hey_there wrote:
What about not being able to tell if something is inappropriate/rude to say or do, and therefore sometimes unintentionally saying or doing rude things. Would that count as poor social skills, and also fall under the DSM 5's new "Social Communication Disorder"?
Perhaps. It's at least typical.
My personal, absolutely unprofessional opinion is that the criteria for ASD actually imply each other.
That is, people who have those problems with social communication that the ASD criteria describe often develop routines because they give them some safety that they otherwise don't experience.
If someone who cares little about other people but a lot about objects develops special interests, that is only logical, too.
So I think the DSM 5 authors are a bit misguided, and they confuse common consequences with actual symptoms.
In a slightly exaggerated comparison, it's like putting "inability to ride a bicycle" in the diagnosis criteria for being blind.