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Can giftedness become autism?

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b9
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10 Oct 2011, 1:50 pm

i can generally do as i please.
no one challenges me (in real life),
but they leave very much for me to work out.
people are generally lazy.
i think i know why.



MrXxx
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10 Oct 2011, 2:11 pm

No, but I do believe the opposite can be true. Autism can become giftedness, but only if it is accepted, nurtured, and not fought against.


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pokerface
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10 Oct 2011, 3:25 pm

glider18 wrote:
Dabbel wrote:
Few people stand on the corner of the street greeting everyone that passes by.


Ahhh, what about politicians??? LOL.

I wonder what most politicians are???


I just may have an answer to your question.

Most politicians are ambitious, hypocritical and opportunistic a**holes.



Lnb1771
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20 Feb 2012, 8:12 pm

Tuttle wrote:
Lnb1771 wrote:
Tuttle wrote:
Giftedness can mask autism, but cannot become autism. Autism is a developmental disability and something we're born with. Our brains are actually wired different than NTs brains are.


Educational psychologists call this being "twice exceptional." Giftedness can apparently mask other issues such as dyslexia. Programs for twice exceptional students are hard to come by particularly because there are so many combinations of twice exceptionality.

Lydia


Well, yes, but my point was that a 2e kid might be viewed as only gifted despite being autistic as well, not that 2e kids exist. That kid who was viewed as only gifted, when put into different situations, would have the fact that they're actually 2e come out, but it was developed from giftedness, it was only masked by it.

This is different than being twice exceptional and it being known that you're twice exceptional, because the gifted aspect is completely obscuring the disability. Someone who is known to be both dyslexic and gifted, has the traits of both, but the giftedness doesn't make people not realize that the person is dyslexic.


The complete masking is what happened to me personally. While I was young people never associated me an autism because of me being gifted. My autistic traits were there, but only thought to be gifted traits. When I went to a specialized high school, then the connection began to be made that I wasn't just gifted, I was twice exceptional. Eventually, after finishing a Bachelor's Degree, I was diagnosed, but looking back, you can clearly see the autistic traits in my for my entire life, despite the fact that I was viewed as "only" a gifted child when I was younger.


I appreciate your viewpoint. I think I understand now. It's not as though the giftedness creates the autism or vice versa. I do know a child who has all the traits of dyslexia ;but never tested as such; it is my opinion that she outsmarted the test and seemed more like an average child. Yet when you talk to her, it's clear that she's smart,. but she cannot spell and has other traits of dyslexia that are too numerous to mention. I think the fault of that lies in the failure of the evaluation methods being sensitive enough. Maybe the same can be said for autistic people who are also gifted. I too was identified as gifted but also diagnosed as autistic when I was 3 1/2 years old. My mom was very observant of behaviors that didn't fit the norm and that is when I got evaluated. I suppose my autism was moderate rather than mild because it was picked up at a time when autism was still considered to be quite rare (early 1970's).

Lydia



Dillogic
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20 Feb 2012, 10:33 pm

It's called Schizoid PD.

Asperger's made by the environment.



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21 Feb 2012, 6:07 am

Gifted share the common trait with Aspies that they are often discriminated against.

One does not imply the other, but it is something to be aware of.



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21 Feb 2012, 8:06 am

Lnb1771 wrote:
(...)
I think the fault of that lies in the failure of the evaluation methods being sensitive enough. Maybe the same can be said for autistic people who are also gifted.

I agree that tests (including IQ tests) can be cheated to some degree. I'm sure that the WMI score on my testing had been somewhat elevated due to practice and applying certain techniques. Gifted people often have more resources to make up for their shortcomings they are aware of.

I've come across this paper recently on Google books: Clinical presentation of autism spectrum disorders in intellectually gifted students

Although most of it is hidden due to copyright issues, it's both extremely comprehensive and concise (I think :) ):

Page 6: Diagnostic confusion (changes in the conceptualization of autism)
Page 8: The role of cognitive ability (in presentation of the symptoms)
Page 9: Autism and Asperger Syndrome, the same or different? (see also 27-39)
Page 11: Autism and gifted education
Page 14: Need for the current study (the greatest diagnostic confusion concerns clinical evaluation of the highest functioning individuals)
Page 15: Purpose of the study (to generate empirical descriptions of school-aged students diagnosed with ASDs who were intellectually gifted)
Page 16: Definitions (Giftedness, ASDs)
Page 19: Savant Syndrome (and its connection with autism)
Pages 39-41: Giftedness in the autism literature
Pages 44-47: The Gifted education literature (Reflection of diagnostic confusion, overlap of gifted and autistic characteristics)


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