What are your awesome Aspie skills?

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I'd love to know about some of the special "aspie skills" of some of the people on this forum. My best friend has AS, and I've been discovering such interesting skills of his that he was not even aware of until I pointed them out. I suspect that people with AS probably have many intriguing talents and abilities. I'd especially like to hear a list of your talents and abilities so I can prove to my friend Erik that AS is not something to be embarrassed about, but a wellspring of uncommon ability. So in your reply to this post, worry not about modesty! Lol!

Some examples of the types of skills I'm talking about are as follows. When I first met my friend Erik, and I began talking to him on the phone, I noticed that when he was talking about the other people in his life, his voice would change to mimic theirs exactly, in tone, pitch, quality, and the exact words used. It sent chills down my spine! He wasn't aware of his ability to replay voices like a human tape recorder, but after I told him this, he uses his talent to entertain friends on a regular basis. It's really amazing to me that he can be so perceptive. He later decided he probably learned this skill subconsciously in order to adapt to the school environment when he was a kid. He's quite proud of it now.

Another example of a cool and useful skill would be his ability to memorize material that we read together, if the material occurs in categories or can be arranged into lists. His ability to then merge information from different categories together provides unusual and innovative insight which would not occur to me, because knowledge gained by me exists in a sort of disorderly pool where things have no clear relation to one another.

Or, moving beyond the mundane, does anyone feel that those with AS are able to perceive different levels of reality, or sense energies unnoticed by the average person? I'm very sensitive to these sorts of things and it seems that Erik is as well. This is really interesting to me, and I'm wondering about the possible connection between AS and psychic abilities, for lack of a better term. What kind of skills of that sort might some of you possess? I'd love to know! (I hope that isn't a crazy thing to ask.)

Share anything that you feel like sharing about talents and abilities! Thanks in advance for your replies!

I have a natural ability for art, and I can learn new skills really quickly, like knitting and that sort of thing.

I also have a really good memory

Anyone else?

Not sure if I have AS or not, but some random things I can do, of questionable uniqueness:

• Write forwards, backwards, upside-down, or upside-down and backwards in Cursive. For an unknown reason, I can only write forwards with my left hand, but the others work fine with either hand. Note: I didn't practice to do this, I just one day wondered, Hmm, can I write backwards in cursive? I tried it, and voila, it worked.
• Balance 4-legged chairs on 1 or 2 legs. (Used to do in HS when finished with tests, usually took about 5-10 min to get balanced perfectly) Your typical HS chairs, with four metal legs, plastic seat, and then some type of bearing at the bottom of each leg with a foot on it. (Ones with a stuck bearing... much easier to balance)
• Memorize random useless bits of information, such as install keys for software, and be able to recall them by remembering the name of the program
• Memorize keyboard layouts and start typing at about 20wpm within about 20 minutes. (At least I did it with Dvorak for kicks a few years ago)
• For working on computers: Identify USB, PS/2, Network, VGA, Serial, Parallel, Toslink, and RCA jacks by feel (who needs to pull out a computer to plug everything in anyway? )
• Identify sizes of many manufacturers' HDDs and memory modules by looking at the model numbers

I probably have a lot of AS-related skills that I don't notice because I take them for granted as normal. Here's a list of possible ones:

-quickly understanding and memorizing systems or information presented in chart form

-remembering information related to my interests

-keen senses (I can hear sounds that most people can't hear, for example)

-tendency to notice and remember details that other people would not (for example, an nt friend would remember someone's facial expressions while I remembered the buttons on their shirt)

-tendency to notice patterns that most people take for granted (I have a low tolerance for fiction because I quickly recognize popular plot structures and know what's going to happen)

-ability to process information without value judgement

-tendency to notice minute inconsistencies or contradictions

-complete honesty in all situations

-resistance to manipulation techniques that are based on "reading" people

-resistance to social pressures

Of course some of these can be disadvantages too. For example some people appreciate total honesty, while others are offended by it.

Krista,

Has anyone told you that you look a bit like Billie Piper? (Honestly, that's not a bad thing)

I am the Hyperkinesis Kid. I use this to do trapeze and climbing amongst other things.

My working memory is fairly bad. I have trouble decifering the body language of what a person is trying to express at any one moment but I can see from their facial expression the kind of expression that they hold often and something hidden of their character. It can be quite disconcerting, but I can ignore my instincts at my own peril.

Can't think of much else - though there is more for sure.

Nice thread, thank you for inquiring!

sepia x

I can read extremely fast I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in less then four hours (and I didn't skip anything).

I'm also in an very hard writing program at my school (which is a magent school), because I have the ability to clearly put my thoughts on paper.

I'm glad you're there for your friend It's hard to have Aspergers, and it's even harder when you don't have any friends to help you figure out life.

Complaining, perhaps.

I looked up Billie Piper because I wasn't familar with her looks. I think we have very similar chins and there's a similarity to our noses as well. And hair color. So I'd have to say, of all the people I've been told I look like, I agree the most with this one.

Trapeze and climbing, truly? That's very cool.

I forgot to make mention of Erik's incredibly acute sense of hearing, but I should have as I'd read it's an Aspie trait. My own sense of hearing is probably below normal BUT I have an incredibly acute sense of smell.

And of course these amazing computer abilities. My friend has them as well. I do not understand them and thus I left that part of it out. Lol.

Writing backwards and upside down in cursive sounds pretty cool. I'd like to see that!

Cool, for me my sense of smell and taste are very sensitive, though this can be influenced also by what mood i am in and I can feel overloaded very quickly because I cannot tune these sensations into the background.

I think that we aspies can have either very acute senses or sometimes very blunt senses. It is the 'erratic tuning' that is the common ground, sometimes this is called 'sensory integration disfunction' and I think that it makes up a large part of the differences that we experience. you can read some more about it here:

http://www.sensoryintegration.co.uk/

obviously some people are effected much more than others. I hope that makes sense and is useful?

i am very good at finding things, rendering socks into unusual stuffed animals, and I have a good sense for coming up with melodies, and while I might not have perfect pitch, I have perfect tone.

I'm not sure how much of these are due to my AS and how useful the are as skills, but...

- good attention to detail in sound, objects and writing. The detail in writing might make me a good lawyer. My attention to detail also helps when I'm video editing.

- Knowing alot about my 'special interests', which includes my collage course. I'm also interested in military history; I got an A+ for writing a 750 word essay covering the technological evolution of tanks from WW1 to present day. But the than that, It's mostly useful for instantly recognising most tanks, guns and planes... if you think that is useful.

- Being slightly synaesthetic lets me use music as a good inspiration for my art.

I can understand anything someone says to me, even if I'm not familiar with what they are talking about.

I can also read really fast, I watch Japanese versions of my favorite anime and I can read the subtitles in a fraction of a second and still see what's going on.

I have a nearly photographic memory. It is very detailed but also a bit selective, I don't remember somethings that happend to me. But if it's a documentery, lecture, or event I generally remember it with great detail. I am a sponge for random bits of information.

P.S. Yeah for Kristas! there are 3 of us now that I know of on the board.

A good memory and good verbal skills

I have a good memory. I've been called the walking phone book, and one of my friends said he might just use my brain to back up his contacts on his iphone. I'd have to charge him for that. If you can't tell, I'm a sponge. Also I have perfect pitch, am a fast learner, and have heightened senses. I'm probably more intelligent due to AS, because our brains are organized differently. It's that great attention to detail. "oh, but all that's just because you're blind. That's why you're so good with music, like Ray Charles. You have a good memory because your blind. You organize and do everything the way you do because your blind. All blind people are smart." These people just don't get it. The number of stupid blind people is proportionate to the number of stupid sighted people. Also I've met some of them who are tone deaf and probably couldn't remember their own names without writing them down first. Stop stareotyping. Fortunately, I have AS.