We aren't supposed to be capable of... fill in the blanks!

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There are a lot of myths about what people with an ASD is capable of or not capable of.

What can you do that other people are surprised by?

Multitask.

Learn new things.

Give a presentation.

Talk to a stranger.

Go to college.

People are often surprised that I end up being the one who was right when everyone else had made me shut up claiming I was talking nonsense when I said my opinion on something. They're also frequently surprised at the deep and accurate insight this idiot has (they see me as an idiot because I'm clueless about how to behave in society to my own advantage).

Have a sense of humour, apparently.

When I was a kid, my mother told this one person at my school that I had a great sense of humour. According to that man, 'autists don't understand the concept of humour'. This was an "expert", a professional, my mother was talking to.

Don't think that I'm an exceptionally funny guy, though... I can appreciate comedy and jokes, but I'll never make it as a stand-up comedian.

They actually believe we aren't capable of understanding sarcasm

I surprised my online friend with my sense of humor. He said I am usually serious.

Some people have gotten surprised I used an idiom. Yeah just because I am literal doesn't mean I am incapable of using idioms or learning them.

Feeling emotions.
Empathising. At all.
Being nice people.
Succeeding.

We are all obsessed with train schedules.

We don't have a theory of mind.

Seriously--once somebody understands the "theory of mind" idea, it seems like they will assume that it is universal and that we NEVER learn this concept!

Reality: Those who don't learn it are a tiny minority; "delay" doesn't mean "never"; some learn it early; and some have a completely different way to figure out what other people are thinking. (I figured it out logically, instead of the usual way that NT kids have by reading facial expression and deducing that different faces mean different feelings. This is completely natural--don't we all use our strengths to learn things?)

I don't think you can make a single assumption about the spectrum, other than we all fit enough of a certain set of diagnostic criteria--of which, incidentally, you only need to fit some, so that one autistic person can have totally different traits from another!

A lot of these assumptions seem to be along that line--Some things are difficult for some autistics; but then they generalize and think this is true of all!

Oh, yes--initially, people who know I have autism are surprised that I can speak. Realistically, getting me to shut up seems to be more of a problem!

I had absolutely no sense of humor as a child, but now I'm given to bizzare bouts of it. It's may be weird, but it's definetly there.

- We're not supposed to be interested in trying new things.
- Lacking in imagination.

"weak central coherence"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_central_coherence_theory

This is complete and utter BS, at least in my case. I’m the exact opposite of a parrot that regurgitates facts. I need to know the deeper meaning of everything I learn.

On the contrary it seems to me that the vast majority of NT’s have very limited central coherence. They are inherently superfluous in the way they think, everything is analyzed of in terms societal rules, cultural memes, etc. For the most part they are incapable of thinking for themselves.

As an example I was thinking about the diagnostic criteria of “focusing on parts of objects”. Supposedly an autistic child that is more fascinated by spinning the wheel on a toy truck than pretending to drive it has weak central coherence. My opinion is that the autistic child is merely less restricted by notions of how a toy is “supposed to be played with”. Their curiosity for things outside the realm of rigid cultural conformity is less stifled.

Love
Creative use of language
Looking nice or having the motivation to do so
Reading (this is strange, but my SE people have had so many AS boys who are so video-game-addled that they can barely read come through their program that they've come to expect that sort of thing)

I actually think that weak central coherence is a problem for me personally, though.

Have a sense of humor, I never did when I was little. When most people meet me Im very serious.

Going 2000 miles away from home for college. I guess this one depends, people would expect me to go to college. I had a particular incident a year ago and many of the professionals and some of my relatives my mom talked to recogmended that I should tranfer back home until my junior year. And well I didnt let that happen. I was back in college out of state a month and half later. After completing my spring semester, I proved that I could live up here.

Multitask