Sensory Issues
It is my understanding that autistic kids do not make eye-contact and such because they are overwhelmed by outside stimuli. Anecdotally, the subjective experience of some shy, socially awkward gifted folks may well be very similar to the kind of experience an Aspie has. Tigger and I have discussed this and it is one of the reasons he does poorly meeting new people in a group situation: he is overwhelmed, picking up on all kinds of emotions, etc.
Tigger is highly empathic and absorbs emotion like a sponge, but that has utterly failed to help him figure out how to interact 'appropriately' in social settings. He just wants to flee. He was very hostile and just wanted to be left alone for several hours after we went to Chuck E. Cheese last year for his birthday party (with 2 whole guests: his brother and their best friend -- but it is so noisy and stuff).
My understanding is that autistic kids are almost all quite bright but some of them are like prisoners trapped in their own body, unable to connect to the outside world. I cannot think of the title, but Robin Williams did a movie based on actual events about a doctor who treated patients who were utterly cut off from the world. For a brief time, medication helped them connect. Eventually, it quit working. I do not remember now the cause of the problem. But at least one of the patients was able to tell the doctor that he had been aware of everything going on around him, he just could not manage to act on that awareness -- and it was horrible.
More gruesome: I think the movie is called "The snake and the rainbow" (or something like that) and it is about modern pharmacology trying to unlock chemical secrets of how zombies are made (or something like that). There is a horrifying scene where they have given this drug to a man to stop him from searching further. They have made him appear dead. They show the scene through the eyes of the man -- still alive but unable to move -- laying in his coffin and watching people mourn. When everyone leaves, the perpetrator leans over the casket and tells him something (I don't remember what -- comments on what it will be like to get buried while still alive or something).
That is what I think autism must be like: an intelligent mind trapped and cut off in some awful way due to some kind of brain glitch. I imagine I would be pretty crazy, under such circumstances.
I have read so many articles where the parents say "I can still see my bright child in his eyes but it is like he cannot get out." It is heart breaking. I also explained to the resident at the homeless shelter who asked that, no, the boy is probably not retarded -- autistic kids tend to be of high intelligence -- he just cannot connect. She spoke of being able to see that he seemed aware and seemed bright but she couldn't understand why he couldn't seem to connect. So I told her, yes, he probably is bright.
His mother used to clean me out of magazines (I brought a bag of give-aways with me every weekend). She read voraciously and was obviously quite intelligent. Yet, she, too, had social issues. She did not last very long before they terminated her from the program for her inability to follow the rules. (It had a happy ending: she went home to family and she thanked the person that terminated her -- saying it was for the best and she was looking forward to going home to her father and siblings.)
I usually do not describe my youngest as an Aspie. I describe him as having 'sensory integration disorder' or 'sensory issues'. I, personally, do not see this as an 'either/or' thing. Autistic kids tend to dislike being touched. My youngest child has always been overwhelmed by certain kinds of touch and is very controlling about recieving kisses. After I brought him home to homeschool, he became uncharacteristically effusive towards me. Because of that, one day, I forgot that I am not allowed to kiss him without prior permission and I spontaneously kissed his cheek. The poor kid about jumped out his skin. I felt so bad.
For all I know, sensory integration disorder and autistic spectrum disorder are interrelated issues. The strong tendency for autistic kids to have an aversion to touch is well known and well documented. I cannot begin to speculate on how these two things interact or interrelate, but it is obviously a part of the issue.
This is an issue in a weird way in my marriage. My husband is not as affectionate as I would like. When he does hold my hand, he tends to rub the same spot, over and over, with his thumb, until it becomes quite irritating. I used to get kind of mad. It felt like some kind of "Chinese water torture". if you know what I mean. At some point, I began joking that he was wearing a hole in my skin and it was now time to move on to another spot please. He slowly got more considerate about this and more aware of it. But such 'little things' can be quite maddening, over time, when they are very consistent. I now believe this is part of that sensory difference that is part of the profile of him and his 2 kids. lol. I genuinely do not believe I have such issues -- and I believe that this fact has been a saving grace for the entire family. My husband did eventually learn a few social skills from me -- and eventually learned to give me credit for that as well.
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Asperger's Syndrome: A Working Hypothesis
- Giftedness
- Personality Type
- Sensory Issues
- Compounding (Biomedical) Factors
- Eccentric Geniuses
- The Big Disconnect
- Socially Deaf
- Time Blind
- Rapid Brain Growth and Vitamin Deficiencies
- Different Minds
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