Autistic count

I've definitely got something wrong with how I process information (can't tune out multiple distractions, especially voices/people standing behind me).

hi maspan!
like apd? (auditory processing disorder, cannot process more than one sound input... think i have it too, lol, not to absorb everyone else's disorders or anything)

I just simply cant remember the word. Its like my brain is searching for the scientific version but I want the common conversation version. (Like Cat and Feline, Dog and Canine.)

I get that with Japanese and I've only been studying Japanese for 5 years... I could be having a conversation to one of my friends in English and all of a sudden, a Japanese word pops out of my mouth without me realizing it. They get pissed and I get confused. It's quite funny, actually.

LAG!!!

On a side note, I can tend to be thinking/talking about one thing, and then I relate it to something else, start thinking/talking about it, and my thoughts/conversations can go from pie to china in a matter of minutes.

am noticing the large number of male autistics/aspies here and me as the only female lol

here's an article stolen from wrongplanet (as usual) about the differences between female and male aspies. http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6012347

(COPIED AND PASTED. sorry. haha.)

Autistic spectrum disorders affect boys and girls in different ways, but there are signs that teachers should look out for, explains Susannah Kirkman.

The perceived wisdom is that autism is a male disorder, four times more common in boys than girls, yet many girls with autistic spectrum problems may be struggling at school because their condition is going undiagnosed, according to recent research from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in central London.

The study of nearly 600 children found that girls with higher functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome tend to behave very differently from boys with the same condition, trying to mask their difficulties by copying the behaviour and speech of others. Girls also appear to focus their obsessions on individuals or animals, while boys are more likely to fixate on objects such as traffic lights, timetables and characters, such as Thomas the Tank Engine.

Experts also suggest that girls with autistic spectrum disorders may experience more difficulties than boys in socialising and adjusting to puberty. “Girls tend to internalise their problems more than boys; they are more likely to be compliant, and less likely to express their difficulties through aggressive behaviour,” says Judith Gould, director of the National Autistic Society Lorna Wing Centre for Autism in Bromley, Kent.

Instead, girls with Asperger’s syndrome may seem extremely shy or withdrawn, sometimes becoming depressed or anorexic teenagers. An earlier study by American academics (Lainhart and Folstein, 1994) found that, despite the high male-to-female ratio for autism, half of the autistic patients with depressive illnesses were female.

Adolescence is a particularly testing time for girls on the autistic spectrum. “Puberty is far worse for girls with autistic spectrum disorders than boys,” says Dr Gould. “Those with autism find any form of change difficult, yet girls have to learn how to cope with menstruation, as well as with the high demands our society places on teenage girls.”

From her experience as a mother of two daughters with autism, Nicky Clarke believes it is far harder to diagnose girls who have Asperger’s syndrome or higher functioning autism. Her 12-year-old daughter Emily, who has classic autism, was diagnosed at the age of three over a period of six weeks, but it took 18 months to reach a opinion about her elder daughter, by which time she was almost 11. Lizzy, now 15, has Asperger’s syndrome.

“While Emily had no spoken language and was fixated on particular objects, Lizzy was very verbal, forward and confident,” Mrs Clarke recalls.

“I think it is also a lot more difficult to diagnose girls as they don’t show the aggression boys can sometimes display.”

Shana Nichols, a US psychologist who works specifically with girls on the autistic spectrum, believes that adolescent females with autism disorders display more violent mood swings than their peers.

Girls’ mood swings are not as easily identifiable as boys’ either, says Jenny Wright, who is head of Hill House School, near Lymington in Hampshire, which specialises in teaching pupils of secondary school age who have severe autism.

“With boys, we can quickly work out where their frustration is coming from; with girls, it’s not so obvious,” she says. “This is not surprising as girls have many more changes to adapt to during puberty than boys. We tend to back off and have lower expectations if it’s a girl’s time of the month.”

Socialising is another challenge for teenage girls with Asperger’s syndrome. Dr Nichols suggests that boys tend to have more impairments earlier on in life, whereas for girls, social difficulties tend to emerge more in early adolescence.

The American research indicates that teenage girls tend to develop intricate social networks in which feelings play a crucial part. As a result, girls with autistic spectrum disorders in mainstream schools find it harder to join in, while boys are often able to forge links with their peer group simply through playing computer games or football.

“Girls usually are far more demanding socially; they are more catty and they use more jokes and innuendo than boys, which makes it much more difficult for girls to fit in with their peer group,” says Dr Gould.

Girls with autistic spectrum disorders want to make friends, but they don’t have the skills. As a result, they can fall victim to subtle forms of bullying from other girls, such as gossiping, spreading rumours or exclusion from the group. Ultimately, social rejection can spiral into depression.

One survival mechanism used by girls may be to keep quiet so as not to draw attention to themselves. The problem is that girls also become reluctant to ask for help. Dr Gould advises schools not to make a girl’s diagnosis obvious to her peers and to use mentoring discreetly.

For parents, these issues make it difficult to choose an appropriate school. At first, Lizzy was happy at her mainstream primary, but when she was badly bullied at secondary school, her parents decided to send her to a small independent school.

“Lizzy had become borderline depressed,” says Mrs Clarke. “The impact of being in a large mainstream secondary environment was overwhelming; the requirements to move between different rooms and different teachers.

“The pressure to conform socially was also stressful. The other girls were more interested in boys, fashion and music than Lizzy. They would mimic her, call her names or run away from her in the playground, and she would leave school in tears every day.”

Funding constraints can limit the success of inclusiveness in mainstream schools, making it hard for them to adapt to a wide range of special needs.

“In the main, there is a determination and willingness to make it work, but there needs to be more flexibility and a distinction between inclusion and mainstreaming,” says Mrs Clarke. “Too often you hear: ‘We need her to do this … ‘. It seems that the child must be seen to be adapting, rather than the school being flexible.”

She would like to see more lunchtime clubs, as pupils with autistic spectrum disorders find it difficult to cope with unstructured time. Lunch breaks can be peak times for bullying.

A tricky issue for teachers can be that very bright teenagers with Asperger’s syndrome sometimes seem arrogant and domineering as they have no idea of social hierarchy. Dr Gould suggests that teachers try not to take this personally and instead nurture the talent these pupils frequently display.

Because of their volatile behaviour, pupils with Asperger’s syndrome, especially girls, can be susceptible to being bullied. However, difficulties with eye contact and other communication skills mean they sometimes find it impossible to tell staff when they are being bullied, so allowing them to describe what is happening to them in drawing or writing could help.

Whatever the difficulties, teachers need to see all pupils with autistic spectrum disorders as individuals, says Gillian Roberts, head of the National Autistic Society Robert Ogden School in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

“It’s important to know pupils and their families as individuals and respond to them all with empathy,” she says. “Try to see where they are coming from.”

For her part, Lizzy says she prefers those teachers who ask her privately if she needs extra help, otherwise it can be embarrassing. Her favourite teachers are those who encourage her. “When staff reward me in any shape or form, it makes me feel more confident,” she says.

After taking part in Dustbin Baby, a recent BBC adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson’s teen novel starring Juliet Stevenson, Lizzy now thinks she would like to become an actress, clearly demonstrating that, with the right help, it is possible to overcome the problems of being a teenage girl with autism.
A teacher’s guide to coping with austistic children

* Plan carefully for any changes to routine, such as a different teacher or school trips. Pupils with austistic spectrum disorders find change confusing and need to know what is happening in advance. Scripting future events in the form of short plays or stories - social stories - can be useful.
* Prepare children well in advance for major changes, such as puberty.
* Try to work out any triggers for challenging behaviour. Pupils with austistic spectrum disorders are not simply being naughty; confusion and anxiety are common reasons for outbursts.
* Encourage pupils to use relaxation techniques to reduce anxiety.
* For young pupils, teach social and friendship skills, such as sharing and taking turns.
* Try to include older pupils in discussions about their education as self-advocacy raises self-esteem.
* Keep it simple; don’t overload with information. Pupils with austistic spectrum disorders cannot take in a lot of instructions or ideas at once.

- internalise problems? yep
- quiet? - yes, very quiet as a child both in volume and amount of things i said.. appears on all my early school reports "needs to speak up more often", NEVER asked for help
- depression? yep, dx'd
- anorexic? yep
- fixated on various people/animals/objects etc yes yes yes (FISH, gosh i love fish, tropical fish.)
- stressful? yes, have also been dx'd with anxiety disorder

won't list everything else, will sound repetitive

the only difference for me is that personally, i told my classmates about the diagnosis, and with what comorbid dx's, etc. haha. think that is part of my obsession with autism though. if i had been younger and less self-aware would probably have wanted it to be more discreet though, like it says.

hi maspan!
like apd? (auditory processing disorder, cannot process more than one sound input... think i have it too, lol, not to absorb everyone else's disorders or anything)

Could be - to explain it more, it's like...
One person talking to me, while im not doing anything = fine
1 person talking to me, while im doing something = give me a sec so I can listen
2 people talking to me, while im not doing anything = sorry, shut up while I listen to ___
2 people talking to me, while im doing something = headache + instant stress
multiple people talking, regardless = major stress + headache + confusion

It seems worse when Im doing something absorbing, like playing a video game. I tend to zone out when gaming, even in something like Halo, and that's when I do my best. As soon as someone snaps me out of it by talking to me, my mind goes haywire.

Could be - to explain it more, it's like...
One person talking to me, while im not doing anything = fine
1 person talking to me, while im doing something = give me a sec so I can listen
2 people talking to me, while im not doing anything = sorry, shut up while I listen to ___
2 people talking to me, while im doing something = headache + instant stress
multiple people talking, regardless = major stress + headache + confusion

It seems worse when Im doing something absorbing, like playing a video game. I tend to zone out when gaming, even in something like Halo, and that's when I do my best. As soon as someone snaps me out of it by talking to me, my mind goes haywire.

yah, that is actually exactly what i experience. if am concentrating on typing something in a quiet room and just one person says something to me, i will often not respond to them until after typing my sentence. then will turn around and play back the memory of what they said (in my head), then reply to them. if i forgot what they said, i'll ask them to repeat..

heh yay zoning while gaming

My brother (Not autistic) could be playing a round of Super smash bros melee with me, and he has an itch or something during the match but doesnt notice it, then the match ends and he notices the itch. Absorbed = win

yah, that is actually exactly what i experience. if am concentrating on typing something in a quiet room and just one person says something to me, i will often not respond to them until after typing my sentence. then will turn around and play back the memory of what they said (in my head), then reply to them. if i forgot what they said, i'll ask them to repeat..

heh yay zoning while gaming

I simply spaz out and yell at them O.o

And then forget what I was typing. I also can't process a list of things to do (directions to a house, etc) - after the first 2 or 3 steps, I forget the rest. I can't remember specific information easily either, but I grasp general concepts extremely quickly/easily. I get impatient with people talking to me for more than a few minutes at a time as well, because I forget what I'm thinking if I don't say it immediately. My brain goes too fast for me to keep up

Also always had a beef with math teachers - show your work, they say. Where are your calculations, they ask. In my head, I respond. Bullshit, they reply. F3...
tldr - I do work in my head, they get mad cuz no written work.

I forget what I'm thinking if I don't say it immediately.

- my solution: never say it in the end.

My brain goes too fast for me to keep up

ya, either that or the other way around for me: my brain is too slow to catch up with me! doesn't help that i think in visual words (not phonetic words), so there's sort of translating going on too. different on forums - you notice i post first, then edit whatever i actually meant later. internet is great. online, you can think slow and still sound intelligent.

I do work in my head, they get mad cuz no written work.

wow i do that too.

except with everything else, don't take maths anymore.

so this is how i usually end up writing an essay: i think + research for 3 weeks and form an educated, researched opinion in my head. in the 4th week when have to hand it in, i end up producing 2 pages of almost nonsense material (read: on an almost completely different subject) cus can't get the essay, that was in my head, into words.

and that is how you fail courses like me last year

- my solution: never say it in the end. ya, either that or the other way around for me: my brain is too slow to catch up with me! doesn't help that i think in visual words (not phonetic words), so there's sort of translating going on too. different on forums - you notice i post first, then edit whatever i actually meant later. internet is great. online, you can think slow and still sound intelligent. wow i do that too.

except with everything else, don't take maths anymore.

so this is how i usually end up writing an essay: i think + research for 3 weeks and form an educated, researched opinion in my head. in the 4th week when have to hand it in, i end up producing 2 pages of almost nonsense material (read: on an almost completely different subject) cus can't get the essay, that was in my head, into words.

and that is how you fail courses like me last year

To be perfectly honest, I think that it's the norm for people to have some minor - moderate brain malfunction, and that the normal mind is just as much a rarity as "beauty" is. Most people look (think) pretty damn good (well), but may have bad complexion (memory), misproportioned body (poor thinking ability), etc, that keeps people from thinking of them as beautiful.

To be perfectly honest, I think that it's the norm for people to have some minor - moderate brain malfunction, and that the normal mind is just as much a rarity as "beauty" is. Most people look (think) pretty damn good (well), but may have bad complexion (memory), misproportioned body (poor thinking ability), etc, that keeps people from thinking of them as beautiful.

yes, autism forums tend to forget what is normal, although there is neurotypical and there is less neurotypical

we are talking neurological abnormalities in the sylvian fissure after all

would love a brain scan one day to find out where my abnormalities are, there is no "normal brain" but there is a range beyond which you have difficulties functioning like other people.

there is an autistic girl on wrongplanet who has no sylvian fissure at all (heavily involved with neurology lab i think, so gets that chance.). fascinating

how else will we ever know what other autistics there are on southperry?

knowing is a choice you make. I simply point out that it could cause unnecessary drama

i still do not understand why you say "drama." maybe it is because everyone thinks "autistic" is somehow an offensive label and in fact there are no autistics or something. well it is a real disorder, a real problem that i struggle with every day. it's only the truth. it's like saying "i have a cold." except a cold doesn't last a lifetime, and it doesn't affect every aspect of your life. is it inappropriate for us to exist?

I dont bash autism, nor have anything against it. Southperry.net on the other hand doesnt all have mature users and posters. While some are, some are not. If you do believe that you can seek answers here, then by all means go ahead.

you can't empathise with that, because you have never been there. no offense.. it is just true. So, obviously, that is why we want to find more like us (because other autistics HAVE been there). if you became paralysed from the waist down, you'd want to find more people like yourself too. am finding it bizarre that people would say "please don't post about yourselves, we don't want to know about it" when people do it constantly on forums.

Perhaps you should give a bit of faith to mutual respects. You have a condition and I sympathise it doesnt mean I NEED TO BE IN YOUR SHOE to know that you have a condition. Everybody go through difficulties of some degrees and I have mutual understanding and sympathy for each and everyone of them, just like you can always appreciate a good meal yet you dont know how to cook.

(is there some unwritten rule, that autistics alone of all people in the world are not allowed to seek out others like themselves on forums? seems illogical to me, but maybe there is some social nuance that have missed)

again, seek out at your own device. I have alot of faith in the mods here, but as mentioned before, there're also lots of people who arnt mature too

if you are not autistic, no need to post, there is no desire to count you. no offence is intended. i just want to know if there are other autistics around.

as requested, this is my only and last reply

reply in bold

I take some things very literally, but that is by choice. I change topics, but only while thinking and I can figure out when to start or stop talking. My thinking is kinda messed up though. Example:
Bananas -> Big Bang
I like bananas. Bananas are yellow. So is pikachu. He's in Pokemon. My friend has Pokemon Diamond. He lives in New Jersey. New Jersey is the butt of a lot of jokes. Butt is the same thing as arse. Arse is in Impossible quiz two. That reminds me of the hardest game ever. You play as a circle. Pi defines the ratio between diameter and circumference. Mmmmm, pie. Homer Simpson. Exploding head episode. Big Bang.

See?

I take some things very literally, but that is by choice. I change topics, but only while thinking and I can figure out when to start or stop talking. My thinking is kinda messed up though. Example:
Bananas -> Big Bang
I like bananas. Bananas are yellow. So is pikachu. He's in Pokemon. My friend has Pokemon Diamond. He lives in New Jersey. New Jersey is the butt of a lot of jokes. Butt is the same thing as arse. Arse is in Impossible quiz two. That reminds me of the hardest game ever. You play as a circle. Pi defines the ratio between diameter and circumference. Mmmmm, pie. Homer Simpson. Exploding head episode. Big Bang.

See?

Yay abstract chains of thought. Also, am I autistic? I thought I was just insane O.o

am kind of confused what above three posts mean, but please stay on topic (ie, post if you are autistic)

we are not looking for people to deny we are on the spectrum. we get enough of that already.

Sorry; at MasPan, why are your words puce?

Sorry; at MasPan, why are your words puce?

I'm sorry, if you can't accept my text for the way it is, please don't talk to me. Puce is a way of life, and I was born with it. I only recently let it come out into the surface.

Yay abstract chains of thought. Also, am I autistic? I thought I was just insane O.o

I thought you were implying that you were :f6: Ill take you off then.