in order to have asperger's...

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do you HAVE to have bad coordination? do you HAVE to be obsessed with a topic like european train building (i DEFINITELY have an obsessive personality, but i'm more apt to being obsessed with smaller things that are more short lived, and i guess more normal?)?

i know for sure there's something wrong with me, asperger's seems to be a good fit, except for these two things...

I definitely don't think you HAVE to be uncoordinated -- there are definitely people with Asperger's who are athletic, but have the other characteristics. Also, the coordination thing can change with maturity and/or practice.

As with many syndromes, you can have some of the characteristics of Aspergers, but nobody has ALL the characteristics.

Although, the obsessions one is usually one of the few characteristics that most people with Aspergers have.

Kris

People with Asperger's Syndrome normally form a fascination or obsession with certain topics or objects etc and these fascinations can last minutes to a lifetime. And you can have more than one, I do for definite. Mine are Biological Sciences (particularly relating to animals and humans and pathophysiology), food and music, particularly of the rock and thrash metal type. But I don't think it has to be anything like European Trains, it's just some Aspies would do I suppose. My interests seem normal but my enthusiasm for them is considered to be a bit overboard but then I don't care.

As for co-ordination, I don't think that is somethings Aspies HAVE to have in order to be an Aspie as my co-ordination is not that bad.

I have dyspraxia (self dx). At 6 I could not do one set up. My brain could not send a
signal to do it. At age 10 my teacher wrote a note saying I could not do a jumping jack. I could not make my arms and legs move at the same time. People laughed at me for years everytime I tried. A few years later my piano teacher could not teach
me to play even simple key strokes and she put her arm around me and said one day
"you do not want to play the piano" I said "no". Sports I was allways last picked or more often the teams said neither wanted me. I learned to drive a car at 34. I would say I have only mild dyspraxia at this time. I never saw it as a DSM-IV requirement for aspie DX but its often comorbit with autism spectrum conditions so it just another
reason why I feel I have AS.

This idea of a spectrum seems to elude so many people...
Why all this 'do I have to have this symptom or that?' If you fit in here, you have it. Not everyone shares similar experiences. I was awful at sports in school, and frankly thought it was a waste of my time. Of course, I was stick-skinny and near-sighted so I couldn't hit or kick any ball that came my way.

wow the responses here are faster than i thought...i guess it would make sense seeing as though i just noticed there are currently 308 online right now...asperger's must not be as rare as i thought!

i guess it makes sense that someone with asperger's would have to be uncoordinated. when i look really far back into elementary school i guess i actually was kind of uncoordinated and i must have been able to overcome it or something.

the one big thing that keeps me from thinking i'm an aspie for sure is that i never had the intense obsessive interest like everyone else seems to have had, and supposedly that's a hallmark sign. i've been obsessed with video games, collecting beanie babies (i was in elementary school, don't hate ), snowboarding....pretty much everything i get an interest in i get a little obsessed about. despite this, i've always thought it was pretty normal behavior although i might carry it a tad bid farther than most people. i've never really had an intense, long lasting interest in any one topic though...they are more like short lived fads.

anyone or anyone know of anyone that was diagnosed with asperger's but didn't have an intense obsession with a a certain topic?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDD_not_ot ... _specified

http://www.med.yale.edu/chldstdy/autism/pddnos.html

http://www.maapservices.org/MAAP_Sub_Fi ... rticle.htm

amiaspie,

As for coordination, it apparantly varies a lot. SOME here seem to indicate that it has to do with doing multiple things at once, or simply coordinating movements. With me, it is almost like being able to do all that, but NOT with a moving object, etc... So I can throw, play pool, etc..., but have trouble with catching. So I think the answer there is a definate NO! BTW I can't do junping jacks EITHER, but I used to LOVE situps.

For the interest, I think it is probably a given. I could see how this develops, etc... It just makes sense. My first three major interests were VERY long lived BUT they were out of place ONLY for someone my age! Electronics at 3? Aeronautics at perhaps 6? Computers at, well, TECHNICALLY I guess it started at 8! OK, I guess you think that last one was normal? We are talking 1971 here folks! The computer was a PIPEDREAM for most people a little before that. It might as well have been SCI-FI!

YEP, 1971! In january that year, a person by the name of "Federico Faggin" was to test his new baby! The 4004! THAT was a device people made because they were sick and tired of making special purpose chips. The 4004 became the 8008,8080,8088,80386,80486,pentium, well, you get the idea! Before that, MPUs(the new term given to the class of chip, and was later renamed) were made on an expensive board or boards, and called a CPU.

The computer obsession didn't even take off until perhaps 8-9 years later when I was able to get one. The rest seemed more normal. One person here spoke of a real short obsession, and I HAVE had those. Heck, when I got a dissected aorta, I researched the heck out of it. I found out how the operation was done, etc... I even got the doctors notes, and researched all that. That was probably a week or so work.

BTW My mother thinks I had obsessive interests that I wouldn't even consider, so many may consider things you think you have a passing interest in to qualify.

Steve

Being uncoordinated is common but not necessary. It's part of the usual picture of sensory scrambling--but not every Aspie is uncoordinated. Multitasking is often hard for Aspies--"walking and chewing gum". Or else, there are executive-function problems that require careful thought about what you're going to do next, resulting in slow reaction times and bad decision-making when you have to decide in a hurry, for example while driving or during a conversation. I have problems with fast decisions but not with multitasking... Some Aspies are downright athletic, especially in individual sports like track, swimming, and bowling--in which you pay attention to yourself only and don't have to worry about teammates' actions. But there are exceptions--there was a big news story a while back about an autistic high-schooler who made a whole lot of points in a couple of minutes in his team's basketball game.

If you're obsessed with anything, to the exclusion of just about anything else--"unusual in intensity or focus"--then it qualifies as a special interest. Special interests can be subjects, pastimes like games and hobbies, fictional worlds or people, real people (historical or famous), or other activities. That's a "special interest".

Some traits to define an Aspie special interest and set it apart from a normal hobby:

--It's more narrowly defined. For example, an NT (non-Aspie) might be interested in reading fantasy books; an Aspie could be fascinated with something more narrow-- for example, the history of the elves in Tolkien's Middle-Earth.

--It's very in-depth. An NT may be a cat lover who owns a cat and goes to cat shows; but an Aspie will study cats obsessively--their history, their psychology, their diseases, their behavior, the management of feral cats, training cats, wild felines, et cetera.

--It involves trivia, especially of the sort that requires memorization: An NT can be an avid fan of a baseball team; but an Aspie who is a fan of that same team will know the statistics on the players, the outcomes and scores of games, the styles of the coaches, the strategy involved--often for the entire history of the team.

--It is extremely important to the person. An NT may spend a couple of evenings a week playing a computer game; but an Aspie will play it evenings, nights, and weekends, as well as learning the background of the game, the numbers involved in the game's internal calculations, all the items and actions available, etc., or else becoming fascinated with the characters in the game and creating fan-fiction, art, etc. for them. An Aspie obsession may even cause neglect of essential things like sleep, eating, job or school responsibilities, and household chores.

--It involves collecting, tabulating, or otherwise organizing things. An NT may collect things; but the focus is on acquiring the objects. For an Aspie, the pleasure is in the organization of the objects, the completeness of having a "set" of something. Aspie collections may also be tables of data about subjects they are interested in; many Aspies will organize information on some topic of interest, so that collections often combine with some other sort of obsession.

--It is something the person enjoys. This is the same for both NT hobbies and Aspie obsessions, but it differentiates an Aspie obsession from an OCD obsession; someone with OCD at best tolerates an obsession, and at worst hates or fears it. OCD sufferers almost always know how silly an obsession is--but their brains are basically "stuck" on that topic or action, against their will. Also, OCD obsessions are often things pertaining to health, safety, or superstition, while Aspie obsessions are much more recreational.

--An Aspie often talks endlessly about his/her obsessions, will attempt to turn the conversation to those obsessions, has a tendency to "lecture" about them, and uses them as a basis to form relationships with other people who enjoy those same things. This is an interesting thing about Aspie-initiated friendships--they are very commonly based on common interests. (If you'll notice, this post is a lecture on AS--one of my obsessions--and, yes, a common obsession for Aspies is Asperger Syndrome itself!)

Obsessions can be short-lived or life-long; most last at least a few months. On average, my own obsessions have lasted about two years, though I will always enjoy and be interested in past obsessions--usually to about the same level an NT would be interested in them.

No, I am very coordinated

The coordination problems could fall under PDD Pervasive Developmental Disorders which is part of the spectrum and can go hand in hand with an autism diagnosis. But we can't diagnose you; you need to see a specialist that deals with autism spectrum if you want to know for sure.

I am probably more coordinated then most Aspies to an extent, however at the same time when I was diagnosed areas with significant weakness in certain areas of my coordination. Sometimes it isn't as obvious or even how you would think about "coordination" off hand. I also thought because I was pretty good at basketball and catching a baseball they would pass me with flying colors in that area but I understood well when they found problem areas.

Machine don't take this the wrong way but your one of the people that should not be let in a room with a disorder book on the table..... Do know other reason's can effect this and it does say seek your GP if you suspect having dyspraxia (self dx).... Mind you do you call them GP's in the US..

/*
MRI (Magnetic brain scan) techniques have identified immaturities in the development of these neural pathways in some individuals with Dyspraxia. If these 'pathways' remain undeveloped, it stands to reason that the child's co-ordination and efforts at controlled movement will remain undeveloped also.

The cerebral cortex is divided into a right and left hemisphere, which have specialist functions. They operate in an almost separate fashion. Many functions are 'shared', but generally each side appears to work almost independently offering its piece of information to complete the 'picture' and therefore forming a whole. e.g. the left hemisphere receives the information, in a jumbled, disjointed way; it is only when the right hemisphere works in harmony with the left that images and actions are interpreted in the correct order and the information is comprehended as a complete piece or object.

Individuals with Dyspraxia do not seem to have both hemispheres responding in this simultaneous, co-ordinated fashion. It is also the development of the two hemispheres that decides whether a person is right or left handed, again this basic development seems substantially reduced and therefore the child may use both hands without preference for some time, thus reducing the development of hand-writing skills still further.
*/

Last edited by logitechdog on 28 Dec 2006, 1:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What Callista said is a little misleading. They don't HAVE to be a real narrow focus. Mine have been broad. I CONSIDERED them hobbies, but I WAS very obsessed with them. I even took plans to school for something I was designing, and worked on them when I was bored, which was often. .

Steve

Dup

Last edited by SteveK on 28 Dec 2006, 1:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I am poorly co-ordinated unless i practice. With lots of practice I can achieve a reasonable level of proficiency with most co-ordinated things.

Driving I am good at, but when i take a break from driving of more than a couple of weeks then I am dangerous for a few days when i get back behind wheel as i cant co-ordinate well again until i rebuild the skill level.