Autism Spectrum Disorder & "Savants" (2 Viewers)

[blue_chameleon]

Autism really amazes me, and I think a lot of the time those with it are unfortunately more often than not, unable to have their talents discovered.

Does anyone have any family members or know of close friends with Autism? Whilst their social and language impairments would probably be most visible, are their perception and motor control impairments are easy to spot?

I'm sure there are areas within societies workforce that savants like Steven Wiltshire and Daniel Tammet could utilise their freakish talents (even though they are sometimes severely impaired in others).

If anyone has done much research in this area, I would really appreciate sharing sources.

Daniel Tammet - The Boy With The Incredible Brain

[youtube]AbASOcqc1Ss&feature=related[/youtube]

Beautiful Minds: Stephen Wiltshire

[youtube]dAfaM_CBvP8[/youtube]

 

[Ashabella]

Hello,

Yes, my little brother has ASD. He is only 6, so it is really quite impossible to predict what will happen from here, but he has improved a lot throughout the last year.

Interestingly, my brothers' social skills are not consistent with the stereotypical characteristics often associated with autism. He is able to communicate with others, and play with friends, but is often 'overly affectionate', to a point where it may be deemed socially inappropriate. He also is EXTREMELY moody and gets incredibly frustrated and angry when routine is broken, or if someone acts in an unpredictable manner. He also responds with anger to sarcastic comments, because due to his condition, he interprets most things around him as completely literal.

In terms of motor control impairments - they definitely affect him. He finds it difficult to participate in physical activities such as sports, as his motor perception is reasonably impaired. He also struggles to complete fine motor tasks such as drawing, cutting and writing. His impairments in this area cause him to feel a lot of frustration over school work, and also cause feelings of inadequacy.

You are right that people on the autistic spectrum can have many talents. From the age of four, my brother could tell you all about the human digestive system. Using scientific terms and everything. It was so cute watching him describe it all, especially when he talked about 'peristalsis motion' - you just kind of watched in amazement as a little kid rattled off all these big scientific words. It's seriously amazing. He's moved on to other things now... he will often develop 'obsessions' with certain things. Sometimes it will be a movie, or tv show, and other times it might be something science based, like the human body, or dinosaurs or space or something of that nature.

I hope that was interesting for you to read. It's nice that you are so interested in it! Maybe you should look into a career assisting kids with special needs? There are certainly a lot of opportunities in that line of work.


Ash xo

 

[SnowFox]

Hello,

Yes, my little brother has ASD. He is only 6, so it is really quite impossible to predict what will happen from here, but he has improved a lot throughout the last year.

Interestingly, my brothers' social skills are not consistent with the stereotypical characteristics often associated with autism. He is able to communicate with others, and play with friends, but is often 'overly affectionate', to a point where it may be deemed socially inappropriate. He also is EXTREMELY moody and gets incredibly frustrated and angry when routine is broken, or if someone acts in an unpredictable manner. He also responds with anger to sarcastic comments, because due to his condition, he interprets most things around him as completely literal.

In terms of motor control impairments - they definitely affect him. He finds it difficult to participate in physical activities such as sports, as his motor perception is reasonably impaired. He also struggles to complete fine motor tasks such as drawing, cutting and writing. His impairments in this area cause him to feel a lot of frustration over school work, and also cause feelings of inadequacy.

You are right that people on the autistic spectrum can have many talents. From the age of four, my brother could tell you all about the human digestive system. Using scientific terms and everything. It was so cute watching him describe it all, especially when he talked about 'peristalsis motion' - you just kind of watched in amazement as a little kid rattled off all these big scientific words. It's seriously amazing. He's moved on to other things now... he will often develop 'obsessions' with certain things. Sometimes it will be a movie, or tv show, and other times it might be something science based, like the human body, or dinosaurs or space or something of that nature.

I hope that was interesting for you to read. It's nice that you are so interested in it! Maybe you should look into a career assisting kids with special needs? There are certainly a lot of opportunities in that line of work.


Ash xo

My cousin has it as well and is very similar to your brother.
I visited one day and he would come in, smile and giggle, and run off. His mother showed me a test he did and got 120% (extra marks from extended answers).
Sufferers are really intelligent, but its often hard for them to express it. Give them a computer or a interpreter and watch them run amok.

 

[MaNiElla]

They are only really intelligent because they only focus, concentrate and obsess with specific things that sparks their interests. They also allocate nearly all of their time, and pre-occupy themselves working on only that activity.

I know this guy from uni who was autistic, he was one extremely clever lad, always on the Deans merit list...He used to sit in an isolated corner somewhere and code, code, code, and code all day long. He was in most of my programming classes (java, object oriented programming, c, etc) and he was constantly arguing and discussing all these things with the lecturers during the lecture(im pretty sure that he knows way more then most of them). The ideas and things he used to come up with were fascinating.

But, he had this thing where he'd suddenly stop typing, and he'd start pressing the space bar on the keyboard, until someone snaps him out of it.

He was a really nice guy though.

 

[Joel8945]

Autism really amazes me, and I think a lot of the time those with it are unfortunately more often than not, unable to have their talents discovered.

Does anyone have any family members or know of close friends with Autism? Whilst their social and language impairments would probably be most visible, are their perception and motor control impairments are easy to spot?

I'm sure there are areas within societies workforce that savants like Steven Wiltshire and Daniel Tammet could utilise their freakish talents (even though they are sometimes severely impaired in others).

If anyone has done much research in this area, I would really appreciate sharing sources.

Hello,

I myself have asperges syndrome. This sydrome fits on the autism spectrum except most people with asperges don't have the same sort of thing as autistic people. i.e. People with asperges generally are self reliant (most of us actually become loners).

With my syndrome I find that socialising is the most challenging thing because it is just something that isn't second nature to me, if I'm going to have to socialise it is often difficult to stay on topic and generally will go on discussing my 'interest' and dismissing what is being said. In primary school this became exceptionally prominent when I made friends and lost them and it took me ages to work out why, I just felt worthless to people and just stopped trying to be a friend because the aftermath of friendship was already known. Although in uni it has been a lot easier to make friends because I'm teaching myself social ettiquette and have made a couple of friends with similar interests to me.

Going to interests: When I was 3 I was obsessed with trains (especially Thomas the tank engine), when I was 4 I was obsessed with snakes and drove my parents crazy by drawing snakes and talking about them and this went on till year 1 in primary school where I was called the 'snake guy', in year 1 I developed an obsession with cicadas and spent every lunch time (in summer) collecting them and keeping them which lasted until year 3 when my new obsession was pokemon and this obsession lasted until year 6 (when obsessed with pokemon I was on a quest to find my own charizard card - which failed), in year 6 I became obsessed with the playstation 2and this lasted until year 8 when then I started getting interested in maths and also obsessed with the atom when our teacher introduced it to us. Up until today these two interests have stayed with me and with my uni degree I am considering getting a PhD in physics focussing on nuclear physics, yet, I am also considering becoming an engineer. Well anyway thats my history of interests.

I also have been diagnosed with OCD (i.e. I washed my hands that much at one stage they were red raw) and I also have emetophobia (Anything associated with vomit totally freaks me out).

I don't consider myself a savant or even over intelligent (I often wish I was more intelligent).

But anyway thats my 2 cents.

 

[blue_chameleon]

Thanks for all of your replies everyone, they have been really insightful so far.

 

[Ashabella]

Hello,

I myself have asperges syndrome. This sydrome fits on the autism spectrum except most people with asperges don't have the same sort of thing as autistic people. i.e. People with asperges generally are self reliant (most of us actually become loners).

With my syndrome I find that socialising is the most challenging thing because it is just something that isn't second nature to me, if I'm going to have to socialise it is often difficult to stay on topic and generally will go on discussing my 'interest' and dismissing what is being said. In primary school this became exceptionally prominent when I made friends and lost them and it took me ages to work out why, I just felt worthless to people and just stopped trying to be a friend because the aftermath of friendship was already known. Although in uni it has been a lot easier to make friends because I'm teaching myself social ettiquette and have made a couple of friends with similar interests to me.

Going to interests: When I was 3 I was obsessed with trains (especially Thomas the tank engine), when I was 4 I was obsessed with snakes and drove my parents crazy by drawing snakes and talking about them and this went on till year 1 in primary school where I was called the 'snake guy', in year 1 I developed an obsession with cicadas and spent every lunch time (in summer) collecting them and keeping them which lasted until year 3 when my new obsession was pokemon and this obsession lasted until year 6 (when obsessed with pokemon I was on a quest to find my own charizard card - which failed), in year 6 I became obsessed with the playstation 2and this lasted until year 8 when then I started getting interested in maths and also obsessed with the atom when our teacher introduced it to us. Up until today these two interests have stayed with me and with my uni degree I am considering getting a PhD in physics focussing on nuclear physics, yet, I am also considering becoming an engineer. Well anyway thats my history of interests.

I also have been diagnosed with OCD (i.e. I washed my hands that much at one stage they were red raw) and I also have emetophobia (Anything associated with vomit totally freaks me out).

I don't consider myself a savant or even over intelligent (I often wish I was more intelligent).

But anyway thats my 2 cents.

Hey Joel,

Thanks for posting about your story

I don't know if you read my previous post, but my 6 year old brother is on the autistic spectrum. It was really cool being able to gain an insight into your experiences, because it gives me a bit of an idea of what my brother might be going through.

My brother also has these interests that come and go in phases (a lot like you, I guess). He's been obsessed with lots of things - it's actually kind of astonishing how much one little kid can know about the one thing! haha

He has just started his first year of primary school, and does experience difficulties socially - mainly due to the fact that he talks endlessly about his interests, and doesn't realise that the people he is talking with, don't share his passion or enthusiasm.

I realise you're probably a busy guy, but I was wondering if I could ask you to tell me about some of the things that made/might have made it easier for you to cope with your condition (especially during primary school).

Thanks again for posting about your experiences on here. And, for the record, you sound pretty intelligent. I don't know too many people that are considering a PhD in Nuclear Physics... and that kind of degree requires A LOT of intelligence.

See ya,


Ash

 

[Joel8945]

Hey Joel,

Thanks for posting about your story

I don't know if you read my previous post, but my 6 year old brother is on the autistic spectrum. It was really cool being able to gain an insight into your experiences, because it gives me a bit of an idea of what my brother might be going through.

My brother also has these interests that come and go in phases (a lot like you, I guess). He's been obsessed with lots of things - it's actually kind of astonishing how much one little kid can know about the one thing! haha

He has just started his first year of primary school, and does experience difficulties socially - mainly due to the fact that he talks endlessly about his interests, and doesn't realise that the people he is talking with, don't share his passion or enthusiasm.

I realise you're probably a busy guy, but I was wondering if I could ask you to tell me about some of the things that made/might have made it easier for you to cope with your condition (especially during primary school).

Thanks again for posting about your experiences on here. And, for the record, you sound pretty intelligent. I don't know too many people that are considering a PhD in Nuclear Physics... and that kind of degree requires A LOT of intelligence.

See ya,


Ash

Hello,

Yeah I read your post from before and quite simply kids at primary school are just downright mean! I actually didn't find out I was diagnosed with asperges until I was 12, I can remember seeing psychiatrists and stuff back when I was around 5, but being my age I didn't know what asperges syndrome even was. I thought I went to see the psychiatrist because I was annoying my parents with talking about snakes. At primary school I never really coped, my teachers constantly patronised me and I never had any motivation to even learn anything because it really bored me and I just hated my teachers. Friendwise I did make one friend who also had asperges syndrome and my mum told me that he had it and the way she said it I thought it was like a bug that you could catch like a cold. Cause I saw no difference in him, I didn't see any difference in myself I just thought that people at school hated me for some reason (I personally felt it was not being in their league because one thing I did catch up on was social hierachy). When I went to high school and started in year 7 I thought that people there would be nicer because they were different but they were not. The bullying continued and my emetophobia consumed me because being alone my brain was left to just run its own course and cause me to feel depressed halfway through year 7. I was doing exceptionally poorly in all my studies because I still had no motivation in them and just went on looking at things that took my interest. When I started year 8 I had this new sensation that I really wouldn't care about what other people thought and I would try and convince myself to actually get into the school work, then, during my first day of year 8 I had this really nice maths teacher come in and show us maths involving finding the circumference of a circle and we were using very basic algebra, but, it looked very interesting and drew me in. I then started really paying attention in maths my grades started rising and each year was new challenging concepts and I felt as though I found myself in maths. In year 8 science I got interested in science when the same teacher as my maths teacher took us for science and when we were introduced to the atom I was extremely interested in how there were these little things that made up everything! Anything I looked at was constituted of them and then in year 9 our science teacher taught physics and spent most of the time talking about physics and the atom and I found anything related with physics just drew me in and I got good grades in that too. By the time year 10 came I was basically nearing the high achievers and I finished the year getting dux in space science. Year 11 was great because I could choose subjects that interested me and by that year I was level with the high achievers in those subjects and I got dux of physics. By year 12 I was feeling really good with myself and found that year to be the BEST year of my schooling. I was being challenged by people, I was learning intellectually stimulating stuff but my stubboness never left me and I kinda refused to even pick up my english texts or do any of the work.

Anyway your brother will find life at school difficult becauseas I said school students are just down right mean and I have a theory that the social structures of school, such as teachers in primary schools favouring the students whose parents are right up there on the social chain promotes bullying. I don't know if schools realise it or dismiss it through jeopardising themselves but really school is a really mean place to be in until you find your self in something, then you can just shut out what others have to say about you.

Once you get to uni all the cool people are sifted out. I have just realized looking back at all the people who in primary school were up there and now some of them aren't getting a degree they are just staying at home partying all the time. Adjusting to uni life itself is really easy, its more the work that starts becoming a challenge.

But anyway I really do wish the best for your brother.

 

[Izzay]

i was watching a documentary on a famous savant by the name of kim peek.

apparently he could read a book and then rattle of something like 98% of its content.
pretty amazing.

 

[blue_chameleon]

i was watching a documentary on a famous savant by the name of kim peek.

apparently he could read a book and then rattle of something like 98% of its content.
pretty amazing.

Yeah, in the top video in my OP, Daniel Tammet meets him and spends the day with him.

Pretty crazy guy. They based the main character in the movie "Rain Man" off him.

 

[squiresshane990]

Hello,

Yeah I read your post from before and quite simply kids at primary school are just downright mean! I actually didn't find out I was diagnosed with asperges until I was 12, I can remember seeing psychiatrists and stuff back when I was around 5, but being my age I didn't know what asperges syndrome even was. I thought I went to see the psychiatrist because I was annoying my parents with talking about snakes. At primary school I never really coped, my teachers constantly patronised me and I never had any motivation to even learn anything because it really bored me and I just hated my teachers. Friendwise I did make one friend who also had asperges syndrome and my mum told me that he had it and the way she said it I thought it was like a bug that you could catch like a cold. Cause I saw no difference in him, I didn't see any difference in myself I just thought that people at school hated me for some reason (I personally felt it was not being in their league because one thing I did catch up on was social hierachy). When I went to high school and started in year 7 I thought that people there would be nicer because they were different but they were not. The bullying continued and my emetophobia consumed me because being alone my brain was left to just run its own course and cause me to feel depressed halfway through year 7. I was doing exceptionally poorly in all my studies because I still had no motivation in them and just went on looking at things that took my interest. When I started year 8 I had this new sensation that I really wouldn't care about what other people thought and I would try and convince myself to actually get into the school work, then, during my first day of year 8 I had this really nice maths teacher come in and show us maths involving finding the circumference of a circle and we were using very basic algebra, but, it looked very interesting and drew me in. I then started really paying attention in maths my grades started rising and each year was new challenging concepts and I felt as though I found myself in maths. In year 8 science I got interested in science when the same teacher as my maths teacher took us for science and when we were introduced to the atom I was extremely interested in how there were these little things that made up everything! Anything I looked at was constituted of them and then in year 9 our science teacher taught physics and spent most of the time talking about physics and the atom and I found anything related with physics just drew me in and I got good grades in that too. By the time year 10 came I was basically nearing the high achievers and I finished the year getting dux in space science. Year 11 was great because I could choose subjects that interested me and by that year I was level with the high achievers in those subjects and I got dux of physics. By year 12 I was feeling really good with myself and found that year to be the BEST year of my schooling. I was being challenged by people, I was learning intellectually stimulating stuff but my stubboness never left me and I kinda refused to even pick up my english texts or do any of the work.

Anyway your brother will find life at school difficult becauseas I said school students are just down right mean and I have a theory that the social structures of school, such as teachers in primary schools favouring the students whose parents are right up there on the social chain promotes bullying. I don't know if schools realise it or dismiss it through jeopardising themselves but really school is a really mean place to be in until you find your self in something, then you can just shut out what others have to say about you.

Once you get to uni all the cool people are sifted out. I have just realized looking back at all the people who in primary school were up there and now some of them aren't getting a degree they are just staying at home partying all the time. Adjusting to uni life itself is really easy, its more the work that starts becoming a challenge.

But anyway I really do wish the best for your brother.

Back on topic, i thought it was fairly common for young children to go through phases like you did?

I liked trains (thomas mainkly)
then dinosuars
then planes
then war
then cars
that basically sums up my childhood

then women.

phases are normal i would have thought?

i had an autistic mate who was obsessed with war from yr1 to yr10 lol
that and judge dredd lol

 

[Ashabella]

Hello,

Yeah I read your post from before and quite simply kids at primary school are just downright mean! I actually didn't find out I was diagnosed with asperges until I was 12, I can remember seeing psychiatrists and stuff back when I was around 5, but being my age I didn't know what asperges syndrome even was. I thought I went to see the psychiatrist because I was annoying my parents with talking about snakes. At primary school I never really coped, my teachers constantly patronised me and I never had any motivation to even learn anything because it really bored me and I just hated my teachers. Friendwise I did make one friend who also had asperges syndrome and my mum told me that he had it and the way she said it I thought it was like a bug that you could catch like a cold. Cause I saw no difference in him, I didn't see any difference in myself I just thought that people at school hated me for some reason (I personally felt it was not being in their league because one thing I did catch up on was social hierachy). When I went to high school and started in year 7 I thought that people there would be nicer because they were different but they were not. The bullying continued and my emetophobia consumed me because being alone my brain was left to just run its own course and cause me to feel depressed halfway through year 7. I was doing exceptionally poorly in all my studies because I still had no motivation in them and just went on looking at things that took my interest. When I started year 8 I had this new sensation that I really wouldn't care about what other people thought and I would try and convince myself to actually get into the school work, then, during my first day of year 8 I had this really nice maths teacher come in and show us maths involving finding the circumference of a circle and we were using very basic algebra, but, it looked very interesting and drew me in. I then started really paying attention in maths my grades started rising and each year was new challenging concepts and I felt as though I found myself in maths. In year 8 science I got interested in science when the same teacher as my maths teacher took us for science and when we were introduced to the atom I was extremely interested in how there were these little things that made up everything! Anything I looked at was constituted of them and then in year 9 our science teacher taught physics and spent most of the time talking about physics and the atom and I found anything related with physics just drew me in and I got good grades in that too. By the time year 10 came I was basically nearing the high achievers and I finished the year getting dux in space science. Year 11 was great because I could choose subjects that interested me and by that year I was level with the high achievers in those subjects and I got dux of physics. By year 12 I was feeling really good with myself and found that year to be the BEST year of my schooling. I was being challenged by people, I was learning intellectually stimulating stuff but my stubboness never left me and I kinda refused to even pick up my english texts or do any of the work.

Anyway your brother will find life at school difficult becauseas I said school students are just down right mean and I have a theory that the social structures of school, such as teachers in primary schools favouring the students whose parents are right up there on the social chain promotes bullying. I don't know if schools realise it or dismiss it through jeopardising themselves but really school is a really mean place to be in until you find your self in something, then you can just shut out what others have to say about you.

Once you get to uni all the cool people are sifted out. I have just realized looking back at all the people who in primary school were up there and now some of them aren't getting a degree they are just staying at home partying all the time. Adjusting to uni life itself is really easy, its more the work that starts becoming a challenge.

But anyway I really do wish the best for your brother.

Hey, thanks for the reply!

I'm really sorry you got treated so badly. And i'm also sorry that you didn't even find that the teachers treated you particularly well.

I think, at least in my brothers case, he finds it difficult to be motivated because he feels like he will never 'measure up'. I think he can see that he is different from other kids, and while he is exceptionally good at a lot of things, it's sometimes the most simple thing that he struggles with. I think that can leave him feeling like he is inadequate sometimes.

It sounds like your interest in maths and science really was your lifeline throughout high school. I'm glad you had that, and you sound like you did really well, and like you continue to now.

Do you think the best way to help my brother to get through it is to simply encourage him? ie: Give him positive feedback, praise him when he does something well, applaud his differences and uniqueness rather than avoiding it etc. ?

Anyway, thanks again Joel. You've been really insightful, and I hope you do well in your degree. It's such an achievement to have come out of school with decent grades, when you have had to put up with so much shit. I don't know if you've ever really looked at it like this, but what you've done is actually really inspiring.

Thanks,

Ash xo

 

[Ashabella]

Back on topic, i thought it was fairly common for young children to go through phases like you did?

I liked trains (thomas mainkly)
then dinosuars
then planes
then war
then cars
that basically sums up my childhood

then women.

phases are normal i would have thought?

i had an autistic mate who was obsessed with war from yr1 to yr10 lol
that and judge dredd lol

Hey,

I'm certainly not a professional, but I think I at least have a basic understanding of ASD. So if I hand out any incorrect information I would really really like it if someone corrected me.

First off, you're right - most, if not all children will go through phases and will develop various interests throughout their childhood. The difference, however, is that people with ASD that have these interests may actually experience them with lot more intensity. Even though the word has a bit of a negative connotation, I guess you could say that they are 'obsessions'.

Often what makes these obsessions, obsessions is how intense they are - how much time a person spends thinking or engaging in his or her interest, how much they will learn about their area of interest, and how strongly they feel about their interest.

In many cases the persons interest can become so consuming that they find it difficult to think about much else. This can then impact on the person socially, as they may talk about their interest endlessly and in many cases, do not posses the 'theory of mind', and thus the capacity to understand that the person they are talking to may not be particularly interested. It can be difficult for a person with ASD to interpret others emotions, and thus they are not able to tell if someone is bored with their conversation.

Another thing that having these interests can do is provide a sense of structure, familiarity and routine to the life of an autistic person. This is an aspect of life that is often highly important to a person with ASD, and their interests only serve to meet this need.

So, to summarise, there is a difference between the interests of your 'average child' and the interests/obsessions of a child with ASD. These interests can be very intrusive on a persons life, and may affect their involvement in activities. These interests are also rarely unique to childhood and will affect a person for what is sometimes an entire lifetime. Sometimes the interests will change in phases, and other times a person may be interested in one particular subject or thing for their entire lives.

Basically, the intensity and intrusive nature of the interests is what sets them apart from the interests of your average child.


I hope that answered your question.


Ash

 

[Joel8945]

Hey, thanks for the reply!

I'm really sorry you got treated so badly. And i'm also sorry that you didn't even find that the teachers treated you particularly well.

I think, at least in my brothers case, he finds it difficult to be motivated because he feels like he will never 'measure up'. I think he can see that he is different from other kids, and while he is exceptionally good at a lot of things, it's sometimes the most simple thing that he struggles with. I think that can leave him feeling like he is inadequate sometimes.

It sounds like your interest in maths and science really was your lifeline throughout high school. I'm glad you had that, and you sound like you did really well, and like you continue to now.

Do you think the best way to help my brother to get through it is to simply encourage him? ie: Give him positive feedback, praise him when he does something well, applaud his differences and uniqueness rather than avoiding it etc. ?

Anyway, thanks again Joel. You've been really insightful, and I hope you do well in your degree. It's such an achievement to have come out of school with decent grades, when you have had to put up with so much shit. I don't know if you've ever really looked at it like this, but what you've done is actually really inspiring.

Thanks,

Ash xo

Firstly I accept that the big paragraph was needed to be cut down squiresshane990. Yet as Ash said I don't really proof read what I have written when I am putting it through a forum that has people write the way they speak.

Now high school despite the start being a bit wobbly, I did find the teachers a lot more nicer and to this day I'm friends with many of them (especially my year 8 maths teacher, my year 9 science and year 11 & 12 physics teacher and my year 10 space science and year 12 chemistry teacher). I would be able to have discussions with them about anything that interested me and possible careers that I may consider.

Now my primary school was very much interested in its social politics. Where parental views on another parent had an influence on what the child was labelled (i.e. I knew a few kids at school who was labelled the inferior person because they were from the "_" family). I found that primary school teachers focussed on the kids who were popular and ultimately from the right family. I found that my primary school teachers were shocking at teaching.

One thing I have found through my schooling career was that people's status went up exponentially when involved with some sport (primary or high school). The people involved with sports were noble role models, intellectuals weren't even recognised at primary school. At high school I was disappointed when the sports awards took up 1/5 of the evening and people who got dux awards (even though I didn't cut it that high) where quickly given the awards and finished with.

One thing my physics teacher told us about was that when someone got the nobel prize a small corner in the newspaper was saved for just going "and by the way...", like I mean intellectuals really aren't spoken about enough. To be known by "everybody" you must be the best of the best in some field. Whereas the amount of times some sporting match makes the "whole" front cover. I'm not saying that I hate sports, I just feel its injustice to have our social politics revolve around it. Especially when its drummed into us at such a young age.

Ok going back to the topic at hand. Encouraging him is definately an excellent thing to do, praise anything good he does such as doing well with an school task. Praise him for his uniqueness in a way that allows him to feel that its not bad but not in a way which will cause him to feel that this is the only way. i.e. people in society despite what people advertise, will by default favour more conventional ways of life and dismiss uniqueness. I found that to make friends that trying to adopt some of these ways is making some adjustments to be able to form necessary social connections. Uniqueness is not bad and in physics and maths uniqueness is what makes people great. But this question is far more complex. You'll have to experience for your self what helps your brother best.

 

[Joel8945]

While we are discussing autism. When I watched Boston Legal and heard there is someone with asperges and I was amazed to see that he held his arms completely parallel to his body. Jerry is the first person with asperges (that I have seen) who does this. Another thing I laughed at was that in a interview he was talking about himself acting as someone who suffers from asperges disease. Firstly its not a disease, asperges does not kill you and secondly I don't consider myself or anyone with asperges to suffer from it.

 

[Joel8945]

Here's a really good 9 minute documentary about people with asperges syndrome.

YouTube - Documentary about Asperger's Syndrome

 

[Izzay]

Yeah, in the top video in my OP, Daniel Tammet meets him and spends the day with him.

Pretty crazy guy. They based the main character in the movie "Rain Man" off him.

does he meet peek in the video? because i cant remember seeing that.

the guy who can remember the weather and day of the week for every date since his accident is pretty amazing also.

 

[blue_chameleon]

does he meet peek in the video? because i cant remember seeing that.

the guy who can remember the weather and day of the week for every date since his accident is pretty amazing also.

Pretty sure he did, otherwise it must have been a related video (on the side of the main video being watched) with Daniel Tarrant in it.

Either way, these guys change the whole perception of the capabilities and limits of the brain.

 

[Kwayera]

While we are discussing autism. When I watched Boston Legal and heard there is someone with asperges and I was amazed to see that he held his arms completely parallel to his body. Jerry is the first person with asperges (that I have seen) who does this. Another thing I laughed at was that in a interview he was talking about himself acting as someone who suffers from asperges disease. Firstly its not a disease, asperges does not kill you and secondly I don't consider myself or anyone with asperges to suffer from it.

1) Jerry is TV character, and thus prone to hyperbolisation by the creators
2) Asperger's Syndrome has a spectrum of severity of symptoms, as you would well know
3) Asperger's can indeed be regarded as a disease or a disorder. Just because it doesn't kill you or you don't suffer from it, doesn't mean it's not a disease. It is by this (and any other definition):

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and signs.[1][2][3] It may be caused by external factors, such as invading organisms, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune diseases.

In human beings, "disease" is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes extreme pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts and for other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories.

 

[Skeeta]

If you want up to date and reliable resources on Autism Spectrum Disorders, try:

http://www.aspect.org.au

They have a "links" section where you can also get more info.