Outnumbered (British comedy-drama)

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Those who have seen the British comedy-drama Outnumbered will know what I'm talking about.

I have seen every episode of Outnumbered, and I feel Karen reminds me of an Aspie, especially as she gets older. She seems to have trouble fitting in with her peers even though she tries, she is very literal and logical, she worries about stuff what children don't often think about, and she seems left out. In the episode where she goes shopping with her mum and the episode where they go to Ben's parents evening, she tries to pretend that she's "in with the crowd" but things prove that she's very left out instead.

It reminds me a bit of my social life as a pre-teen. Could her character be on the spectrum?

I always thought Ben was an aspie because we were so alike. I can see it in Karen, too.

I did think Ben could be Aspie because of the way he monologues on about intelligent topics without noticing that others are getting annoyed, but nah, I think he could be ADHD more than AS...

But I think Karen could be AS, the way she worries, and the way she fails to fit in, and she just seems socially awkward, though rather clever.

You all have very strange ideas about autism.

Firstly, autistic people have meltdowns. I’ve never seen any of the Outnumbered child characters have a meltdown.

Karen fits in very well socially. She has what seems to be a best friend early on in the series.

I think Karen is quite stupid. Just because a child asks a lot of questions, that doesn’t make them smart. You have to assess the quality of the questions asked.

Karen asks some really dumb questions.

Not all autistic people are smart, anyway. There is no correlation between autism and intelligence.

None of the children seem to have any special interests. Ben flailing about like an idiot in the garden, isn’t a special interest.

When I was Ben’s age I was reading about Greek mythology, collecting stamps, and teaching myself the ukulele.

Asperger’s is level 1 autism. You all need to update your language.