literal vs implied meaning

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My mom was at wal-mart today doing some shopping. While there she ran into one of the daycare workers who use to look after me during the day. That got me to talking with my mom again about my childhood. We did this in depth back in september, but I figured the time had come again to do it again since mom might be able to remember a few things that she didn't back then.

Sure enough one thing she remembered about me was an incident that happened when I was three or four. I don't remember this, but my mom surely did.

To set this up - Lake Michigan is in our backyard. Our backyard is about 100 yards deep. One day my mom was wanting to be rid of me for awhile, so she dragged out my kiddie pool, filled it up with water, and told me point blank "Go play in the water" Then she went inside the house and went to look at me through the window in her room. Instead of me playing in the kiddie pool, she saw me running down our backyard towards lake michigan.

I took "Go play in the water" as "Go play in Lake Michigan".

Mom had to run out after me to keep me from going down to the lake.

Ooops!

People need to explain stuff to us better, thats fa sure.
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I don't take things literally very often when they're not intended to be, but that is a common case of mis-understanding, and it happens to me a fair bit.

People don't explain things properley, and I always have to ask if i'm doing the right thing. They probably think i'm stupid because of it.

I was just thinking of a story that my brother told me but i do not remember. This thread got me thinking about it.

We had just moved to Marion, Illinois. I was 3 years old. There was a wasp flying around in our new house while my family was trying swat it. From what iam told, I walked over to the wasp and cupped it inside my hands. I then walked over to the door going outside i opened my hands and let the wasp fly away. I had not been stung. My family stood there in awe as if i had done something amazing.
I remember the poet Robert Frost said that when he was a child he saw a deer in the woods. He walked up to it and petted the deer. As you know, deers are normally frightened of humans and run away as soon as they see us walking in their direction.
I think that animals sometimes arent threatened by more calm, gentle human beings. Everybody who knows me well, knows how much i love animals and that i wouldnt hurt a fly because of my connection to all living things. Anyways, just letting my thoughts be known. sorry for ranting
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are you sure she didnt tell you to "go jump in a lake?"

When I first read about literalism being an Aspie trait I dismissed the idea as silly. Who would ever think that cats and dogs would fall from the sky. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that I *do* briefly flash a mental image of the expressions for a split second before discarding it and recalling (or intuiting) the implied meaning. When I hear "raining cats and dogs" I invariably call up a mental image of a cat and a dog in the air, and then they are immediately replaced by an image of rain bouncing off the pavement. My mother's favorite when I was young and demanding was "go pound sand". Again, I never actually DID it, but I always got the vision of gathering a fist full of sand in my left hand and then pounding it against the ground using my right. Maybe it's related to the issue of "visual thinking" that I keep reading about and not quite understanding.

Still, I have a hard time believing that NT people don't go through the same mental process. Aren't there visual thinkers in the NT population?

That's like that song, I caught a baby bumblebee. Or something, I might've gotten the name wrong.

Yes, but not in the percentages that people like us who are on the spectrum are.

There was thread sometime back about visual thinking. Please refer to here http://wrongplanet.net/modules.php?name ... opic&t=596 for this thread. Beginning on page two there is an excellent description of NT thought.

Occasionally I take something too literally, but far more often people imply alot of meaning in their instructions that I am oblivious to and then I get accused of being uncooperative or defiant.

http://www.dltk-teach.com/rhymes/bumblebee/song.htm

Maybe I'm taking things literally now but how is lake Michigan in your backyard?

Generally I don't think I'm too bad at taking things literally. Even though I think of the literal interpretation first I usually see the intended meaning fairly quickly.

I do make the occasional mistake though. Recently I was being questioned at a local autism support organisation and they asked me "How did you come to be here?". Apparently they meant "What were the circumstances that led to you being at the group?" but they just said "How did you come to be here?" so I said "I came by car".

When I first read that I thought he was figurativly speaking about his paddling pool.

It is a good description, but it is only from one person. I don't think everyone thinks in the same exact way. Some people are more visual, others more language-oriented, some more conceptual, etc.



Me too, in almost exactly the same way. I also thought this was a common trait within most people, but I don't know.

I mean... before you know the meaning of a saying like that, even NTs may take it literally or just be confused, right?

I always think, when I hear that phrase, of when I was a kid, and it was raining, and my mother was reading me a "Muppet Babies" kids book in which the muppet babies got confused by that phrase, as well. That was the first time I'd heard it.



I'm not sure if I'm bad at being too literal, but I do know most jokes and sarcasm pass right under my radar.

I have had similar incidents to Asparval, too. For example, I came into the cafeteria at school once, and I had not been there for several days before. When I got to the cashier, she said "Where have you been?" and I said "outside." When she stared at me like I had three heads, I realized I had said something wierd, and quickly said "Oh! Where have I been? I just haven't been coming here lately."

I think a lot of the time it has to do with what I'm thinking about. Since I was thinking about how I was still cold from coming in from the cold weather, I just replied with the first thing that came to my mind.

Yes I get that as well, it often causes me to gigle to myself.

On Friday, a lady at work was doing the rounds trying to get people interested in the sweepstakes for the Grand National (horse race).

She was obviously trying to sell "tickets" (name of a horse on a piece of paper, whoever has the horse that wins gets all the money - mine came second, typical!) but the way she put it, literally interpreted, was hilarious. She was asking everyone "Do you want to buy a horse? It's only a pound a horse" which in itself was hilarious - but she then proceeded to explain that "You don't have to pick one, we just pull them out of a hat"

Gosh I really would have paid to see them doing just that - sure beats pulling bunnies out of hats!

I think they mean the house is next to the lake, and the backyard backs onto the lake? (Rather than the whole lake being in the yard!)

I thought perhaps Scoots' folks were multi millionaires.

I have been remembering things from when I was young:

I used to believe it when people said "If the wind changes your face will stick like that" or "If you swallow chewing gum it will wrap around your heart and eventually kill you".

Also I used to (and still do) deliberately take some things literally for fun:

My Dad used to shout "I won't tell you again" and I used to think great I can carry on then.

Once Dad said to me "stop being silly you will be really tired in the morning and have bags under your eyes" ~ I spent the rest of the day speculating about what sort of bags would be under my eyes. I came to the conclusion shopping bags would be most useful.