Not Understanding Special Interest's Meaning

Post Reply New Topic

I saw this quote about Asperger's:

If one has a special interest but does grasp the meaning of the facts learned, does that rule out Asperger's? If not, how common is it that an aspie does understand the meaning of the facts he learns about his special interest?

I don't think that is accurate.

Here is the original quote:

So the meaning is not understood for children

Yet I'd like to say that we don't choose our special interests, they choose us.

Yeah, I'm not sure that's right. I can read an page of a sicnece or history text book and retain all the facts, but not have any real understanding of their meaning. It's just empty data. However, when I'm really interested in something, I not only learn all about it and like to talk about it, I understand the meaning of the facts, even if they aren't practical. (Like my fascination with cryptozoology...know all about it, can talk about it at length, know what the facts I've learned mean, but don't apply it to my dady-to-day life.)

This makes since. I can talk forever about Psychology (hint why my parents dislike me wanting to get into the field) It's all I "thought/talked about" (They don't understand Aspie Special Interests. I try to apply Psychology to the world around me and look at Psychology differently than others and am curious about behavior as a whole NT and Aspie etc. For example that person over there acting strange (say with PTSD) but I'm also curious about the person doing the pointing/commenting. So both sides of the coin if you will. I also agree with the above that special interest choose us in a way.

When I was a young child, like 7 years old or younger, I used to read a lot of Shakespeare and books like that. I read them all the time. I didn't really understand most of it but I genuinely enjoyed them - I guess I liked the language? Don't know. (I think this is called hyperlexia.)

Anyway, that's something different. I definitely understand things that I am interested in.

You are referring to "rote memory" http://www.math.rochester.edu/people/fa ... e-mem.html

However I disagree with this to start with. I think they mean, for example, lets say you are into electric guitars, you learn all the information you can about it, including which are the best ones, etc, but that doesn't mean you actually know the reasons why one is better then the other. But this is true for anyone, NT or AS, who would be interested in a subject. First you get information about it, you read about it, etc, but to start with you don't necessarily understand what everything means exactly, like why this guitar is considered better then the other, is it the wood it is made of? or the shape? etc.

Rose's example about history is good too. But again I think this is true for everyone, not just Aspies, just because you learn all the facts about something doesn't mean that you necessarily have analyzed the whole subject and understand all the reasons behind every detail.

I think I can offer some insight into what this passage is speaking of.

For years, I had an interest in meteorology. Most people who have an interest in meteorology would probably set up a weather station on their house. They would probably be able to explain dew point to you, different types of fronts, name all the different types of clouds, tell you how they form....in other words, they would have a wide sense interest in the subject.

My interest in meteorology was limited to two particular things. The weather channel, and Tornadoes. I liked to watch the local report on the weather channel. I liked the idea of being able to get up to the minute status reports on the weather. I really enjoyed the doppler radar, and though it rarely rains here, the thought of tracking the storms on the radar was quite exciting to me. If one would have asked what I was interested in, I would have said meteorology, but I wouldn't have been able to answer very basic questions they might as me about meteorology.

My interest in tornadoes was also limited in scope. I was interested in where tornadoes formed, what types of storms were most likely to form tornadoes, what types of conditions tornadoes formed in...particularly the unusual ones, statistical data on tornadoes, and looking at photos of tornadoes...specifically California tornadoes.

And I generally would not have been able to tell you might more than that, nor was I interested in much more than that.

So it seems people with AS are only interested in very specific aspects of the subject of their "special interest" and other information, though it might be related to the subject, will be dismissed.

However I do think it inaccurate to say out understanding of the subjects of our interest is only rote and lacks depth. I think it more accurate to say that our interest in the subject is not broad and uniform.

I've always been able to understand the subject of my special interests, the quote in the OP is misleading.

I think that a bit of circularity in that. Many aspies are not diagnosed by DSM or ICD, but by Gillberg's criteria (I think that is the criteria used many doctors in my country).

And, according to Gillberg:

Of course, if you diagnose Asperger's with a criteria that says "All-absorbing narrow interest - more rote than meaning", of course you will end up with a population of diagnosed aspies where many people "can absorb every available fact on their fixated subject and talk about it at length, yet have little grasp of the meaning of the facts they learn".

In my case, my special interests came about accidentally, but are clearly related to the same fascination with machines and electronics. I didn't choose my special interests; they were there already, and all I did was follow them.

As far as the sublime issue of "grasping the meaning" of the facts I learned, I'm not sure I understand the question... By default, a fact and it's meaning are one in the same. In other words, how is the "meaning" of the way a TV set produces a picture on a CRT (my first and deepest special interest; TV & radio technology), different from the scientific and mathematical facts of the engineering behind the TV set?

Charles

I think what it means is that we digest random information in an anstract sense. Such as suddenly retorting back the word / sounds in a a tv advert. There is no meaning, just some connection between that sound and a present piece of information. Others will look at what you're doing and make no connection between the sounds you make an those you saw hours, weeks, months ago and to you there is no particular significance, just a connection. Just a theory anyway.

All of my special interests were just learning facts from almanacs, dictionarys and videogames.

How is it an "interest" if you just memorize it and don't understand it? Isn't an interest something you have passion about?
Anyway who decides what the meaning is? Maybe you don't understand why one guitar is considered better than the other because you don't care about the fact that it has clearer sound or whatever, you just care about the mechanical design. That doesn't mean you don't know the meaning, it means you care about different meanings.

I think it was true for me. I was fixated on horses yet I didn't own a horse. I didn't even see them every day. I didn't really understand horses until my mother took me around them more. Then I was able to really understand them. Once I went horseback riding, I had the experience of being in the saddle instead of just reading about it which helped me understand more about horses in general, and saddles, bridles, bits, reigns, stirrups. Before, I knew about the anatomy of a saddle but couldn't apply the information to everyday life because I hadn't been given the opportunity to see one in person and put my foot in a stirrup.