A-DAR. Does it work? Can you really tell?

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I'm just wondering whether anyone has actually done a study, formal or informal.
I look at people or remember people I've known and think "He must be an Aspie."
But am I right?

Hmm... good question. In my case, I've never met anyone (except for a couple family members) who I think is, so I an't really say.

I wanted to make this a poll, but I couldn't figure it out.
So, if I ever do figure it out, what should the questions be?

Yes, I can always tell.
Yes, if we talk about social issues.
Maybe, if we spend enough time together.
No, I'm utterly clueless.

I have spotted something that could be autism in a few people, but I never asked, so I don't know how accurate I am. Lots of things can look like autism and still not be.

I was just making that "A-DAR" stuff up, because a guy was claiming that 80 percent of the people here aren't AS.

I'm not sure a person can particularly spot AS, but I just made that up to screw with him because I was telling he was NOT AS if he couldn't spot them.

The thinking goes like this: it's hard to recognize AS. But for anyone to look at all these posts on WP and come to the conclusion that most of the people here aren't AS, he's either a genius of perception or he's clueless. My point was that he wasn't seeing AS in the posts here (just what he called a collection of "weird and strange" people), because he's clueless.

You can form the opinion that it's hard to recognize AS from the things people say about themselves, their relationships and their ideas.

You can form the opinion that you can't tell how many people here have AS or are just "weird and strange".

But IMO, you can't really have AS if you come here and form the opinion that most of the people here don't have AS (and you have significant experience with the NT world as he claims to have had).

There are certain cognitive experiences and thought units that AS people have, that aren't compatible with NT psychology, and vice versa. Some basic thought traits NTs have that AS don't, as a fundamental matter, and vice versa.

For example, it really bothers NTs to talk about certain social behaviors, like bullying, social aggression and (especially) the socially unfair behavior of NTs. That's why it's so hard to get friends and family to explain why some things are why they are or why someone said something. It bothers them to analyze their own social intuition on a concrete level because it induces social parallax (self-consciousness) and feelings of insecurity in them. Some NTs are almost incapable of dissecting social interaction because it makes them feel queasy and insecure. While you can see that here, it's not common. I mean, as soon as someone starts a thread analyzing or dissecting intricate details of NT social behavior, some people will freak out and spaz, saying it makes them ill and so on, to focus on NT social behavior. But I think that those NT-like people who get queasy and self-conscious whenever social dissection starts up in a thread, are a true minority (and maybe deluding themselves that they are AS).

As another example, the people I've seen here trying to form social cliques and condemn and sneer or belittle other AS people here (like saying who they think are the "okay" AS people and who are the "idiots") are also probably not AS themselves, because one might ask, Where does their social instinct for that kind of emotionally loaded interpersonal fixation on social worth come from? A fixation on social cliques, social acceptability, judgmentalism and worthiness is kind of alien to true AS mental landscapes. There are a couple of those kinds of people here and there, on WP, and I would question whether the "pecking order" belittlers and "this one's okay but that one's not okay" people are truly AS, too.

I think that some non-AS people just come here because they have some attraction for the thought processes and culture of those AS people that they approve of or think are cool in some fashion. And they're lonely, maybe.

To me, though, who have spent all of my life with NTs, in several walks of life and in various socio-economic settings, it perfectly obvious to me, that a lot of people here (most) are AS. The ones who are not DO kind of stick out, but because they display consistent patterns of interpersonal judgmentalism, verbal social aggression or they reveal their insecurity and distress when the AS people start micro-analyzing and dissecting NT social behavior.

So my answer is I was just making that "A-DAR" thing up (I make up a lot of catchy phrases). But, yes, you can tell who is AS or not, but mostly by occasional and subtle behaviors people display unintentionally. Not by something they "emit" like signals.

AS isn't called a hidden disability for no reason.

...but if you see a kid at a store who all of a sudden bolts, or you see their parents try to pick them up they get stiff, or the kid has a melt down, it might be autism.

A-dar.


disclaimer: just because you see this happening, and it looks like autism, you can never be so sure...

Not sure it counts as being a 'radar' if the signs are so obvious... the term A-DAR to me kinda implies an instinctive gut feeling of a difference that most wouldn't see immediately.

I thought it was called aspiedar.

It was in another thread somewhere. I forgot which one.

Either way . . . I don't have it. lol.

Always clueless.

OK. Fine. The A-DAR system is still in development. However a field prototype does exist. Below are images from one of my presentations illustrating the basic theory of operation, a sample display of the AS Target Tracker and the portable prototype field unit.



Sample display of the AS Target Tracker, and picture of the prototype portable field unit

Every person I've ever met who I really hit it off with has turned out to be a 'gifted kid'.
Not necessarily A-dar, but really neat nonetheless.

Funniest thing I saw all day
There should be one for gayness.

Well, but people can "develop" Gaydar.

I think the way you do this is you just have to do it the hard way -- make some Gay friends and get to know them well, like dear friends. Then you will "see" things about them in other gay people you come across, like you "see" pieces of your other friends in new people that you meet.

I have no idea how many here REALLY have AS. Many STATE they don't. And HOW many members does one see regularly? I would say he couldn't determine if 80% have AS or not.

The ones who don't have AS are the ones trying to form cliques, bash other members, picking on individuals and bad-mouthing AS traits. The things that drive that kind of behavior are compulsive social instincts that AS people lack. We simply are unmotivated to instigate that kind of behavior. So it is my opinion that the people who might do that kind of thing are the ones who are non-AS.

Edited to add: I think all people are welcome here, if the subject or thing on their mind is AS or related issues. So I don't think that AS people have any prerogative over others, here.

i dont know if this applies to the A-dar concept or not by here it goes:

ive noticed that i can sense one emotion above all in people and animals around me and that is fear and ive found out that some people on the Autism spectrum also can do this and i think if me and others can do this, then there might well be a possibility that people (or rather Atutists: AS here included) can sense AS/Autism in others based on the way they act.

but as a side note i should mention that even though i feel that i sense fear, many of my friends say i am wrong and that its all in my head, but i dont agree with them on this particular "thing", as i do believe i can sense fear in people around me..