Aspies For Freedom

I think people are entitled to be skeptical of self diagnoses (it's a simple fact that most people will not be qualified to make diagnoses), but that's not any good reason to exclude them from sites like this.

I was responding to the quote you included that asserted language acquisition was certain before age 6 and iffy after puberty. I know that one of the ten most influential people a couple of years ago was a guy named Davidson, who showed that the mere act of focused thinking changes the structure of adult brains. I also know that the neuroscientific research that I've looked at over the past 10 years indicates that brains remain plastic throughout life, which is contrary to the conventional wisdom of 15-20 years ago. (I know that you have just asserted this, but it was not apparent in your original post.) We are, however, creatures of habit, so I suspect that the desire to change or effective means for changing patterns of behavior are indicated as adulthood progresses. We tend to find something that works and stick with it.

Anyway, the point is that when we look at generalizations about populations, we cannot easily make assertions about any specific individual. We are looking at probabilities, not certainties.  Too often such nuances are quite lost by the time such "findings" percolate down to the classroom, and we are left with one-size-fits-all strategies. In addition, classrooms are often operating on the "findings" from two decades ago since the percolation process is not a rapid one.  Bureaucracy is not the best agent of change.

The good news is that, in the process of derailing this thread, you and I have engaged our brains and kept a few neurons going that might otherwise have died.

On topic -- I have chosen most-probable diagnoses for all of my spectrum children basically by comparing them with other spectrum children and seeing who they match up with best. Sean had severe speech delays, but taught himself to read and write at age 4. He is a social little guy and was determined to find a way to communicate. I decided HFA for him.  At age 9 his speech is comprehensible, but markedly different.  His academics are just beautiful, though.  He is a very smart young man.  The oldest, with no speech delay and hyperlexic I've decided is AS even though he enjoys palilalia and echolalia.  I've pointed it out to him and he doesn't want to change and I will not make him. The girl will be 8 soon and has a few more challenges than the boys. In addition to speech issues, she has poor muscle tone. She is finally starting to read, write and do addition. Removing her from public school has had a profoundly positive impact on her academics. It is my hope that she is fully at grade level by the time she is 10.  I've read many studies indicating that delayed children often catch up to their peers.  I've decided that she'd probably be diagnosed PDD if we got diagnoses, mostly because she has a friend with that diagnosis and they are like peas in a pod.

Any way you look at it, though, I had attentional and learning difficulties from age of 0 to the age of 21, and they didn't "budge" despite doing work in the trouble areas.  I refer to my schooling and the variety of social interactions I had up to the age of 21.  I still have the same "mental blocks" I had then, now.  My social anxiety is perhaps worse now, than it was at 18 (when I was very social.)

So, I do not think brain plasticity is the "be all, end all" of what a person can do with their cognition once they hit adulthood.  We have things unique to our neurology young, and a lot of these same quirks, strengths, deficits tend to stay the same when we get older, despite work in the trouble areas.

I mean, could you argue that if I had been forced to join more extracurricular activities (such as sports) when younger (in those "most plastic" of all years), I'd be a more capable human being now?  I think the reverse could be true, I'd have been so terrible due to my attentional problems, trouble following directions, and mild dyspraxia, the social embarrassment would have lowered my self-esteem and I might be worse for the cause, and not better.

I was never "forced" into extracurricular activities, as an aside... is that bad parenting you think, or just my style (because of extreme anxiety, I hated those things) ??

Wrong, you didnt self diagnose - you just think you have Aspergers.  You are not qualified to diagnose anyone with anything - even a common cold.

Would you stop digging at me with these "subtle" statements?  Are you suggesting I'm not working hard enough on myself, or something?

Let's keep the subtlety to a minimum, as I won't be able to read it (or if I do, I'll read it to think you're insulting me.)