Rain Man and the spectrum
hellhole wrote:
I would class him as a severe/high-functioning case. He basically needed support with almost everything he did, but at the same time he was actually very intelligent when it came to certain tasks.
You don't mean "severe/high functioning". You mean "severe, but with savant skills". He was a basket case but had that genius for narrow talents (the one talent of calculating). But talents that didn't translate to helping him "function" any better in society.
Other actual cases in real life are like that (low functioning individuals who can play virtuoso piano, or calculate like the fictional rain man, or draw photographic pictures of cities from memory, or like that.
kraftiekortie wrote:
Don't knock anecdote. Anecdote is very important in determining many psychological diagnoses these days. Many times, in determining autism in very young children, the observation of a child's play is an important component of the assessment.
Your anecdotal representation of why you are slow makes me understand the reasons for your slowness better. It just takes some time to gather your thoughts.
I'm a fast typist....but sometimes it takes me a while to compose a post. Sometimes, I have difficulty in organizing my thoughts.
Your anecdotal representation of why you are slow makes me understand the reasons for your slowness better. It just takes some time to gather your thoughts.
I'm a fast typist....but sometimes it takes me a while to compose a post. Sometimes, I have difficulty in organizing my thoughts.
As far as anecdotal things go, it's taken me over a year to grasp the basics of a video game described by one player on its forum as being so easy you could play it blindfolded using your tongue.
It's the only game I play and I play it daily but I'm just now beginning to get the hang of how to play it properly. And now that I'm getting a grasp, I see how extremely simple this stuff is and wonder why I didn't either understand the concepts or they just didn't register.
A lot of the stuff they talk bout on the forum is too complected for me to get, even though it's actually very simple stuff. But to me it's like rocket science. Plus I have an adult friend I've played it with the entire time, constantly walking me through everything like a tutor and I still didn't/don't get very basic instructions. He has to constantly repeat himself.
Then there's my cousin who's my age and has been working at a fast food drive through for a few months. And I asked him to show me what the job was like. So he set up a simulation of it and I couldn't handle it at all. Just taking food orders, pushing a few buttons and handling cash was way beyond my capabilities.
CockneyRebel
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Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 118,420
Location: In my little Olympic World of peace and love
CockneyRebel wrote:
I'd classify him as moderate functioning. He needed a lot of support, yet he was very intelligent.
I don't think intelligence necessarily translates to higher functioning. For example, Carly Fleishman is intelligent (or at the very least normal intelligence to have written everything she has), but we can all agree she is severe.
_________________
Life ... that's what leaves the mess. Mad people everywhere.
248RPA wrote:
CockneyRebel wrote:
I'd classify him as moderate functioning. He needed a lot of support, yet he was very intelligent.
I don't think intelligence necessarily translates to higher functioning. For example, Carly Fleishman is intelligent (or at the very least normal intelligence to have written everything she has), but we can all agree she is severe.
Exactly. She's a perfect example of this. She describes herself as a prisoner in her own body. In a video she did, you hear what she's thinking. Perfectly intelligent. But on the outside she displays none of that. The outward appearance and abilities can be very deceiving.
Just in case someone hasn't see this already:
My autism isn't quite as bad and I can communicate with my dad better (unless I'm already in sensory overload mode) but I relate to this very much.
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