Relative significance of your ASD characteristics

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I'm curious about how people on the spectrum perceive the various aspects of ASD and their relative importance in their life.

Working from the list on Wikipedia (I'm not looking for a discussion of the merits of Wikipedia) the characteristics of Asperger's are:

Social interaction (SI)
Restricted and repetitive interests and behaviour (RRI&B)
Speech and language (S&L)
Motor and sensory perception (M&SP)

What order would you put these in in terms of the impact you think they have on your life. Start with the characteristic that you think has the most detrimental impact at the top and finish with the characteristic which has the least detrimental (or most constructive) impact at the bottom.

I know that it may be hard to separate these aspects out. For example, monologuing about a special interest would impact social interaction, but have a go.

Thanks.

What's the difference between social interaction and speech and language? Wouldn't speech and language impact social interaction, making it hard to differentiate?

I can see your point. In general speech and language are an essential part of social interaction. However, the two can be separated. For example, you could interact with someone without audible speech or language using facial expression, say. Also, you could use speech and language in a non social interaction by, say, making a video about something that interests you.

If you want (or haven't) you could look at the Wiki article to see how they distinguish the difference.

1. Executive Functioning deficits
2. Social communication disadvantage
3. Repetitive p behaviors/special interests.
4. Sensory sensitivities

Templeton, are you curious for yourself or writing a paper or something else?

I'm just curious for myself. Maybe I've missed the relevant threads in this forum (there are so many) but it seems to me that the main focus is on social skills. I've seen very little on, say, motor control (clumsiness), yet this is listed as a key characteristic.

I myself have very little problem with motor control (I would say that I'm pretty dexterous) and am concerned that this may mean that I'm not really in the wright place. Then again I didn't think I stimmed until I looked up what it meant.

It's hard to say. They are pretty balanced.

Social difficulties would be my bigger issue but I don't have social anxiety so they rarely bother me personally. I am fine with making mistakes and I developed a lot of copy mechanisms too so I can pretend NT as long as the interaction doesn't get too deep.

Sensory issues and restricted behaviors seem to have equal impact. Sensory issues because they frustrate me and restricted behaviors because they keep me from making positive life changes.

Language is probably the least problem but listening to human speech requires a lot of focus from me so it is tiring.

Last edited by Kiriae on 27 Sep 2015, 10:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have really bad social issues that has caused me loneliness and despair my whole life. I just can't relate to people unless I'm drinking, and being in a social group and talking is near impossible for me. My fine motor skills are okay, though.