Curious, AS and classical/AD social learning

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So the current DSM version says that people with AS are more inclined to socialise than people with classical autism. Seems about correct from what I get told of kids and youths with autism.

However, something peculiar that I wonder about.

Is it possible that while people with AS may more often learn social skills intellectually, they lack something that hinders them to acquire that many social skills?

I just wonder why in therapy I hear more success stories of people with classical?

Not that they start with the same social skills or social understanding as those with AS usually, but that they somehow acquire and/or understand social skills better/faster/different from those with AS if they actually want to socialise too.

Coincidence or is there more about this?

I think you have a point here. Classical Autism seems to have a greater rate of success.

It may be, like you said, that systemazing is so present that Aspies are over-doing it, may it be voluntarly or not.

The last DSM update was in 1993, I think, so there is a lot that went on in the AS field since then.

Hi there,

It is possible to incline on the continuum even for the classical ones but to say that they could gain more/better/faster in comparison with those with Asperger, sounds strange to me.

I always thought, either you are on spectrum or you're not and that your intelligence determines the level of functioning. But maybe this isn't true then.

Mmmm. Now I am a bit confused.

I'm going to eat my meal now and think about it. Maybe I'll come back with a lucid idea. Probably not..

Bye,
Ceesjan

A lot of it has to do with anxiety and fear. I think kids with AS can do better socially with early intervention, if the parents recognize something is different about their kid and seek out strategies to offset some of the difficulties the child can learn alternative skills and avoid some of the anxiety producing situations that hinder socializing later in life. Early intervention is the difference between a good outcome and bad.
However, I also notice there can be an inclination toward negativity and depression that accompanies AS. Those with other autisms might not experience this. This also gets in the way of interacting socially. Some might prefer not to socialize.

I do vaguely remember a person telling me that if you actually looked at the research, people with the most number of "classical" autistic traits in early childhood tended to have better outcomes in adulthood. But I can't remember the cite, at all.

I do think there is a difference... not so much as between AS/autism (because I don't know what, if anything, makes up that divide, and tend not to use it)... but between people who have an incredibly abstract-cognitive-symbolic approach to understanding the world and people who don't.

I would explain further but someone is coming in my door as I type this.

Can't be. I have been considered very intelligent (although whether that's related to a real trait called 'intelligence' or whether it's due to learning things in a different order that meant I had a more rapid start on some things than most people, I have no idea), and I also have a great deal of difficulty with what they call 'adaptive functioning' in general.

In my experience, level of function isn't based on intelligence. My taits are more associated with classic autism. My social, communication and verbal skills however appear to be worse than what I have seen indicated by those who have AS, and isn't something I can necessarily learn my way out of or I probably would have by now. From what I have heard, the statistics seem to be the opposite of what you have described, and if not, it doesn't make any sense to me in relation to my own experience with it.