Dear BLOG Readers here as interesting Diagnostic tool for Adults that might be in the autism spectrum. It Is from The National Autistic Society, and I found it on the web.
I will answer the questions in a way only those with the inside information might have.
Please tick the appropriate boxes below to indicate the frequency of the behaviours you have observed, as follows: Frequent [F] daily or several (three or more) times a week Sometimes [S] once or twice a week Never/Rarely [N] very infrequently or not at all Does the person ... F S N
1. Seek the company of other people?
As an High functioning Autistic person we are noted for being loners, we prefer to be alone it is much less complicated. Since traditional Thought is our second language we have to work really hard to achieve any form of normal ,thus it is easier not to bother. SOME Autistic however the proficient picture thinkers of autism have found way to be social and keep up, please read on.
2. Try to share his/her own interests, enjoyment or achievements with others?
Who would understand? Our thoughts need watered down to be communicated and despite the idea we come off as "stupid" we know much more than we are able to communicate. Those of us figuring out autism and building on Temple's work are often able to be more social as we have the more advanced Autism thoughts, like Picture-in-picture thought.
3. Seem to understand the feelings of others?
Well, no, we are operating on a bit of a time warp, and have a few millisecond delay at the least. If we are picture thinking that process cancels (in a young aspie) out our Optic vision and sometimes hearing. While we are working with our brain generated images, we miss all the body language you naturally present. Some of us that had a social booster course have thankfully been able to connect Autism thought to real life and thus we are now OK at reading people.
4. Have difficulty in following the usual rules of communication, e.g. not interrupting, taking turns?
Talking is very difficult for us. Autism has to be translated from our Picture thought to your Traditional thought. We learned this via trial and error, it has never been in text book before. When you describe a daydream to someone this is kind of what we have to do with every autism thought. We typically know the '99 conversations' people have and simply fill in the blanks with the right names. As we convert our Picture thoughts from brain generated images to words we are in effect reading a book. We are reading our thoughts and our OPTIC vision is off thus we miss the social clues. Those of us in the real world often rehearse our conversation and try to prethink most conversation so that we might already have our picture thought figured out if the conversation goes one direction or another.
5. Repeat particular words or phrases?
That is a good sign of functioning autism believe it or not. We can build on this ideal and our Anthropology has done just that. I know of an Autism person that plays a spot on a record when he needs to say a certain thing. I often get my best zingers from the BBC shows Are You Being Served and Keeping up Appearances, I hear them figure out the context and blend them in to real life. Again Autism Thought is a natural first language for us and traditional thought like we are being force fed assumes we can naturally talk as easy as you do. I think Autism will prove to be the building blocks of the human mind and we might all discover we actually have to learn our autism thoughts before traditional thoughts will work. When we translate from Autism to traditional thoughts we are doing a craft that only we have figured out so far.
6. Repeat phrases said by others, either immediately or after a period of time?
That might just be a figured out picture thought or image stream in our case and if something is figured out and in recent memory why not use it again? Lots of us have a problem with echoloia- the repeating of a phrase or a word unique to our experience. Many of us have learned to hold that thought and say it later when we will not be embarrassed.
7. Speak in unusual ways, eg at a high or low volume, in a monotonous tone or with stress on unusual words?
Autism Thoughts have to watered down,and I would guess many of us are very technical and complicated thoughts and our actual vocabulary is much greater than you ever dream We DO know big words and occasionally the filter out. As we figure out a picture thought Image Stream and convert it to words we are in effect 'reading a book' and unless there is an exclamation point we just say the words. Again without OPTIC vision while we are reading our brain generated Images we miss the body language and the gist of the conversation. In later versions of Autism we have figured via trial and error and double-blind experience HAVE overcome lots of these problems with such things as projection thoughts and Picture in Picture thoughts. These are like Temple's still and motion pictures but only more advanced and operate just like those thoughts do. However, these thoughts allow us to make and keep eye contact as well as think in pictures.
8. Use invented words or phrases that do not convey their ordinary meaning?
I think everyone in our Anthropology has our own unique to us Picture thought Dictionary that we compiled over time. Although Autistically, it is the right word and meaning for us it often is not right in conversation. Those lucky enough to complete this experience have found ways to 'self-check' our words at times.
9. Have stereotyped, simple body movements, eg flicking fingers, flapping hands, tapping, spinning, rocking or inspecting objects near eyes?
As picture thought develops, keep in mind they are invisible to you unless you know our lack of eye contact as a clue, I often looked at things and tired to figure out WHERE THEY WENT when my OPTIC vision was OFF. I could hold things right in front of my eyes and they would disappear and my optic vision was replaced with a "daydream," image stream or Autism thought. Sometimes I wonder If Rocking is not a way to try to have the picture thoughts 'moved' or affected in some way. Untrained Aspie thoughts might very well have a still picture thought that only we can see and the person having it might have no clue as how to control it, make new ones, or read it or even what it is? Our thoughts and our thought process have never been in a text book before and they are invisible to you, no wonder you have a time figuring us out. I often wanted to pound my head on the table and have it act a rubber stamp, My Autism thoughts are great, complicated and If only they could escape.
10. Have an intense attachment to objects?
Perhaps this is related to our Splinter skills and obsessions? Autistically it is easier to understand something rather than someone since we don't get the body language and social skills as a natural gift. Objects don't talk and we can practice our autism thoughts by thinking about an object and naturally we become attached to it. We absently used this and our parents and tutors used this trait to help us connect. It was our learning hallway, and we figured out a few objects that interested us that knowledge spilled over to life at large. 11. Have a heightened or lowered sensitivity to noise, smell, temperature, colour, pain etc?
Many of us have discovered the X-rays and the Pain we felt are not the same thing.Being in the real world we have been in Car crashes and had other injuries and never really felt them. Some of us that have never been injured think we are full of something when we talk of no pain. We even think we felt pain but it takes an injury to make us realize we missed the boat.
As for the smell and the noise we are often deaf and blind when a picture thought is occurring as our senses are turned OFF while we picture think. Just like a blind person learns to hear more we do the same. For the majority of early autism thoughts only the optic vision is off typically for a few milliseconds and the hearing becomes really acute to help "wake us up" in time to keep from walking in front of a bus. Actually I have a lot of Blind friends and they hear more than typical people do but I have noticed I hear even higher ranges than they do, It would take a decibel meter to hear what we hear and there should be a decibel meter in every Autism class room and home so people could hear what we hear.
Key: Questions 1 to 3 -- F=0, S=1, N=2. Questions 4 to 11 -- F=2, S=1, N=0. Total score If the total score exceeds 4, particularly if it includes a score of 2 for questions 7 and/or 9, further assessment of whether the person has autism is necessary. This measure has been developed by Brenda Nally, Regional Co-ordinator - North, The National Autistic Society, in conjunction with Dougal Hare, The University of Manchester.
