Can anyone else spot out someone with Autism?

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I can meet someone and tell you within a minute if they're autistic or not. And I am usually right. I can do this to people who I suspect having Aspergers as well. Even though people with Aspergers are diverse, they tend to have something in common which I can pick up on and say "hey that person is autistic" I don't know how to explain it.

Does anyone else have this ability?

How do you find out if your guesses are right? Do they show you their Autism Club membership cards?

I usually find out later and i'm always like "i knew it."

Even some people who are undiagnosed I can see it in them. It's actually pretty obvious. You just have to know what to look for.

I believe I can usually pick them out, too. I've spent a lot of time reading about Aspergers over the last couple years that traits tend to stick out like a sore thumb.

With some people in my life, understanding both my own and their ASD traits has made our relationships better because I'm more understanding & forgiving of their behaviour that I otherwise might take some offence to if I didn't know what I know. Even if they don't know their own traits, me being able to pick up on them has helped a lot.

I've never met someone "in real life" that was officially (or even auto) diagnosed with any ASD, but i do think that i've saw a few cases of it and was able to easily recognize the traits.

Only the ones with it that are almost completely oblivious socially and consistently say things/do things that others find obnoxious.

Ahh ... but how do you find out?

Methinks this may be a case of Confirmation Bias, in that you forget the "misses" and remember only the "hits".

It's like when a gay person "knows" who is gay or not ("Gaydar") without ever finding out if their assumptions are valid.

I can recognise AS in men, but I can't in women, even if I get to know them enough (unless a woman has a more severe case of Autism, but I'm just talking about mild AS). I could pass 10 girls with AS in the street and not notice that they are AS at all. But often boys with AS seem to have an awkward gait and other symptoms seem to show up more. I may be inaccurate, but I'm just talking from my own experience with people I have come across who are on the spectrum. I think girls worry more about fitting in and approval of other people, so we do our best to prove how normal we can be and we take more notice of body language and all of that. That is just a guess though, there might be some boys on the spectrum who feel like that too, and some girls that don't.

My old friend, who I knew for about six years, had "regular" Autism. When I was 18, my mom forced the two of us to separate because she thought he was gay.

Sometimes I can spot someone with autism, like if they are fidgeting or stimming, have a kind of drawly or nasal voice, or have kind of an awkward appearance. There's a girl I used to know who I think has Asperger's. I never actually found out she had it, but I am positive she does.

On the other hand, a few times I've found out someone I know has Asperger's, and I had never suspected it at all, because they seemed perfectly socially adept. I guess I kind of expect the traits to be obvious and don't see how the autism affects them more subtly.

What should we call this ability to sense when someone has autism? "Aspie-dar", from gaydar? That's what I call it, though it doesn't really make sense coming from "radar".

Asperscanner or Aspersensor?

Hmm. I like Aspersensor.

This is an interesting topic. I did some research on Asperger's/high functioning autism last year and although I am diagnosed with Asperger's did not reveal this to the participants until afterwards. Four of the six said they thought as much. They could not say how they could tell. I found a lot of what I called "telegraphic" effects in Asperger's/"high functioning" autism (ASFHA). Perhaps we recognize each other through some kind of social intuition that is not yet understood.
ASHFAdude

There's a guy I knew before I knew anything about Asperger's, who I think might be on the spectrum. I got to know him for a few days, and he does have some autistic traits.

But from the first time I saw him, I sensed something different about him. Something about the way he walked and shook my hand felt unusual. The best I can describe it is "semi-robotic" or "puppet-like" (not in a bad sense, it was actually refreshing to meet someone like me).

Of course, I may be way off. I'm not diagnosed, and neither is he as far as I know, so there's no way to confirm my suspicion.

Funny, because I used to confuse autistic behavior with gay behavior. There's another guy I knew who I though was gay, but now that I think of it, he could (also?) be an aspie. It's something about the way autistics present, ie they could be shy, have unusual tone of voice and eye contact, and don't necessarily conform to gender roles.

@ Stormtrooper: My old friend did have a high-pitched voice, was indeed shy, and obviously didn't understand gender roles. However, there was no arguing with my mom about separating me and my friend. To this day, she has never apologized about it. The irony about it is a year later, I went over to his house for his birthday, but his jerk father threatened to file a restraining order against me if I didn't leave the grounds of his home.

^ That's sad that you were forced to lose a friend because your mom thought he was gay. So what if he was? If you aren't, nothing sexual was going to happen between you. And if you are, or bi, that's none of your parents' business anyways, IMO.

I suppose I'm fortunate that while I am gay, no one suspects it because I don't look or act "gay" so I've never had to endure much in the way of homophobia throughout my life. However, I don't think any of my friends' parents would have done what yours did. Well, maybe some - there are some sorta old school fundamentalists out there so I can't say for sure that they wouldn't have instructed their kids not to hang out with me if they knew that.

As for aspies & gay stereotypes, IMO one body language thing is the way aspies tend to physically grasp objects in their hand with a bit of a bent/"limp" wrist. It looks stereotypically "gay" & I believe this is a part of AS body language that gets some straight ASD males labelled as likely gay when others pick up on the body language. pay close attention to this when you're around another aspie and you might pick up on it and see what I mean. Sometimes I wonder if this is where the stereotype originated from for a "limp wristed homo," if it's ASD gay people that fit this profile vs. it just being a stereotypical slightly flamboyant gay body language thing. I'm not entirely sure, because I don't hang around a lot of more feminine gay guys to observe.. and the only gay guy I know that definitely does this particular body language thing is also ASD. Hmmm, maybe I'll have to venture out into the gay district sometime and do some people watching and see if I noticed if it's only those with ASD traits that do this, or if there are simply some gay people out there that naturally have this sort of body language and no ASD traits.