Aspies For Freedom

Not brilliant at math either.

I think this site needs abit of us non-stereotypical aspies

Four?

Isn't it like 12 members of this forum?

</jk>

I have mixed abilities with regard to math. And even when I taught myself things like calculus at early ages, I am prone to forgetting things I've learned, and so have taught myself calculus three times, going for a fourth time.

I am also bad at reading non-digital clocks and watches.

But yeah, the math thing is pretty much a stereotype. Doesn't mean it's false for everybody, just means that it's not the experience of the majority to be a math genius.

Word problems have been a nightmare for me too! It's extremely difficult for me to switch from "language-processing mode" to "math/spatial analysis mode". In fact, that's how I got stumped on the math problems portion of the IQ test I took, because I had a hard time understanding and then remembering the meaning of the words long enough to do the math, so I had to keep asking the problem be repeated (didn't help that I have auditory processing issues, too). Long division in fourth grade was a nightmare to learn, too. I could never remember the Order of Steps to Solve the Problem.

The 24-hour clock was hard for me too. I don't have it anymore. The thing for me was, how could, for instance, 13:00 have the same personality as 1:00 p.m.?

Heh, well it was a bad-at-math-joke.

I meant total of this forum's members.

Not that old.

Language Aspies walk among us.  Language is my thing - I did well in English all through school, write for fun and my job also involves writing.  I've always had good language skills, and when I was given an IQ test as part of the official diagnosis my linguistic quotient fell off the high end of the scale.  

The thing about Aspie skill sets is they tend to be scattered to the four winds, much moreso than one would expect from a neurotypical person.  So, my overall IQ (if you consider such a figure remotely relevant to life, the universe, or anything) didn't come out much above average, despite the high linguistic quotient, because some other sections were quite woefully below par.

My language skills actually prevented me getting diagnosed for the longest time.  If I'd had excellent maths skills and poor verbal skills, I reckon that combined with all my other Aspiecentricities would have scored me a diagnosis as HFA as a kid (Aspergers as such wasn't recognised back then.)  But because it was the reverse, I was just considered a bit odd.

My mathematical ability is nonexistent, spatial is moderate, but I am very good with word problems and the like, I was verbally very fluent and literally competent from a very early age.

Not necessarily a myth, just an over-generalization.

In general, in this science-techno-centric crazy old world we live in, I think maths skills are generally held in higher esteem than humanities skills anyway.  So a maths genius Aspie is a bit like the equivalent of the boring guy with a great DVD library - not a lot of fun, but comes in handy.

At school, the one year I managed to talk my way onto the Tournament of Minds team (it was quite prestigious, all the 'smart' kids did it, except me.  Never knew why.) I really really really wanted to do the Language And Literature challenge.  The task was to write a malapropism version of A Bush Christening, and I could see it being just hilarious.  But I was told no, and kicked off the team, because even though we were likely to win anyway (we were practically the only school competing) it would "look better" if we did the Science And Engineering challenge instead, even though it was naff.

I was only talking about myself.

Yes!  The way neurotypical people don't have to be great at anything... because Aspies shouldn't have to have some special "gift" to justify their existence.  It's what's always bothered me about listing intelligence, savantism etc as the 'benefits' of autism.  Not just because not all people with autism have those things, but because they shouldn't have to have some superpower just to earn the right to breathe.  

Otherwise we end up back in "some people are worth more than others" territory.

Yes it's true! Batman has the best bull dust meter I've ever come across. I thought I was fairly good at detecting it but am nowhere near as good as he is. I also agree that we need far more portrayals of creative and quirky aspies, not just the maths and computer geniuses.

I was good at both math and verbal as a child--great at memorizing stuff. And I was a total disaster/klutz in the athletic/physical movement department.  As I've aged, I've gotten less smart and more coordinated.  Go figure.