

Autistic teens master social cues, find friends - profquail
http://www.physorg.com/print170053709.html

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tocomment
I wish they had listed all the rules :-( I'm not autistic but I'd love to just
have a list of rules to follow in social situations.

~~~
ibsulon
[http://www.autismawarenesscentre.org/book-review/the-
hidden-...](http://www.autismawarenesscentre.org/book-review/the-hidden-
curriculum-practical-solutions-for-understanding-unstated-rules-in-social-
situations.html) is apparently a book on exactly this.
<http://www.parenting.org/behavior/socialskills/> is going to be the level
they're talking about, though.

I don't know if I'd be diagnosed autistic -- Taking the test retrospectively,
I would have scored 39/50 on
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html> as a kid and teenager,
but score 25 now. I also do not have the classic difficulty deciphering faces,
but do not know if that was always true or if I've learned.

My trick? I ended up in an intense, somewhat abusive religious group that had
a focus on evangelism. It was an environment where people were forced to
interact positively, and I ended up learning hordes. While I had to completely
relearn social interaction after leaving the group, I at least had a set of
heuristics to follow.

I've struggled to figure out a way to bring this without the religious system,
and haven't quite figured it out yet.

~~~
sethg
"Excuse me, sir, have you heard the good news about Emacs?"

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sethg
I believe this kind of training is known as "social pragmatics", and may be
useful for some non-autism-spectrum children as well.

~~~
gommm
I'm pretty sure I would have benefitted from that as a kid... It took me a
long time to learn to stop talking (or monologuing) about books and computer
games and start instead listening to others and talk about what they liked.

------
jsonscripter
_An estimated 1 in 150 American children has some form of autism. There's no
known cure._

I'm a little insulted that people still consider it a disease. It's like
saying people that don't like a particular food have a disease because most
people like the food. It's quite simply not the case.

~~~
callahad
I don't think it's that simple. Take, for instance, this gentleman [1] on
YouTube with Aspergers and Tourettes lapsing into a state similar to low-
functioning autism. Take note of his own description of his state: "I lose the
ability to control my body, I cannot express my desires, and I can't walk
without falling." That's not at all akin to a culinary preference.

[1]: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt1tLnwVpG4>

~~~
jsonscripter
I was referring to high-functioning autism. Similarly, if one dislikes a
particular food, they do not have a disease. If one dislikes _all_ foods and
refuses to eat, they have a disease.

