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Question about ASD and Processing Speed


Tsuga
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Never mind.

 

If you would like to speak with an adult who has been referred to psychological evaluation for autism but did not meet the 1980 criteria for it, but who dealt with specific issues faced by many people with Asperger's, let me know.

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FWIW, there may be differences in terminology to keep in mind.  "Processing speed" as typically discussed on this board isn't necessarily the same type of "processing speed" you seem to be referring to.

 

AFAIK, the "processing speed" discussed in the context of psych testing is generally the type measured on an instrument such as the WISC, which is specifically a processing speed of a motor nature, either with the hands or the eyes or both (what lay people might refer to as "eye-hand coordination?).  One issue with this type of processing speed is that it comes into play on tightly-timed tests such as the SAT and ACT with the bubble answer sheets.  Why such important tests are so tightly-timed is a fair question.  This issue may also affect tasks such as note-taking, though I'd have to look at the psych report to remember more specifics; handwriting is usually a problem.

 

Eta, looking back over your post, have you read the Eides' The Dyslexic Advantage?  That's just one example that comes to mind when considering all the visual-spatial strengths you mention.

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Except you are focusing on one small sliver of what impacts the lives of many individuals on the spectrum. I have never seen my ds's processing speed as one of his major problems EXCEPT for the fact that he cannot perform tasks at the same rate as other people bc he works slowly and deliberately. (Pace can be accommodated in academics. In employment, not so much.) But the multitude of other issues, executive function impairments, high anxiety, inability to see beyond the explicitly given, serious impulse control, etc......the cumulative effect is disabling. Intellectually, he is an adult. Functioning wise he operates more like the avg 10-13 yr old at 23.

 

FWIW, our experience is 180 to yours. We never treated our ds any differently than any of our other kids. He wasn't officially diagnosed with Aspergers until he was a teen (though we always knew he had some problems, they didn't dominate his life. The older he got, however, things started to reverse and his problems did start to dominate.) Academically, our ds had no issues. He does have a high IQ and his intelligence definitely shows.

 

I regret his not receiving appropriate interventions when he was younger (It is a long story.) Therapies are more effective the younger they are. Our ds's life is far from normal and it has absolutely nothing to do with anything we did. It could be a reflection of what he didn't receive. I don't know definitively that therapies would have made a difference. But, I do regret not knowing if they might have.

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He currently isn't getting any therapy b/c he refuses. As an adult,no one will see him if he is not pursuing it on his own.

 

FWIW, I am glad you have a successful and happy life,but the spectrum covers a lot of issues. Statistically, an incredibly hig number of Aspies are unemployed. Seriously large percentage. These issues are can impact employment signficantly.

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Binip, you will probably get a weird vibe from the responses here because it is so often that parents of challenged kids hear "I once read about Autism/ADHD/Processing Disorders/whatever in a magazine and I took their quiz, and read about it on the internet, and I'm pretty sure I have it.  Look at me!  I turned out fine!"  Many of us are really burned out by well intentioned encouragement.

 

I know your desire is to inspire and uplift us, and I thank you for having such a caring heart.

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I'm sorry he's refusing.

 

Please understand that I'm not tying to deny anyone's difficulties, but to suggest that there is a way to positively support a kid.

 

Had it ever occurred to you that perhaps unemployment among people with Asperger's could be reduced if those treating them would take into consideration their need to have their personalities validated as well as to be helped with specific tasks that people with Asperger's have?

 

Because that's what I'm suggesting--not that there is no need for help, but that the need for help is not only one of "bringing up to speed" but of recognizing other gifts, which is what my mom did with me.

first, why do you think any parent is not positively supporting their child? I doubt anyone is trying to change their child into someone they are not. I think most parents are trying to help their children understand how the world around them functions and what other people think/how they respond in order for the world to make more sense for their child. I believe most parents want their children to be fully themselves and embrace their children fully as who they are. They simply want their children to be able to live fulfilled life. It takes being able to function within certain parameters to do that.

 

The reason so many Aspies are unemployed is mainly due to rate of performance. I have met with several of the employment specialists from 2 different states' dept of rehab and they have all told me that their Aspie clients are all underemployed b/c they cannot function at the same pace as other employees. When an employer can hire someone else and have a higher rate of return on the salary paid, that is who they are going to hire. Places like Goodwill which deliberately hire disabled adults do expect to compensate for the lower rate of performance. It is what they do.

 

From my perspective Aspergers is not disabling at all due to personality or social awkwardness. It is disabling due to an inability to function on an equal footing and lacking the ability to deal with real, but very normal, simple adult life. Not all Aspies are impacted as significantly as my ds, but his issues are limiting. It isn't a matter of simply affirming him and his differences. If he were not living at home under our care and supervision, he would be homeless. He is very far from being able to handle everything it takes to live on his own. He also refuses to learn to drive. We finally had him agree to start taking driving lessons with a specialist for the disabled and after 1 time behind the wheel, he refused to ever do it again even though they called him and encouraged him multiple times.

 

I know you are meaning to be supportive, and I think that is wonderful. But, equally, it is dismissive to think that all things are simply a matter of being misunderstood. It is definitely not that simple for our ds. His disability is disabling.

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1. I did NOT say that ASD is not a disability.

 

2. I did NOT say that people should not seek treatment.

 

3. I did NOT say that people should not get a diagnosis (my own mother sought one for me and I said she did the right thing).

 

4. I did NOT say that people are not supporting their own kids.

 

5. I did NOT say that ASD was misunderstood.

 

What I did say was taken, as I should have expected because this is a support group for parents and not a group of adults with the disabilities, as a dismissal of your problems.

 

And for that, I am sorry.

 

I DO believe that ASD is real.

 

I DO believe it's a disability.

 

I DO believe that everyone works hard for their kids.

 

I DO believe that it is really freaking hard.

 

Your lives are really hard. Your kids are really disabled. I believe you.

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I'm sorry you felt like you needed to delete your posts. I am sure they would have been helpful for many people. I was only sharing that your experiences are not similar to our son's. If he had read your posts, he would not have seen a resemblance to what he is living. It is a spectrum bc people can fall in vastly different places. It doesn't make your experience any less valid.

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8filltheheart, if my post had not been offensive, I don't think that people would have responded the way they did.

 

It is clear that however I intended my post, that it was taken as an invalidation of people's personal experiences. And that was not what I wanted to do.

 

I do think my experience and those of others can be useful, but probably not in this particular forum.

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8filltheheart, if my post had not been offensive, I don't think that people would have responded the way they did.

 

It is clear that however I intended my post, that it was taken as an invalidation of people's personal experiences. And that was not what I wanted to do.

 

I do think my experience and those of others can be useful, but probably not in this particular forum.

I don't think people found your posts offensive. I read them more as a conversation about how the term processing speed can be defined differently than what you were sharing and that how one interprets the world differently (Thinking in Pictures does an excellent job of sharing a visual interpretation of the world) may be only one symptom amg many. A lot of spectrum kids have co-morbid conditions and the sum total is overwhelming.

 

Fwiw, I have met far more low iq Aspies than high. In the adult groups we have been part of most of the Aspies have been remedial level students. While our ds is academically ahead of them, his functioning skills have not been beyond theirs at all.

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I am sorry I missed the thread!  I am always interested. 

 

I hope you will be back in general, Binip. 

 

I think it can be hard with on-line, it is easy to type something and have it come across differently than it would in person, and I think that is just a part of writing on a forum. 

 

But I still find it valuable! 

 

I am subscribed to a few autistic adults on Facebook, yesterday John Elder Robison had a new post. 

 

I am also subscribed to Diary of a Mom, and on her BlogSpot page, she has links to blogs by autistic adults.  I have read through a lot of them, and look through them sometimes. 

 

I have also checked out the Wrong Planet forum.

 

I do not get annoyed the same way with people who know they fit on the autism spectrum, but were not diagnosed as children.  My same-age cousin (37) was diagnosed when he was in his early 20s, as soon as Aspbergers was something that professionals in his area became aware of.  How was he to be diagnosed earlier?  How are adults of our age supposed to be diagnosed, when the diagnosis did not exist when we were children?  To me -- if you look at the DSM V diagnostic criteria and know from your childhood, that you had those signs as a child, that is good to me.  I do not get into the Sacha Baron-Cohen on-line test as much - -I do not always really like him and his on-line test is not to my liking -- but that is just me, I think it works for a lot of people, too.

 

This has come up before, and I respect that there are a lot of people out in the world, who are minimizing the struggles of people by casually saying they think they have Aspgergers.  But I don't think that means that a lot of people today, who are doing very well, do not have Aspbergers, and have not been thoughtful in their views or how they relate this information to themselves. 

 

Personally for me also -- my son was diagnosed with autistic disorder, and my mom went with me when he was diagnosed, and we understand why he was diagnosed and how he met the criteria on the day we took him.  My aunt understands this, too.  So to me -- if my mom and my aunt can remember how various people in my family acted when they were very young children, and know it is the same or similar (or different in certain ways but also the same) then that is something that for me -- I am going to feel free to think certain people would have been diagnosed as children, if the current guidelines had been in place back then. 

 

And one of these is a CPA now, happily married, 2 kids, eats lunch with people from work, goes to church events and participates in social events through her Sunday School group ------- she does not go to any adult groups, she does not need it, it is not something she thinks about.  Also -- my mom and aunt kind-of said something to her once or twice, and she indicated a non-interest in wondering if she might have Aspbergers.  She is just not interested at all, it does not spark her interest in any way. 

 

But I think if she were interested, and wanted to share her experiences, they would not be less valid b/c she is doing well as an adult. 

 

But I am also very, very aware, that my cousin struggles with so, so, so much more than my sister does.  In another way of looking at things, there is no comparison, b/c they are so different, and my cousin has a lot of problems that effect him in everyday life, and my sister, at this point, really does not.  They are just different in many ways.  But they get along very well!  They have quite a bit of a kindred spirit, too. 

 

My cousin is doing well right now but he is not able to live independently and he has a lot of struggles to try to find and keep a job.  In a way it would be cruel to compare him to my sister, who is a CPA and has a family, and does not need help from anyone.  But in a way they are also very similar. 

 

I think since I know them -- I can see the ways they are similar, and do not think it is cruel -- we are family, why would we be hurtful or cruel?  But if it was with different people, I can really see how it could come across in a really weird way -- like -- it is nice my sister is doing this, but what does that have to do with my cousin, who cannot do those things?  And believe me -- he tries so hard, and has a lot of support, and a lot of people on his side.  And he has only benefited from having the diagnosis.  It helps to explain so much, it has led to some helpful treatment for him, too.  But I think it would be better if he had been able to have therapy when he was a child -- maybe he would be doing better now. 

 

It is very hard, b/c my son is able to get help that my cousin never got, and my son is having positive experiences in school, where my cousin was often disliked by teachers and classmates -- and nobody wanted to think he was a good kid of help him, and my aunt was always blamed for him being this way or that way, teachers and adults in general (church, activities they tried) always would think my aunt and uncle were somehow causing certain problems and have no patience with my cousin or willingness to really try to include him. 

 

And I can remember that from us being the same age, and it really is different now with my son.  So -- I do not think we can say that childhood experiences from the 1980s are still true today -- I think that a lot of people are just nicer people, because now there is an expectation to be nice, that used to not be there.  I hear that it is the same in my hometown.  Everyone I know is so surprised by how much better things are for children today.  Like -- bullying is really not tolerated at my kids' elementary school.  Nobody thinks the anti-bullying program is a joke.  Nobody thinks some kids just get bullied and isolated, and that is fine, after all, why don't they just not be the kind of kids who get bullied.  It is something that (I always say) gives me hope for humanity. 

 

 

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