conversations is typically using harder vocabulary. Idk, Im like a really smart 13/14 year old. Since most of my friends are not autistic/aspergers, I feel like Im sometimes like there immature little sister.

As for socially, I stopped talking for a long time when I was almost 8, I started talking again when i was 17. So I started up again extremely behind but Ive made strides to start to catch up.



Padium
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21 Feb 2009, 6:24 pm

Around 25 is when the brain stops developing, so I would say 25.



Vulcan
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21 Feb 2009, 6:32 pm

i think i am about 16, but using my logic i can fake a 60 year old:)

so my overall mental age is probably somewhere near my real age...

if i dissect if i would say my relationship skills are the low while my interpretation skills are somewhat higher...if that makes any sense?



Padium
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21 Feb 2009, 7:10 pm

I would say I am somewhere between 5 and 10 for social skills...



2ukenkerl
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21 Feb 2009, 7:31 pm

Padium wrote:
Around 25 is when the brain stops developing, so I would say 25.


Soe now say 35!! !!