How to explain autism to NT dummies.

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I made all kind of attempts to explain Asperger. Now a new attempt. If you drop a cat from 50 cm height and more, keeping it with his paws high and his back low, she will immediately redress itself and touch the floor with its four paws at the same time. She will not have to think what to do with her paws, possibly consulting a handbook. If she had to think what to do she would get harmed and fall clumsily. Same thing with reading cues in other people’s behavior. If you have to think what to do you mishandle the “interaction”. Use this example to explain NTs and not to torment your cat.

I'd explain it as like having a house that's been wired, shall we say, unconventially. All the right appliances and fixtures are there, but the connections are different. The switch outside the bathroom turns on the microwave and the TV remote actually operates the central heating. Most people would be very confused if they moved into a house like that.

I say it's like being in a foreign country where none of the social customs are familiar, the body language is all different and you have only working knowledge of the language.

Thats a hard one because it seems to depend on who you speak to, here in South Island, NZ where I live alot of people still feel its a mental disorder! still working to change that...

I usually keep it simply and say some think like:
Your NT brains operates one way, ASD brains operates another way and
for some reason both our wires get continuously crossed - Alyson Bradley

and then depending on the response go from there...

but I agree it can be like being in another country, not knowing the culture etc... I also at times tell NTs when you visit a new country and are in a situation where you feel a little awkward, well some of us feel like that all the time.

Its so had to generalize as knowing one person on the spectrum is just one, we are all different individuals just like people not on the autism spectrum.

Like being born onto the Wrong Planet.

explaining autism,as in the entire spectrum?
that is very hard,especially as they are all very different experiences and there are more profound health affecting types like retts and cdd.

am guess......maybe some focus on the triad of impairments [because they affect all ASDs and make the core of them],that being autistic is unique to each person and what works for one might not work for another,that being autistic is a brain thing though not brain damage,too much of it can severely disable,too little of it creates stealth autistics with the autistic personality but without impairment....
difficult one.

NT: "You're just going to have to try harder to learn these things."

AS: "Okay. While I'm doing that, you work really hard to grow another three inches and make your elbows bend both ways."

NT: "Well, I can't do that."

AS: "You're just going to have to try harder to learn these things."


The real problem we have with NTs (who are not dummies) is that they see us able to carry on a conversation, they see us able to do a lot of things, so they think there is nothing wrong with us. This is not "stupid", this is the way that Earth People process data. It is, in fact, a good way to do things overall, it just tends to screw things up for us.

Another good comparison would be a computer whose memory has a problem. You might be able to boot up the computer with no problem, use it to balance your checkbook and surf the web, check your e-mail, etc. But when you try to load a Massively Multiplayer Online Game like "World of Neurotypicals", you're going to see some slowness, erratic performance, and possibly even a really ugly system crash.

Most of the time, the problem is finding an NT willing to stand there long enough to listen as you explain it all. It's pretty hard to explain AS to a Type-A personality NT who asks you, "So what the hell's wrong with you, anyway?" (Type A personalities are your super-outgoing, powerhouse CEO types. They only want a quick summary of facts - they have no patience for explanations involving details). I don't even bother.

I'd actually avoid mention of the 'triad of impairments', mostly because they seem contrived to add up to 3, even though the ideas behind them (and the content, and the names) have changed over time. And because they don't really tell you much about what it's like to be autistic, just tells you how autistic people behave from the most common non-autistic perspectives.

I don't try and explain anymore. They always forget five minutes later, when they spot something shiny.

LOL, how true.

NTs are not stupid.
NTs are not stupid.
NTs are not stupid.

We misunderstand each other, that is all. Both NTs and Aspies are to blame for this, if you really want to lay blame. Someone's failure to understand another person doesn't make them a dummy. To imply that is really hypocritical! Nobody on this board would want to think of themselves as "dummies" for not understanding the NT world.

Really? I would say that's more of an Aspie trait than an NT one. (Unless of course you're talking about something I'm obsessed with, in which case I don't even see the shiny.)

relax. I never implied Neurotypicals are (all) stupid. I implied that everyone I meet during my daily routine is a complete and utter moron. Because they are. It just so happens that I only meet neurotypicals, and I wouldn't have to explain Autism to an Autistic anyway.

If forgetting something that was just explained to me five minutes later was an Aspie trait, I would actually be slightly happier, as long as I didn't realise how meaningless that made my life. As it so happens I have an eidetic memory, and I remember everything that happens to me. Sometimes whether I like it or not.

Last edited by Daewoodrow on 13 Apr 2008, 7:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I would say that by and large, most people-- NT, AS, whatever-- are morons.

But when you're talking to Aspies, you might want to make sure you use the language precisely, or we'll jump you.

All ret*d people don't necessary look ret*d. It could be that only a few people from your daily routine are actually NT. This smugness of yours, this is why Aspies get the s*** kicked out of them by NT dummies on a regular basis.