Are all aspies little professors?

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Is there any aspies who don't meet that sterotype? I've always had obsessions as long as I can remember but was never an expert on them. That didn't come till I reached 4th grade when I started reading about things that interested me and collected facts and became a walking encyclopedia. I was obsessed with weather and dinosaurs so I read about it. Then came London and Dalmatians and so on.

I don't know. I think I met had that characteristic, and still do at times. I don't recall at what age it started, but I always had some strong opinions & at times could be quite a 'know-it-all.' Sometimes to the point of being pedantic about it. I must have been a pretty annoying kid, at times, though there were also people who appreciated my intensity about my interests (only a few, but I'm thankful for them!).

I am another walking encyclopedia here.

Tim

No, not all of us are like that. Some, like me, are more creative. i do learn loads of trivial facts about my obsessions but I don't come across as professorial!

From what I'm told, it looks like I was a "little professor" when I was a child (though I talked more about my daydreams, which I'd try to tell about to everybody, rather than my interests), and I spoke a fairly formal language until I turned nineteen or so. I was told I sounded as if I were not saying my own words and speaking straight out of a book or something. Then I started to make efforts to sound more natural, and it started to work over the course of several years.

Now I no longer come across as pedantic, I think (perhaps only in writing).

As for the way I pursue my interests, I can be very strongly obsessed with something, but my short attention span often makes it difficult for me to sit and read about it. I just don't have the patience for that. So my obsession may be limited to lots of continued visualization while daydreaming.

I was not like that. For some reason, I seldom talked about my interests to other people. It's like I had my own world, which I didn't want to share with anyone.

As a little kid, I did the "talk at someone and not notice that they've got bored and walked off" thing at least once. But I don't know that I'd fit the 'professor' description in that my obsessions are such dumb stuff. These days it's mainly TV shows, but the one that inspired the walk-off all those years ago was my in-depth reasoning for why a paper cup I'd decided was actually a toy car should now become a bed. Little Rambling Nutcase sounds like a better description.

I understand what you mean. I hated it when people tried to break into my world or tried to drag me out of it. It made me feel violated - I just wanted them to leave me alone to get on with it.

Regarding the little professor - I was a bit like this (although I did sometimes chose not to share what I knew unless specifically asked). I think it varies with aspies. Some fulfil the 'little professor' stereotype, but some people's symptoms manifest in different ways.

I'm not a little professor.
I'm taller than my parents.

I don't think I ever become a 'little professor' by my own standards; yes I get obsessed by topics and projects and learn to understand them in depth, but I don't learn as much about them as I know I could during the time my obsession lasts. The most recent example was as work, the last two days) where I was asked about an area of crimminal (justice) law, to the point where all other work was excluded, I wrote a paper explaining the frame-work and application of this aspect of law. Everyone else thinks its in depth, I think its only just highlighted the main areas of application.

I think little refers to the fact that it started at a young age, and seemed all the wierder.

Yeah, I was like that also! I fit the stereotype there. I was last called an encyclopedia(in as many words) only a few months ago, and people remarked about it like only a week ago.

That IS one of the things I see that makes me AS, and one of the big benefits. My interests have generally been useful.

Steve

But wait...I am a professor.

I just remembered - I had friends who used to call me "English Incarnate" - I was in my 20s then, but still . . . .

I'm more of a random fact machine. I pick up there weirdest stuff. Like how the female urethra is only around 1-2 inches and if you don't look after it can weaken. That's why women can have weak bladders and are more susceptible to infections of the urinary tract. Men have longer urethra not necessarily a bigger bladder. Pelvic floor exercises are recommended for women to prevent this.

I'm a bloke

My strength is in my imagination. I was articulate in elementary school, but these days I don't have to deal with people telling me to "speak english".

I know I asked questions all the time... like 'does a snail grow a new shell when it loses it's old one?'.
I was bossy and controlling in game playing, telling other children what to do.
I told teachers what to do, and went around helping other children in class...it made me a target for at least one teacher's dislike, who one day shouted 'I don't like you!' in my ear then left me crying in the street outside school. I was about 8.
I was always reading those observer books? Is that what they were called? Like small, hardback books of facts on birds, space etc etc.
I loved reading about Rome.