It just goes to show you how much of a "spectrum" this profile really is... as they say, when you've met one person with Autism, you've met one person with Autism.
And also that ideas and stereotypes that float around as "maybes" in the press are highly influential-- whether or not they are true.
"Awareness" is good but not always sufficient for understanding of a particular person's needs. IMO.
VERY well-stated.
My DD was a child that-- at least on paper, as the sum of a number of her traits-- would have seemed to be a prime candidate for an ASD diagnosis at 2 until about 8 years of age.
Until you met her and watched her as she interacted with other human beings, that is. I'm not a professional, by any means-- but even those who are such professionals had ZERO concern about a possible spectrum diagnosis after about five minutes with her. She wasn't like other NT people, all right-- but it was often because she was MORE capable, and was choosing to either blend in completely, or to be Jane Goodall, in any given situation. The difference between her and someone with an ASD is
probably that she has a CHOICE, and is aware of deciding what to do, socially and interpersonally.
Checklists are currently a
very imprecise means of flagging, much less diagnosing, someone with ASD. I'm convinced that among children with sensory sensitivities, the potential overlap and misdiagnosis is
substantial.That isn't to say that I don't think that ASD diagnoses represent real challenges that those individuals (and their families) face-- but to say that I've seen and interacted with enough people with such diagnoses to know that no list of traits is capable of capturing what it is that makes them "different" in ways that make it challenging for them to live in a world made by and for NT people. It's real, but good luck putting it into a short list of terms. They are
people first, and people with ASD
second.
It's
something about communication and social connection with other human beings and human conventions/institutions-- and more than that is wading knee deep into controversy/unknowns. Gifties, in general, have the flexibility in thinking to be
capable of meeting those things without overt gaps, and those with ASD tend not to be (because it's not a voluntary thing, but an involuntary one)-- probably, anyway.
EVERYTHING else that I've ever read, observed, or heard about ASD indicates to me that some people with high cognitive ability and
without ASDs will also "match" on some traits. Nothing is completely pathognomonic.
This is like claiming that most people with trisomy 21 have "friendliness" as a generally present trait, and then looking to see if "friendly" is predictive of a trisomy 21 diagnosis-- much less whether or not it can be used to exclude such a diagnosis if it
isn't present.
