Robert Hickman

Hi Mark, to answer your question. Yes it is perfectly possible to not know about Asperger's until later life. There are actually a large number of people like this in the blogosphere, http://www.journeyswithautism.com/ and http://cometscorner-clay.blogspot.com/ for example. Oh, and you don't need to write an essay every post, condense your writing, takes less time to read

@Lynden @mark2 The basis for the OP was a drastic simplification of a 700~ word article I recently wrote, which you can find here. I don't doubt that your child has genuine difficulties, evolution being the random system that it is, will naturally result in both advantageous differences, and those which are not. But as I say in the article, why does this matter, these people are no less human than anyone else. Our societies and cultures need to learn to accept people for what they are. @Tally By logical thinking, I am actually referring to logical thinking as a whole, which can be applied in many fields, computers happening to be the most prominent today. In the developed world, most people, even those living in poverty, have some access to computers. Many libraries now offer Internet access as a service, plus, people are throwing out perfectly usable hardware left right anc center, for free or a small charge. You just have to know where to look. Communication is one area where augmenting myself with computers has helped substantially. Communicating with people on forums and Twitter has hugely improved my communication skills, both on-line and off. Then theres writing and my poor(aka phonetic) spelling. I cannot write by hand to save my life, but I love writing with a computer. With regards to technology and evolution, I really like the ideas Kevin Kelly presents in What Technology Wants, the idea that technology is an inevitable product of evolution, once barriers of biological evolution are hit. Many other species have developed basic technologies and can pass them on, but it appears to be our ability with complex language and writing that has allowed us to develop tech to the point we have. Technology allows us to evolve beyond our physical limitations, from things like clothes as you say, to extending ones physical scenes out over the Internet.

Thanks for the replys. If you child is enjoying school, and the school is able to adapt sufficiently to there needs, great. However I attended as many as 5 or 6 different schools, and to tell the troth, they were all as bad as each other. While I don't doubt that the schools are doing everything in there power to help, my question lies more in whether this help actually does help. I too had full time support for my autism and writing difficulties. But in reality this help actually did not help, it mainly just became a crutch for me to lean on, why bother improving myself when I may just offload the problem onto someone else? It drove me inside, adding to my fear of doing anything or going anywhere alone. Look at the root cause of the meltdowns, it's probably something really simple which builds over time. In my case this was my being forced to write by hand, and the resulting agony that comes from preforming that action. After getting out of school I learned to write with a computer, solving the main root problem. Later making the conscious decision to go support free, removing the crutch and forcing myself to improve my spelling problem. Its still not perfect, but at least I can write on my own now.

Welcome. I too am interested in the effects technology is having on those with mental 'disabilities'.

Hello and welcome I'm 20 and Until recently I was afraid to go anywhere alone. This was the cumulative result of my somewhat overprotective parents and the hard time I had with school. In the end I realized that these fears were unjustified. To get out of this rut, I started to implement little challenges for myself, starting with silly little things like going to the local shop, eventually leading in the confidence to go to Amsterdam to attend a conference, and to move out shortly afterwards. To be honest, at 19, weather your son has autism/aspergers or not is his own problem, and his choice weather he wants to pursue diagnosis. What you should be doing is slowly introducing subtle challenges on him, to challenge and increase his independence.

Sorry this is making you feel down. This used to get to me a lot too, but I just learned to ignore it. If someone wants to attack you or your views, take note of what they are saying, examine it to see if its a constructive comment or just flaming. Then act on, or disregard it.

Interesting observation, with relation to large corporations. But the same is not so true in smaller businesses. From my own experience, at least some smaller corporations look at what people can do, rather than other issues. I'm autistic, I'm good with technology and logic. The company I'm working for currently hired me for that.

If you always take a negative point of view, nothing can ever be viewed as advantageous. Many autistic people are highly talented with logical thinking. With computers becoming more and more essential and pervasive in current times, being able to think logically _is_ an advantage. Evolution -> animals breed, one offspring has a random mutation which happens to be advantageous, natural selection kills of the species which are less suited to there environment, recursion. If, as some people believe, that our technology has eliminated the natural part of the equation, that does not inherently stop evolution, it simply creates more diversity. But regardless of the exact mechanics of _how_ it occurs (truly, nobody _really_ knows), diversity is an inherent part of our species. In all likelihood, we would not be alive today without this diversity. So then, why are we, as a species, so opposed to our own diversity?

I am completely at peace with my state of being, autism included. So yes I will mention it in job interviews, and any other form of conversation. In one version of my CV, i even took the stance of marketing my autism as a superpower

I've been thinking about that possibility as well. Once you know a bit about the ways that spectrum people behave, it can start to look like most people on-line are on the spectrum, especially in the blogosphere and technical communities. But I'm still not sure weather that is actually a reflection of the people behind the avatars, or the way the system makes people behave. i.e. does the net artificially create a 'peasudo-autism' in people? I'm not sure right now. @baddad Sure thats an oxymoron. I was actually questioning weather there are people on-line who do not self identify as autistic due to there denial. I actually did this for a while, how can I possibly be autistic? everything seems perfectly normal to me. And yes, I am fully aware of the issue of people using a self diagnosis as an excuse to put themselves down/ be auto-depressive. These people need to come to terms with who they are, regardless of if they are actually on the spectrum or not.

Yes it could be a milder form of autism, like aspergers. But ask yourself this, does it really matter if your son fits perfectly into the pre-defined social norms? He is obviously good with computers, so give him the freedom to learn through that avenue. The other issues will rectify themselves as he grows older and begins to observe the world more, they did for me anyway.

Something I have noticed since starting my blog, is just how few adults there are on the general Internet, outside of nice communities, who self-identify as being on the spectrum. I'm really curious as to why this is the case. Do you just not feel the need to mention it? are you living in denial? Afraid to mention it? afraid to use the public Internet? Affraid of steriotypes? Personally, I have been using Twitter for the past 2 years, and have had nothing but positive experiences. Using the service has dramatically improved my social ability, and it has also taught me to condense my language. From an public acceptance point of view, nobody is ever going to change there opinions on autism if there are (apparently) no autistics in the community, online or off.

Hello forum community. While growing up I went through various stages, from totally denying my autism, to accepting it internally, to where I am today: totally happy with my way of being, feeling no regret to mentioning my autism in passing. This journey was not an easy one, I would frequently shift between bliss happiness and utter depression. The turning point was realizing that autism does not have to be a disability. That the whole concept of disability is based on little more that point of view. In my own case, autism can even be considered a superpower. Given how few blogs there are by young autistic adults, I decided to start one at the end of last year, in order to share my views on the condition, and how I converted it from a disability to a superpower. You can find this blog at AchievingExtraordinarySuccess.com. Anything in particular you would like to know?