understanding the spectrum

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I am getting a better idea that Autism is on a spectrum but I can't put my idea into something easy to understand for everyone else.

I think each trait or symptom is on a spectrum and that some people with HFA or Aspergers might be quite low functioning in some areas.

I leave this open to those here better able to explain it.

I have this same exact problem. Trying to explain it simply and accurately. Because I'm high functioning in some areas and lower functioning in others.

I saw a video yesterday. It explained Aspergers syndrome as a mixture of autistic traits and ADHD traits (and NLD traits)
It is known that those two, and Tourettes overlap.
It was a good explanation to me, and I think, it would be simplest to say, that AS presents as a mixture of traits from autism and ADHD or whatever, without being any of those fully, but the common traits are a certain social dyslexia and an individual blend of sensory issues.
I would think that must be about the shortest explanation, even though it takes a bit of thinking to understand.

Jensen , that's a very good explanation! Do you think you could post a link to that video? I'd like to watch it.

What is NLD?

Nonverbal Learning Disorder.

Thank you Jensen. I would love to see that video too if you can post the link or even embed it. It seems really interesting.

A good question indeed.

I think use of the word specturm in terms of autism itself is misleading, as it implies a smooth gradation from one end to the other, and as the OP and others have pointed out there is not a smooth gradation, but rather an unstable mixture of traits that's almost never the same in any two cases, all stemming from similar but unique neurological differences mainly, but not exclusively, having to do with the way sensory information is processed in our brains.

We're all autistic, but we're not really on a spectrum per se in terms of the autism so much as we are on a spectrum in terms of our overall functionality, which is actually a psychological scale with distinct gradations, so that even though some of our traits may be non-functional or low-functioning, they can be and often are balanced out by high functioning traits and the various successful coping machanisms we employ to function in general despite specific difficulties.
Even in this context the term 'high-functioning' is misleading as it only implies a that the person can live on their own without assistance.
It does not imply that such a person can take care of themselves properly, get or hold down a job, have or maintain healthy relationships, or do much else besides generally survive by themselves without any assistance other than the actual physical means to do so or the financial means to obtain such.

Try not to get too hung up on the semantics, as it's ultimately a fruitless venture to try to pin down meaning.
The meanings of words are inherently fluid & fungible because language is merely a shared relational structure of sounds(words) & grammar rules, and thus it is only in relation to one another and in the context of a shared grammatical structure that words(sounds) have any meaning at all.
In other words, since all meaning of particular words is derived from their various relationships to other particular words, that the meanings of those particular words are never actually static and therefore any attempt to derive an understanding of such meanings is ultimately doomed to failure except perhaps as a personal transcendant understanding, but such insights are by their very nature incapable of being shared in any useful manner except by the poets & artists.
...and that's how the deconstructionists ruined/won Philosophy...

Ok, laugh all you want but I picture the spectrum as a recipe.
Some cakes have more butter ou sugar, fruits or iogurt even, but they have something in common which makes them cake instead of bread. So, being on the spectrum means, for me, means you might have some traits others share or not, more or less defined, but there are common markers that make you fit the category.
Take for instance a muffin. It's not a pie, but you wouldn't rate it as bread. The same for a cookie. All have flour in the recipe but considering the other ingredients and the outcome, they fit the cake category.

I think so, too (and also that if you switch the functioning labels the same can be said about people with LFA). That's a big part of why functioning labels don't make sense. Functioning/ability is not a single thing that is the same for all activities and all contexts (not even for non-autistic people, as far as I know).



I think what you said was a good way of putting it. I can't do any better.

In my mind the concept of autism as many spectrums is a rainbow colored koosh-ball-like thing. All the spines of the koosh-ball-like thing are like floppy sticks that are fused together where they intersect at their midpoints. Each stick is a different color and represents the spectrum of one autistic symptom/trait/issue from end to end.... The whole thing is sort of like a 3-D map, where you can mark your place on each of the symptom/trait/issue spectrums with a glowing dot or a line. (There's a second version that's a regular koosh ball where each floppy spine sticking out from the ball represents the spectrum of one symptom/issue/trait, starting from the base of the spine and moving outward instead of intersecting the middle of the sphere. It changes the concept a bit, the way I think about it, but not the most important parts.)

I think its easier to think of Autism/Aspgers as being variations in specific attributes (for want of a better word).

On a scale of -10 to +10, where normal/typical is centred on 0.

So for example, I would place myself here:
Sight (+5)
Sensitivity to light (+2)
Sensitivity to Touch (-3)
Sensitivity to taste (-4)
Sensitivity to Smell (-5)
Sensitivity to pain (-4)
Sensitivity to food (-4) (I don't care what I eat)
Sensitivity to noise (+5)
Understanding of social ques (-8)
Theory of mind (-9)
Memory (+4)
Visualisation (+8)

This is the sort of scattered spectrum as I see it.

I feel like this about myself. Some people have told me that I can do a lot of these things but I have been around for a few decades now and have not succeeded at any of them. At first glance I may look like I was somewhat successful at many of them but if you were to take away my support system I could not do any of the things you mentioned. I have been able to maintain some relationships and some very deep ones for almost two decades but they are not normal. Those people a very good people and they love me despite my issues. That is a testament to who they are. But if I lost my support system I would be up a creek big time. I would probably find a way to survive because I am a survivor but it would be just that, survival and probably not much more.

Here is the link to the videos (don´t know how to embed it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JWh3lrscqE (AS vs NLD)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdSzM3MHfOA (AS)

That was SO HELPFUL thank you! I really had no idea what NLD is and trying to read explanations of that stuff makes my head spin. The way this guy taught it is 100% perfect for me.

It still makes MY head spin, because there is so much overlap.

I think the word "spectrum" is quite badly chosen too. In my experience as a scientist, the word "spectrum" refers to the representation of a signal in the frequency domain (including the visible light or the electromagnetic spectrum but not limited to that), or to the set of the eigenvalues of a matrix in linear algebra. (The two are probably linked but I have no idea which gave its name to which.) This has nothing to do with autism, so I always thought it was just a word people had chosen because it feels "sciencey" and vaguely hints that it is something both variable and complicated.

In other words, I think the phrase "autism is a spectrum" mostly shows what autism is not. It is not a single condition, it is not a set of well-defined conditions, you can't easily say where autism starts or stops. The whole message seems to be "autism is something complicated, it is a 'spectrum', duh, so you should really make an effort to understand it and not rely on preconceptions or simple judgements". Which is a good message overall.