Autistic traits due to nuture

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People say this because there are people out there who don't like crowds, don't do well in social interaction, don't like people touching their things, etc. and they are not autistic but IMO if it doesn't impair them and doesn't cause them distress, it's not a symptom. Also people may be saying this to make themselves feel better and to normalize their symptoms.

It's like saying how everyone has OCD traits but they don't or else it would cause them distress and spend hours obsessing and having anxiety. They probably mean like everyone has rituals like checking to make sure everything is off and checking their pockets but they only do that once or just keeping their house clean and not liking dirt or dirty dishes and clothes laying around. This isn't OCD nor is it a trait.

I don't think it makes someone autistic if their issues were caused by their upbringing. Kids who are abused may tend to show signs that are associated with autism but that would just be due to trauma. Doctors try to rule out their background first before diagnosing autism. They will look at how healthy the family is like if the child is given love and emotional support and how well the family interacts with each other and rule out abuse and stress factors like death in family or moving house or divorce.

Sure, environmental traits can be shared between parent and child, but environmental influences are broad ranging for any child's development. Bronfenbrenners ecological systems theory covers areas that have the potential to interact with a child's nature especially influential while they are developing in the early years.

...yet nature or wiring will influence the child's personal traits or their individual way of being. Take separated at birth identical twin studies, the two Jims for example...


Link
Reading about or taking classes in child development, care and education can introduce knowledge that could guide parents regardless of their neurology.

Thanks for the system illustration amity, that's very useful. The microsystem suggests family have a direct influence. I don't doubt that it's unlikely autistic parents could change or impact the neurology of any NT children. However, is it possibly, or even likely, that NT children could learn behaviour that is typical of autistic people? Behaviour for example that they would unlikely be exposed to from non-autistic parents?
For your example of the twins, the similarities between them are amazing, but I'm sure they had profound differences to. More so than if they had been raised in the same household.

I agree. There is the common misconception that 'everyone is on the spectrum' but they are absolutely not.
Some NTs may not like crowds for example, but the underlying reasons will be different and the tolerance will be higher.

I agree also, most people have rituals or routines but as you say, it's whether they help or hinder the individual and the results of any disruption to them.

NTs do expirience sensory overloads, only the threshold for them is far, far higher. I heard several NTs complaining about too loud sound in a cinema, too crowded sports events, bad smell in public transport... only a typical tolerance for such discomforts is much higher than in what we consider "sensory issues".

I wonder about meltdowns. I used to have a lot of them as a child and teenager. I almost don't have them since I learned (with some professional help) to identify my needs and feelings and guard my comfort zone.

You're welcome, absolutely it's possible for a child to imitate Autistic behaviours from observing adults.
Much like a child learning to fear insects or spiders based on their parents fearful reaction; the parent has a responsibility to model appropriate behaviours.

If you take social interaction, communication and imagination as the observable autistic parental behaviours then it's possible that a typically developing child will be influenced by what they observe and what they come to understand through practice/play; they could develop traits, but their ability to function in these areas will remain within normative development.
Alongside nurture/nature/epigenetics there are other developmental considerations too, such as the brains plasticity and ability to form new connections which has the potential to override early positive or negative experiences, depending again on the environment.

The two Jims and other twin studies illustrate that genetics or wiring defined the twins personalities, interests and attitudes, while differences in twins reared apart are due to their individual biological and social environments, their genetic potential is the same, but their experiences will shape them in different ways.

Some NT's are sensory sensitive I know a few. Some NT's have a limited understanding of social stuff, everybody called "Tone Deaf" is not autistic, everybody called a "stickler for routine" is not autistic, everybody that has "a passion" for a subject is not autistic. If you have most of these traits to a degree impairs your ability to function then you probably are autistic.

The story, 'Autism: Who’s the Culprit? Mother Nature or Mother Nurture?' may be of interest:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kecia-ga ... 01406.html

I thought that was rubbish, but the writer did say that she didn't know much about autism. Her research, which she says she did a lot of, didn't seem to have included interaction with anyone on the spectrum.

A lot of the things people are saying/proving are linked to rates of autism, and are being put forward as causes, I have noticed, are things that might be caused either by autism or the problems connected to being autistic rather than the other way round. eg taking anti depressants, being obese, having children later are connected to having children with ASD wouldn't someone with un-diagnosed ASD be more likely to suffer from depression, struggle to find a relationship and therefor begin a family later and have children who are then in more aware times diagnosed as ASD.

I would say there's a 99% probability that the "increased incidence" of autism is primarily due to:

1. The broadening of the diagnostic criteria since 1994

2. Greater awareness on the part of "high-functioning" individuals and their friends/family, thereby leading to these individuals seeking an assessment and ultimate diagnosis.

I believe it is possible that people could be born with a predisposition towards acquiring autism, rather than with something which inevitably causes autism---but that they might not acquire it, owing to the lack of an environmental "impetus.'

Sometimes, I believe something "environmental" happened which caused me to acquire classic autism in toddlerhood. I believe I was "born with it," but was possibly born with the predisposition, and that the environment caused the "full-blown" symptoms to manifest themselves.

At age 5 1/2, through extensive therapy, it seems as if I came out of the classic autistic-like presentation, started speaking, then became Aspergian in presentation.

Perhaps the "environment" got me out of the "classic" state, like the "environment" caused the "classic" state.

Who knows? (shrug)

I agree. I think the rates have stayed even. When I think of how life would be in the past (pre 20th century)for an Aspie I think it would have been more straight forward, very hard but at less of a disadvantage to those around us.

Interesting. Do you know of other autistics having a similar history?

There is a biography known as "Elijah's Cup" which portrays a person who exhibited classic symptoms when young, then Aspergian-type symptoms when older. It is a factual account. I actually met Elijah, and can attest to his Aspergian presentation.

I think that NT siblings will mimic autistic behavior their autistic sibling displays but they will grow out of it by elementary school. They will be around other normal kids so they learn what is normal behavior. I am sure that autistic kids will also mimic other autistic kids if they are kept in that environment because they wouldn't have any kids around to model normal behavior for them so to them this will all be normal which is a reason why parents want their high functioning kids in normal classes. Parents want their kids to be less autistic as possible, not grow up to be even more autistic.