Spotting fellow Aspies: How?

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This is a really interesting subject for me, because the classic signs of autism tend to disappear in higher functioning individuals. What I'm needing are some common indicators for AS men and women, which can work with regular accuracy. I've had some luck, but my methods aren't completely effective.

Maybe this should be considered a topic for 'autism general discussion', but spotting women is really where the whole schema starts falling apart. Men are easy enough to pick out just in the nature of gender differences. Women have a lot more variation to keep up with.

I doubt there is any such thing. AS is characterized by certain developmental delays combined with normal or higher intelligence, which means that Aspies have the intelligence to figure out how to make the delayed bits catch up.

On top of that, what might seem like signs of AS in an adult could just as easily be signs of an anxiety disorder or signs of an NT blending into a science or engineering work environment.

If you know what to look for, an NT in a science or engineering work environment will still be distinguishable from an AS in a similar work environment.

It is true that AS is characterized by a developmental delay, and that AS folks often are able to catch up in delayed areas eventually. However, the root cause of this delay is still present. In trying to spot AS among the older and/or higher-functioning people, what I tend to focus on is whether I can identify coping mechanisms, striking social incongruities, or weaknesses in either learning new things not in line with the person's interests or a general desire to stick to routines. I would avoid saying, "oh he exhibits this one trait, therefore he must be AS." Instead I would need to take a lot of time to identify patterns of behavior, and I would need to consider the overall picture as the sum of all the things I mentioned above. So yeah... it's a bit hand-waving in that last part, but one can't get much better than that when so many of the classic AS signs can get masked. The thing is, an AS person will typically use up energy to keep up these coping mechanisms, so it is useful to see what that person's limits are, and what sets him or her off. In high-stress situations, these coping mechanisms often go out the door. Ultimately you don't know a person until you see how that person performs under less-than-favorable circumstances.

There are a lot of people in my science department whom I suspect to have AS, but I don't know the official diagnosis status for most of them. They are fairly high-functioning, but in social aspects they stick out like sore thumbs. For example there's this one guy in my lab whom I think has AS, but he's picked up a lot of social skills along the way to be able to carry conversations with strangers. However, he also does a lot of social incongruities that are not uncommon among AS folks, including but not limited to:
* a self-professed obsession with guitars, always reading about them, browsing the internet about them, collecting them
* little to no social life
* does not respect boundaries in conversations (constantly interrupts you mid-sentence, insists on choosing the topic of conversation, constantly talks too loudly)
* does not work well with labmates (insists on own supply of everything, spends shared lab money on his project without thought of other people's projects)
* is constantly being told by the more social people (whom I think are NTs) in the lab that his social expectations do not work in reality
* doing things a certain way because "that's how everybody expects you to do it" without understanding any other reason why a person would do it that way (coping mechanism, and it gets him into trouble with the NTs since those certain ways are more typical of what a teenager would do, instead of more adult or independent thinking)
* treats new things condescendingly, thinks everything he does not do is "weird"
* stims (shakes his leg, pats his head), stutters, and misspeaks especially when nervous
* walks stiffly or jerkily
* extremely dependent on parents for basic stuff like clothes (he's 27)
* sense of humor makes people

Of course when trying to identify AS traits in a high-functioning, older Aspie, you have to consider the cultural background that the person was raised in, and see how that person differs from that particular background. The guy I mentioned above is Chinese, so I do have to make an allowance for the fact that in Chinese culture adults aren't as independent of their parents, compared to more mainstream American culture (being aware that there is no uniform American culture per se, heh). But even by Chinese or general Asian standards, he sticks out. The NTs in the lab he constantly fights with are Chinese too, but he has conflicts with so many people that a personal one-on-one conflict rather than a cultural/big-picture conflict is less likely.

Sorry if this is confusing! It's kinda hard for me to explain, but there are a lot of variables involved. Basically, in order for this to work, you really need a thorough and realistic understanding of what comprises many different cultures, so that you can do the appropriate compare-and-contrast among groups of people, as well as between individuals.

Yes for the kind of guy you described, who leaves it all hanging out there, but no for someone less marked or who has put more into social skills. So I'd agree with "If you know what to look for, an NT in a science or engineering work environment will still be distinguishable from an AS in a similar work environment if the AS is markedly uncompensated."

It looks uncompensated, but that's only because of how I described him. All the things I mentioned are relatively speaking, and only pop out after taking a lot of time getting to know him in ways most people do not bother doing. If you don't know what would be the appropriate comparisons to make, between him and somebody else (i.e. who would that be?), many of the things I mentioned would drop out.

The more social skills the person has acquired, and the better the person's understanding of those skills, the more seamless the facade is going to be, and yes the harder it will be to spot them. Harder, but not impossible.

Exactly, so the answer to the original question, "what are reliable ways to spot Aspies" is still, "there aren't any.

There's two possible questions in there:

1. Is there a set of behaviors, where if one person exhibits a whole lot of them, it's a pretty safe bet they have AS? Yeah, sure.

2. Is there a set of cues I can look for that will allow me to identify all or most or even half the Aspies in an adult population, just by casual observation, without putting years into it? Nope.

Well years might be an overstatement, but yeah you'd have to at least get to know the person first, which wouldn't be "casual observation".

I think we're preaching to each other's choir here.

Glazed over eyes? I don't know sorry. But it's what I look like in all my pics.

LOL. I wonder if you've hit on something -- I always look odd in photos unless I didn't know they were being taken. Anyone else have that?

I dunno... hale_bopp's eyes don't look glazed over to me. They always seem full of life!

SOmetimes they do. Several pics they don't though.

I can spot Aspies fairly easily only because of the research I've done on it. Although I have never asked him personally, my friend Rob has all the signs of AS. He darts his eyes around in a whirling derbish while I am talking to him, he keeps his chin up, and his voice is rather monotone.

Like many of you, I have a tendency to show my AS when someone takes a picture that I do not expect. It appears like my mind is always out in outer space or something.