i noted this as well. i'm still pondering how to make them stop.the reason my mother says is that poeple dont know what to do with us or how to act around those who are diffrent they treat them like they paper dolls or like their children.
side note this is one of 5 defetions for the word human being:
human being
noun
any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage [syn: homo]
I'm in the process of losing another job, partly due to some of my aspie traits creating difficulties in the workplace. I'd made a health declaration with my application, in which I'd mentioned my AS, which was then discussed with an occupational health professional who passed me fit for employment, but it was not passed on to my manager.
At a recent meeting with my manager and area manager to discuss my 'issues' and 'attitude' I disclosed my diagnosis. My manager responded with "Awwww!". I imagine you can hear how that sounded, but if not, try adding the words 'poor baby' after it to give it the right nuance.
Nobody, anywhere, ever, wanted to hear that noise, surely? The kicker is that I'm a support worker for adults with learning difficulties (including some on the spectrum) with a company that claims to be about empowering people. As noises go, it's surely among the most demeaning & belittling.
I remember this girl at lower secondary I hated for doing that, after I said that I didn't sleep that night (that was a topic in a conversation) she said:
"Oh, did you stay up playing lego?"
Yeah it is annoying when people waste my time talking slowly.
This is not a characterization of all NT's, this is just one possible explanation...
It could be that many NT's enjoy/need instant response to their conversation/teaching attempts and so talking to aspies/auties makes them nervous and they overcompensate.
Even if someone is a professional teacher, being ignored or not being able to connect with someone can hurt or feel like rejection. Some compensate for this by losing patience just talking over the other person, not waiting for their response. Others might talk in a baby talk like voice so that they can maintain a safe emotional distance and thus don't experience the discomfort of not getting the social interaction they crave.
I hit 'post reply' before I was done.
This lack of response/connection discomfort might explain why some parents are so desperate to have their AS children 'cured' because they aren't getting the emotional interaction in the way they expected and they feel rejected, or that they are 'missing out' on their entitlement of an adoring child.
I know when I have tried to talk to the son of a friend of mine who has AS it isn't easy because he doesn't contribute to the conversation more than to answer very briefly. Despite my interest in talking to him more I more or less have just backed off - which might be exactly what he wants, but then again, it might not be... I have no way of knowing unless he gives me some sort of hint to keep trying.
I personally have Never such an experience at school, not even at nursery school. For those of you who have; at What grade or level of schooling has this occurred for you? I cant see that kind of thing happening except maybe in special ed.
I usualy parry in as formal a language as I can. Works like a charme, and has an added bonus of seeing them sink into the ground as wearing concrete shoes in quicksand.
I've had that happen often when I was growing up, and even as an adult, which is very annoying. I even quit volunteering at a school for children with various disabilities because some of the staff treated me as if I was one of the kids instead of a volunteer college aide.
Yeah, I still get it from some people. It's annoying too.
I dunno, at college I was treated no differently from others..Dave my key skills lecturer for instance..my god what a man, I would have him as the godfather of my first child
he treated me with respect, like an adult and above all, as a human being.
Ian
Simple. Those to whom you refer as "they" use baby talk because "they" are stupid.
Yes, I noticed this as well. My homeroom teacher talks to me like I'm a five year old in a tantrum. She always asks me "So what are you going to say when you meet him?"
Once of these days, my bomb of tolerance is going to explode and I will rant to her about being treated like I'm *** and incapable of higher-order thinking.
I've never really experienced this. I was only diagnosed recently so nobody knew I was AS when I was at school. I have also learned to act quite NT in public. The few work colleagues who I have told about my AS don't treat me any differently, they still treat me as an intelligent capable adult.
I don't think it has anything to do with how people perceive you as a person, just how they perceive AS. They think:
'AS = learning disability = I must talk to this person in the simplest way possible in order to be understood'.
If you spoke to the same person but they didn't know about your AS, they would probably talk to you like any other human being.
Maybe you should try telling them that you are not an idiot, most people with AS have higher than average IQs, and you would like to be spoken to like an adult please, as you are perfectly capable of understanding them.
This is exactly why I wish I was never diagnosed. When people know you're Aspergian, they treat you like a ***. When people don't, and they don't catch any Aspiness, they treat you like an equal.
Seriously, my homeroom teacher talks like I don't know how to socialize with people at all. She says "so what are you going to say when you meet him?" like I was completely unsure. This silently gets on my nerves. She probably knows I'm Aspergian.
I used to get treated like a *** even before I knew of the Asperger's. Not by huge numbers of people but by enough so that it hurt. The stupid thing is that I would be brighter than most of the people who were acting so patronising but they don't see that for some reason.