I was reading the article quoted below on the differences between so-called "Low Functioning" and "High Functioning" Autism.  Although I hate the discriminatory premise behind the labelling of the terms, it did get me thinking about genetic issues, specifically about those of us on the Autistic Spectrum who are married and have children.  

Are we more or less likely to have a child who resembles our own "form" of Autism (ie LFA, MFA, HFA)?  What is the ratio of AS to NT children when we do have offspring?  Has anybody done any research on this?  Even personal anecdotes would be interesting.  I hasten to add, I'm not doing any type of formal research, but one day I may write something to do with it professionally (you all know I'm a professional writer as well as my other preoccupations).

But it's really more intellectual curiosity on my part.  

Here's the article that got me thinking, it's just off Wiki:

"Because the behavior spectrum is continuous, boundaries between diagnostic categories are necessarily somewhat arbitrary.  Sometimes the syndrome is divided into low-, medium- or high-functioning autism (LFA, MFA, and HFA), based on IQ thresholds, or on how much support the individual requires in daily life; these subdivisions are not standardized and are controversial. Autism can also be divided into and non-syndromal autism; the syndromal autism is associated with severe or profound mental retardation or a congenital syndrome with physical symptoms, such as tuberous sclerosis.  Although individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome tend to perform better cognitively than those with autism, the extent of the overlap between Asperger’s Syndrome, HFA and non-syndromal autism is unclear."

Alison

This post was last modified: 04-20-2011 04:46 AM by Alison.

Just to start the ball rolling, I'm married to an NT man whom I suspect is a Cousin, since his brother is diagnosed Asperger's.  My daughter is as Aspie as I am.  But I know I'm not the only one who has married successfully and had children, even though a lot of the recent media I've seen seems to characterise us as "rarely-if-ever" marrying.  
Alison

This post was last modified: 04-20-2011 04:49 AM by Alison.

I have come close to marrying maybe twice so far. I find a distinct pattern that bipolar women seem to notice me disproportionately. I have either dated them or others non-NT including one Aspie.

The only time this effect doesn't happen is when I sometimes date women of color, when religion seems to override differences somehow in ways it doesn't seem to work for others. For example, dating Caucasians in a Christian singles group 2002-2005 was a failure.

I really don't understand why these patterns hold.  Could the women with invisible disabilities be shut out from average guys, or do average guys date women with invisible disabilities freely? In other words, could each of us be in a smal pond?

This post was last modified: 04-20-2011 04:59 AM by Shrek.

I'm not aware of any cases of LFA in my family. I have one brother who is an aspie. My son is an aspie. I am HFA. My only niece experiences "processing delays", and she has had therapy to learn to cope with those. My only nephew was very late learning to speak (same as me) and he had to have speech therapy in order to be able to speak intelligibly. He apparently spends almost all of his time on the computer, which probably isn't that unusual for a kid in his mid teens.

My brother and I and my son share basically the same traits - in particular executive dysfunction, absent mindedness, very good long term memory and rote learning ability, and an aptitude for mathematics. My brother used to win statewide maths competitions as a kid. My brother and I both do the "instant calculation" thing. My wife recently pulled my son (who just turned 6) out of his advanced maths course because he would be done with his one hour lesson in less than 20 minutes (making it not really worth nearly 2 hours of driving to get him there and back). He also got to the point where he would race through an hour of maths homework in less than 10 minutes (my wife thankfully found that rewarding him for doing his homework with being allowed to play on the computer was more effective than getting angry at him). My wife told me on the phone that she watches him do his maths homework and he just looks at the sums and writes down the answers - she can't work out how he does it (and my wife has a degree in finance and economics).

Going further back, my mother's younger brother was what you'd probably call MFA. Everyone assumed that his differences related to my mother dropping him on his head when he was 9 months old and nearly killing him. Both autism and the accident may have affected him. He had a very severe stutter, and many strange ways and obsessions. He was less than 6 feet tall but huge in every other way - people tell me that my hands are the size of baseball gloves, but when my uncle's watch was done up I could still slide my hand through his watch band and slide it almost up to my elbow. The only proper job he ever had as a young man was moving furniture, as he was easily as strong as 3 men. When he was in his late 40s a friend got him a job as a nightwatchman at a technical school.

Further back still, my maternal grandfather was an exceptionally gifted professional musician who sat down at a piano one day as a small boy and played the piano, sight reading the music, without ever having been taught. He had picked it up from turning the pages for his aunt who played the piano during the silent movies of the day (my grandfather was born in either 1899 or 1900 - nobody thought to remember exactly what year). He played a number of different instruments at the highest professional level, and the only training he ever had was a couple of weeks of lessons to learn the proper technique to play an instrument he was unfamiliar with. That has to be a splinter savant skill. My grandfather also skipped school just about every day but still managed to regularly win prizes for spelling and maths. I don't know if my grandfather showed any other aspie traits - I do know that he didn't so much drink alcohol as guzzle it. And he was the most lovely, gentle man you could ever imagine, but not terribly responsible.

When I was a teenager my mother told me that the boys on my grandfather's side of the family were usually very late learning to talk and often needed speech therapy. They were also all exceptionally tall/big, like me. I only met one person from that side of the family, a woman who came to my grandfather's funeral. She told me that I reminded her of her brother, who was 6'8" and 22 stone (308 pounds). She asked me if I minded going "out" because her brother always stayed home and never wanted to go out.

This post was last modified: 04-20-2011 06:22 AM by 142857.

I too find this issue to be quite fascinating. I wish there were more concrete answers out there.

My sister told me last week that my mother didn't speak at all until she was 3 years old, and one day simply started speaking in complete sentences like an adult. I'm not aware of any autistic traits that she might have had - certainly not in the 27 years that I knew her.

I'd have to say that it's much more common for other family members to either have the same Autistic Spectrum Disorder, or a similar form. It's generally believed that most cases are genetic, and because of this a form similar to yours is most likely in older family members, younger ones, and future descendants.

I personally do not know of any family member on my mom or dad's side who has any form of Autism, but I highly suspect one of my cousins on my dad's side has a very mild case of Asperger Syndrome after observing his behaviors. My family is the type that pretty much doesn't care for taking their kids to a doctor that way their kids can get tested for various disorders, and generally it appears most of the parents on both sides of the family have had an emotionally abusive relationship towards their kids and I suspect that some of my cousins were likely to have been abused physically by their parents on rare occasions. All in all, it does seem, after observing cousins, aunts, and uncles, that a Depression, Bipolar Disorder, and either an abusive, selfish, or self-absorbed, possibly narcissistic, personality runs through the family, maybe even social anxiety and panic attacks. My dad's side seems to be the more mentally ill side, considering that everyone on my dad's side is self-absorbed, selfish, or suffering from Depression, but a tendency towards aggressive/easily irritated Depression. My mom's side seems to have Bipolar Disorder running through it, and I hypothesis that I acquired my Asperger's from my dad's side. As for social anxiety and panic attacks, that seems unique only to my immediate family from what I've seen.

Ugh, not another failure to save changes due to editing after five minutes!

Anyways, I also forgot to mention that although I do not know any family members diagnosed with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder, it appears Asperger traits run through the family, and I'm starting to think maybe my sister, in fact, has a very mild case of Asperger Syndrome. It appears most family members do have empathy, but have a hard time/a lot of times fail to show so and it appears various other traits run through the family.

Interesting. I'm a bit curious, but do you suppose your mom might have Hyperlexia?

I'm afraid I have never heard of MFA, although I know what LFA and HFA are. What exactly does MFA stand for? Mild-functioning Autism? Middle-functioning Autism? What are the characteristics of MFA?

Anyways, I'd like to comment about the last statement about the family member whose brother never wanted to go out of the house. That reminds me of myself, I refuse leaving to go in public with my mom on weekends, because there are no interesting places we go to, and because of my crippling social anxiety. I no longer have the need to leave the house as I once have since it's even more so boring at the mall or a grocery store than at home. I have also, sadly, lost interest in most of my previous obsessions due to depression, and more anxiety than usual.

I think the link of the spectrum is on both sides of my family....

I don't know how.... but it is.... My Aunt is obviously on the Spectrum on Mom's side.....

and My cousin's daughter is also on the Spectrum....

Yet somehow both sides are Higher Functioning....

Hmm....that's kind of strange. Both sides?

I've started believing that it comes from my dad's side, considering I haven't met anyone from my mom's side whose Autistic or has any traits from an Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

Yeah.... its probably weird that me, my second cousin, and my Aunt are closely connected through the Autistic Spectrum.

That belief about us lacking empathy is a lot of hooie, I think.  I believe we do have empathy, we just don't talk about it the way NTs expect.  Instead, we try to fix whatever it is that's the problem.  But NTs seem to think empathy  consists of a thick pair of lips to kiss you with and a big pair of boots to kick you with, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw.  We tend to keep our feelings very much to ourselves.  Therefore NTs think we don't have any feelings or empathy because we're not always talking about them.  
Alison

I never said that they lack empathy, I just said that they usually don't show it. I'm aware Aspies do have empathy, I was basically thinking what you were; you mentioned that Aspies don't talk about it as much as NTs and that's what I meant.

I believe the statements that Aspies cannot understand sarcasm, metaphors, idiom, etc. to be another stereotype, as well as the stereotype of Aspies being unable to read others' emotions. Every Aspie I've met understands sarcasms, idioms, etc. and understands other's emotions. I believe those disabilities only apply to people with a severe case of Asperger's. But even one person I know with a somewhat severe case understands other's emotions. As for sarcasm, I'm not sure if he does or doesn't.