Asd’s and copying.

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How much does copying factor into someone with an ASD? Even since I was tiny I’ve always copied, phrases, behaviours,or either by watching someone play a sport then copy them, or art. Many of the skills I’ve gained have been through copying.(obsessively in some cases) Or is it a case of everyone does it to some degree ASD or not?

It's very typical for someone with autism to do that. My skill in writing comes from books I've read and copying how authors write.

Everyone does it to some degree. Babies learn how to walk and talk and everything else by mirroring. But it seems like people with ASD does it in a larger extent. Especially the females are known for mimicking, and changing personalities based on their company.
I do it a lot when it comes to language. I quickly start using the same phrases as the people I'm around, and I adapt accents all the time. Great for learning languages, but kind of embarrassing at times. Like when I worked for an indian lady, and started speaking to her with an indian accent. I think she got offended.....

I don't do it much when it comes to drawing. That's of course a form of copying in itself, but I don't mimic other artists that much. I think...

I always thought it was an NT thing to copy others in childhood. My younger cousins used to copy me all the time when we were kids. I thought it was a way of learning and growing up, and also a social thing.

Copying phrases is universal among the verbally adept, and the shapes of things evolve with obsolete features copied forward. The motor car is a fine example of that. Artists copy so well that the steam engines in childrens' books are still drawn with the boiler and cylinders properly proportioned, while dozens of engineers get it wrong in their inventions. The Parthenon "looks right" spectacularly well, but among the frescoes are things needed to look right to the builders - fake peg-heads, as if the stone beams were still made of wood.
However, Aspies have rather poor function in the mirror neurons. We notice them working, while NTs may never know them to be off. Back when teenagers talked, you could often hear almost nothing but trendy quotations and stock insults being bandied back and forth. So, on average, we do more original work. I have been astounded at details my apprentices have noticed and copied, while I learn very little from watching others. I'm always slower at routine tasks, and usually faster at original work.

Ezra and dear one. I think your some of my favourite posters on here.