The myths surrounding ASD 'S

[Lucas]

Yes, certain letters have emotional labels on them for me too. Feelings seem to have a shape which is copied in letters. Days of the week also give me feelings, not on the days in particular, but when thinking of a week long calender. It's possibly this that leads to calender calculating in Savants.

 

Faster way to do the backwards alphebet is to remember that the forward alphebet when taught in schools is taught as a song, with a rythym and pace to it: ABCD-EFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRS-TUV-W-X-Y-Z. So you can actually jump to anywhere in the song, as you can any other song you can remember off by heart, this makes it much faster.

 

Isw146, I had the same problems in maths and science. It's a case of over-teaching: the teacher has replaced a person's natural understanding with a rigid and preconcieved model. Like my Mum telling me I should stop it raining when my natural understanding tells me to bring the washing in, Mum has overruled my natural inclination. This is why NTs think Autistics lack common sense and why Autistics often think the same of NTs.

 

Had I been told that maths was a science and science is math, I wouldn't have suffered the same problems. They are basically the same thing in different forms.

[lancelot]

Hi Jill (going back a post or so in the manner of Humpty Dumpty)

 

--Jill is kind of bright orange-yellow (Cadmium yellow, perhaps). Not if you spell it with a G, though -- that seems to darken it to something nearer green. I think I've just confused myself!

[polkadotty]

Guys I love your technicolour words!!!

 

I'm (or i thought i was) NT but i have always liked numbers in the 4 times table. I remember asking another child at school what their favourite number was, because mine was 32. It still is, but i continue to be surprised that other people don't seem to feel strongly about numbers. Mine arent really incolour but some definitely 'feel' nice - i love 32, 24 and 4, and i don't mind odd numbers. but i really don't like 7 or 31. I was quite unhappy about being 31, even at the ripe old age of 31, and it had nothing to do with age, since i was perfectly happy to be 32. Delighted in fact.

 

My only gripe is that now i'm 36, which is a number i quite like, i haven't got any numbers now that i really look forward to. Mostly there a bit cold.

 

My son hears voices in colour - (AS) he says whispering is in black and white, and shouting is purple. Singing is kind of blue-green. An interesting consequence of this is that he only likes music that has lots of colours in it, like Radiohead or a complicated baroque piece - church organ music is particularly good. And he hates music with only one line, like a song with one voice and one guitar.

 

Does anyone else get pictures that stickintheir heads and they can't get them out? is that an AS ASd thing, do you think? I used to get big green worm shapes that wound round and round in my head like a crazy dream Or have i said too much.....

 

dotty.

[stresshead]

i love the 9x table, i think it is fun where all of the answers til you get to 9x10 all add up to 9!!

[jayjay]

This is a great thread, and just by reading the answers i have learnt so much our son

can make eye contact for a little while when he wants to.

wants hugs and kisses all the time of close family.

will talk to anyone.

"plays with friends sometimes"

will accept changes in routine if going to a game shop or a kids world play centre

can have 1/2 weeks "non-autistic" then 2/3 weeks major autistic depending on what has set him off.

sometimes its like being on a rollercoaster bless him

jayne xx

[asereht]

Depending on her stress levels and the environment she's in, she can appear more or less "autistic" at any given time, and she can fake being NT pretty convincingly - when she wants to. I think it's a misconception that a child's behaviour is fixed and cannot vary from day to day. Being on the autistic spectrum involves much more than matching a rigid checklist of behaviours. AS children have personalities too!

 

K

 

I agree, it's the same for my son.

 

Lucas and bid I do this too( quite slowly).It's they only way I could say the alphabet backwards!

Also the days of the week have always been colours to me.

[joshanddanfans]

i have 2 asd/as/dyspraxic/adhd/sensory dysfunction children, 4 and 6 one is very autistic in his traits and older j has many nt traits

 

- Loves cuddles( and stroking ladies boobies)

- initiates conversation constantly.(about his favourite topic)

-Comforts others when they are upset ( sometimes)

-Has an amazing story telling/ imagination.

-Gives eye contact (but cant maintain)

-Has lots of friends. (for 10 minutes) no, really he is very popular in school.

-Is extremely confident.

-can ride a bike (tho doesnt look ahead)

-Polite at all times.

-Adores his siblings especially baby sister.

 

 

(Has considerable difficulties in every other aspect of life.)

[littlenemo]

Faster way to do the backwards alphebet is to remember that the forward alphebet when taught in schools is taught as a song, with a rythym and pace to it: ABCD-EFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRS-TUV-W-X-Y-Z. So you can actually jump to anywhere in the song, as you can any other song you can remember off by heart, this makes it much faster.

 

That's how i do it, but Zemanski visualises the section she's done and looks at the prevoius one on the list. We're both slow at it, though. Can other people just recite the alphabet backwards witout trouble - do they learn it as a separate sequence?

I can read upside-down and backwards just as well as normal though, which was useful when i was a typesetter, but can be dangerous with some signs written on roads (No Entry upside down on one-way roads has been known to make me do an emergency stop!)

 

I'll stop now cos Z won't stop correcting my typing

 

nemo

[jen]

my ASD son gets upset if he sees children hurt or crying. He will go up to them and rub there back trying to reasure them.

 

Jen

[Kathryn]

Going back to the alphabet - I tried doing it backwards and found I mentally recite the whole thing forwards then backwards in chunks of 6 - which seems to be the limit of my memory. I visualliste the string of letters and then "read" them backwards, like Zemanski I guess. I'm very slow though.

 

Is there anyone who can just recite the whole thing backwards as a learned sequence? To me it would be very difficult to memorise as there's no logical connection between the letters, but I expect some people can.

[Brook]

Could the Unstoppable Force Meeting The Unmoveable Object be why my daughter has difficuty in transfering skills and knowledge. We will be working on homework and she will insist she can't do it but a few weeks before we will have worked on the same sort of problems just laid out differently on the page. It is like any change in the way she has learnt to remember or work on something means she has to learn it all over again. This happens particulaly in maths and science. In science she sees the experiments they do in isolation, she doesn't think about the skills and methods invovled, so each time she stresses about doing it right even though she has used the same method before. Does this make sense to anyone?!

 

My son has difficulty generalising what he has learnt, especially with his numeracy, I home ed him so

it has become really noticable to me. I have shown him adding up using various methods, ie...adding

together pens, lego etc.. also setting out sums showing the dots to add, but if its not visual he cant do it,

if I just write the sums he goes balistic saying he cant do it, we always write out the sums even if they

are visual, but he cant take this learning on in different ways, also I have to explain the procedure for

every task even if we have done it lots of times already and the same way.

It's almost as if he has just learnt what we are doing by memory but not understanding it, so obviously

he isn't able to generalise it if he hasn't understood the basis.

 

Sorry, dont think I've made much sense with this!!

Oh well, I know what I mean anyway.

 

Brook

[Bullet]

I can say the alphabet backwards very easily. I think of it as being in a long line, divided into segments, so I just visualised this line in my head and start at the back, rather than the front. I can also read upside down and backwards fairly well and speak backwards, though my pronunciation could do with a bit of work.

I am also a very fast reader. I read a two hundred and sixty page book in an hour yesterday.

[Jill]

I really like this thread - it's making me feel all warm like part of a community.

 

The idea of numbers or words having a colour really appeals to me. It's just a lovely way of thinking IMO.

 

 

Lancelot thankyou so much for replying to my question. I love the idea that I am orangey yellow, brilliant sunny colours. Thankyou for making my day.

[ceecee]

I too am a ver fast reader and an even faster talker not sure if this is part of my as tendancies or not though

[BusyLizzie100]

I feel a bit weird revealing this, but I have always had a thing about the number eight, and things being even numbers in general, I suppose because they're equally balanced. When I was younger I always tried to balance out my walking, so I ended up with an even number of steps - my right side was more 'even' than my left (I'm righthanded).

 

I even have this thing where I count the number of vowels in a phrase and if it comes to eight, I'm really satisfied. Capitals count as two. I do this in my head all the time.

 

I also check shapes out for a possible '8' shape, eg if its floor tiles then one has to be slightly smaller (the top one) and the one underneath a little bigger, to represent an eight. If it works out, I'm really satisfied again.

 

Weird, huh? And I'm 'NT'!

 

As for the kids, no one ever notices they're autistic. They have better eye contact than I have.

[jb1964]

Weird, huh? And I'm 'NT'!

 

Me too, 13 - especially because I really liked the number 3 and 9 - and 3 x 3 = 9 + 3 for extra measure and one for luck!!!!! If ever I had a drink of water from the tap I would do this - have to rinse the glass to the 1,2,3 - 1,2,3 - 1,2,3, for extra measure 1,2,3 and one for luck - I could never drink it otherwise.

 

Also, never walked on the cracks on pavements and stuff like that.

 

And I keep telling my husband that my AS daughter can't help being 'different'!!!.

 

Jb

Edited March 17, 2006 by jb1964

[jomum]

Wow, that's a really interesting thread. My son acts like an angel in public situations generally, so poeple think he's just naughty if he shows certain traits. At home and nursery when he's relaxed, those differences show. This is why I've been hesitant about getting medical advice as I have thought I would be fobbed off.

 

Funny about colours. I think of days of the week in colurs. Jo x

[LizK]

My four year old

 

-is affectionate

-wants to play with other children

-can lie (but badly!)

-has some imagination

-not prone to tantrums and fairly flexible about things as long as they aren't aprt of his routines or latest obsession

 

Hence the number of people who have said he can't be autistic though for many the fact he can speak is enough for them to register surprise

 

I think though that despite doing these things they are of a different quality than with his NT peers. He is affectionate but not cuddly, will give hugs and kisses as long as it's brief. He's not that cuddly. His imaginative games are based on Tv programmes or things he's seen. Despite wanting to play with others he has a lot of problems with social anxiety and social interaction and in some ways his desire to want to play with others makes that harder than in a child who prefered to be more solitary. I think he's a laid back sort of chappy in temperament anyway though was reading how Lorna Wing roughly divided ASD kids into three subgroups and I think DS has a lot of features of the passive group

 

Lx

[lsw146]

Well we returned from the psychiatrist yesterday who said B has lots of 'symptoms' of autism but (after talking with us for an hour) she can make eye contact and communicate well so he din't think he could give a diagnosis of ASD or AS. He said as her social problems were mainly when she was interacting in groups or the 'wider society' she did have the Triad of impairments. I asked about Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) and he said if they were going to give a diganosis this would probably be the one but he needs to talk to the team.

After playing back a meltdown (I had taken her out at his point Dad finished the chat) that we had managed to record on the phone he said he would be in touch about respiridone and whatever other therapies they could think of to help. But I still don't think we will get a diagnosis.

[~Jonathan~]

I have a phenomenal imagination. I hate eye contact and don't enjoy physical contact. We're all unique.

[Jill]

We're all unique.

 

 

There you have it - something that many so called professionals are unable to understand - each and every one of us is unique, whether we are ASD, AS or NT.

 

Very succinctly put Jonathan.

[westie]

removed because I did not think my post was relevant to discussion

Edited March 22, 2006 by westie

[col]

My dd is able to go to situations happly for example she just changed school's. But when she has been there a little while and gets in to a routine she gets upset if something changes within the routine. she will tell other children off if they mess her routine up.

 

She does now show eye contact but it still rather limited.

 

She over friendly with other parents. Will hug them and paw at them.

 

Toke an ep non verbal test last Jan and in one of the tests scored 99% , did a similar test 3 mths later ( different ep) and scored in the higher average.

 

Get's upset if something goes missing for instance, came home without her homelink book and before she step out of transport was telling me about it and that i have to write on a bit of paper. Next morning she came in to me with a bit of paper.

 

Will talk about school constantly especially in the holidays.

 

Is sensitive to noise and will cover ears and scream (she has improved, she used to hit out at other children at school).

 

school link book a few mths ago say she is aloof from the other children.

 

gets up if she spills her drink and says i'm never going to drink juice again.

 

mouths shopping trolleys and counters.

 

bites bottom lip and nails.

 

flick her hair behind her ears or hair in mouth...

 

have to shout her a few times to get her attention.

 

And her school thinks all this is caused by her severe speech and language disorders

[Guest hallyscomet]

After reading these pages its obvious that our kids dont present in text book form.Hence so called professionals have a get out clause at diagnosisng because the kids do something that Autistic /As kids arent meant to do.

So i think it would be a good idea to list a couple of things our kids do that there not meant to do and so cant be autistic if we beleived what the drs say.

My son makes eye contact.

 

He approaches me and gives me a hug.

 

 

Hi,

 

I say the "Myths" about Autism are really a parent being misinformed or unsure about whether their child has Aspergers or Autism, if you read the following there is a clear explanation of the two and what your child has difficulties with.

 

Maybe at 0-8 years it takes time to diagnose

but by the time the child is 9-16 you will have a clearer picture through :living with your child-and watching and discovering and learning how far up or down the scale they are towards Autism or Aspergers. Have a look at the scale using this diagnostic classification tool, and you will see why so many parents get confused.

 

Classification of autistic disorder

 

From the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM IV), American Psychiatric Association, 1994

 

1. A total of 6 (or more) items from (1), (2) and (3), with at least 2 from (1) and one each from (2) and (3).

 

1. qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:

 

1. marked impairment in the use of multiple non-verbal behaviours such as eye to eye gaze, facial expression, body postures and gestures to regulate social interaction

2. failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level

3. a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people (eg by a lack of showing, bringing or pointing out objects of interest).

 

2. qualitative impairments in communication as manifested by at least one of the following:

 

1. delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime),

2. in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others,

3. stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language,

4. lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level.

 

3. restrictive, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:

 

1. encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus

2. apparently inflexible adherence to specific non-functional routines or rituals,

3. stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (eg hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements),

4. persistent preoccupation with parts of objects.

 

2. Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with onset prior to age 3 years:

 

1. Social interaction,

2. Language as used in social communication,

3. Symbolic or imaginative play.

 

By comparison, the DSM IV listing for Asperger's Disorder (also called Asperger Syndrome) has similar criteria of qualitative impairment in social interaction, and of restrictive repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour, interest and activities, plus the following criteria:

 

3. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

4. There is no clinically significant general delay in language (eg single words by 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years).

5. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self help skills, adaptive behaviour (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.

6. Criteria not met for another pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia.

 

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The information on this site should not be used as an alternative to professional care. If you have a particular problem, see a doctor, or ring the Parent Helpline on 1300 364 100 (local call cost from anywhere in South Australia).

 

This topic may use 'he' and 'she' in turn - please change to suit your

child's sex.

 

Regards

Hailey