It has occurred to me that many people here, and in the medical community, associate quantitative reasoning with AS. I am not a terrible mathematician, but hardly brilliant either. I deal primarily with the humanities and the political sciences, at which I excel. I was curious to know as to whether this signifies anything, and if there is as much diversity within the AS community as there is without...
Following a period of self-reflection I have determined that something is amiss. I do not know if it is AS, though it may well be likely.
I would say I'm ok at maths. In school I always managed to get at least a passing mark. But I don't know my times tables and in Primary School used to be always writing lines because I couldn't recite answers straight away, I'd be sitting there working them out, which I still do. I get by basically, but I have a nervous thing associated with working maths things out, especially if there is some pressure behind the answer... sometimes I go blank.
John 11/ asp is terrible at math. Word prbelms are a toal mystery to him but geomtery and math with pictures he does fine...
Four?
Isn't it like 12 members of this forum?
</jk>
I'm sorry, I meant all four of our family members.
I had been told, though, that a good command of words was unusual for AS...
Medical community? Hmm no no, psychology is not medical, nor much of a science either. The diversity is primarily social. While from afar it may appear aspies have some enhanced reasoning skills, what I think is actually happening is that they lack social limiters to thought and/or learned thought mechanisms.
When a professor asked aloud "name an invasive species" in population ecology auditorium lecture, I answered "humans". For some reason this was profoundly funny to the other 200 listeners. A depressing truth to me is just another faux pas in the garden to everyone else.
As for Math, well I was one of those students given F's for solving math problems (calculus) in their heads and just writing the right answer. Logically, that should be a great thing, but as far as the system is concerned, It is a bloody knife without a body (unproven cheating). Only after AS-Dx-retrospect mode have I changed my view of my math skills from "shit" to "superhuman".
To the other end of your post: As an adult, you may never know if you have it or not.
I had been told, though, that a good command of words was unusual for AS...
You have been told wrong. Just have a look around at the posts in this forum.
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.
I have had a similar experience. Odd and eccentric rather than AS. Purely because I enjoy literature, philosophy and the theatre rather than physics or computer science.
I had been told, though, that a good command of words was unusual for AS...
That is wrong. Actually I think it is common for Aspies to have a fairly good vocabulary. Which isn't to say it's always true, nothing is. But I think the good vocabulary would come from reading. I know I read quite a bit, particularly when I was growing up.
I’ll start out by saying that the following is not a statement of well thought-out philosophy. Mostly, I was bored and started thinking out loud ;-)
I believe that most of the “savant” or “little professor” manifestations come from the spectral nature of autism.
The autistic spectrum is really composed of a range of intelligence similar to non-autistics. There are low, medium, and high IQs on the autistic spectrum, but they are all additionally restricted by the autistic barrier to learning and communication. So, a smaller percentage than normal are able to exhibit the results of their sometimes exhaustive intellectual pursuits. When they finally do manage to express themselves, they tend to be at a significantly deeper level of work than if they had been able to share their thoughts much earlier in their pursuit of that subject.
In other words, their work shows the extra quality that comes from working privately and solely on that topic for years, before releasing their work. A bit like releasing the lid of a pressure-cooker. This kind of expertise is, of course, startling when it comes from a youngster. So, people start thinking that autistics fall into two categories: smart and dumb. The real distinction is: those who manage to present a shocking display of the results of years of private perseveration, and those who don’t – either because of communication problems, or because they just never wanted to focus on a subject that is interesting to the rest of the world.
So, I think it’s a myth that all Aspies are math wizards. It’s true that some like math, and they can focus on that preoccupation for a long time, and they can often present some startling results as a result of their hard work, but it’s really just bright, dedicated work and a more appreciative audience than usual.
Besides, it’s easier for people to demonstrate remarkable math skills than it is to explain why an aspie’s artwork is groundbreaking. Art requires great mental focus and intellect AND years of practice. Numbers always come out shiny and clean ;-)
No one wants to see your extensive collection of insect fossils, but rattle off a few digits of PI and you’re on Good Morning America! ;-)
It’s not that aspies are all math wizards. It’s just that math, on a youngster, is so very flash.
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.
Ah, I remember ToM - the "engineering" challenges were always a bit dodgy... The one I remember involved launching an egg-carton thingy over a wall via catapult without breaking the eggs.
I'm OK with maths and science depending on what sort it is. Some maths I quite like, some I can't stand. Same with science.
Would I want a career in maths, science or IT? No. I don't find those subjects enjoyable enough to do them for the rest of my life.
I fall on the creative side of the coin. I like making things up, have always had imaginary worlds in my head, I have contributed a couple of paragraphs to a book on autism, I am predicted an A* for my English GCSE and I hope to pursue a career as an author, journalist, scriptwriter or comedienne.
My creativity is just as much to do with my Aspergers as other people's strength with maths is. I wish more people knew that and people with my strengths and weaknesses got portrayed more often.
The rumour that aspies have no imagination is total bull, and I'm sick of seeing pedantic, deadpan, academic walking dictionaries a la Karla Bentham, Christopher Boone depicted. We need some variety.
Er, just realised that I was being maybe too brash when I described Karla and Christpher. I wasn't describing academic aspies at all.
Karla and Christopher are nothing like any teenage aspie I've ever seen. Christopher Jackson in The Magnificent Seven (a drama based on a real family from 2 Christmases ago.) was the same. OTT literal, no emotion, deadpan look, no opinins, no persoanlity outside the Aspergers.
I think most of us could agree that we really don't need any more fictional aspies like this being shown, as they don't represent anything apart from the run-of-the-mill Wikipedia entry on Aspergers. They are nothing like real life Aspies.
I was browsing through this thread and I noticed people saying that they were not good at math, that is something that is my barrier to getting my degree in psych, English straight "A"s my entire life...something caught my eye that somebody said something about sterotype...that makes me think but I am not sure how to say what I was thinking. Sorry to but in.