Interestring dinner/person at next table over

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I went out with my grandparents for dinner the other night, at an all you can eat Chinese restaurant. One table over was a person, probably ASD, who shortly after we had sat down, was flapping his hands by his head and grunting. After coming back from getting my first plate of food, I noticed he was having a perfectly normal conversation in an almost NT fasion. I found this kinda odd, as I wasn't expecting to see such a huge contrast within only one person, and didn't realize such a thing was possible. On the other hand, he could have been an NT poking fun at the disabled, but given the restaurant, I highly doubt that, noone goes to a restaurant like that and intentionally draws attention to themselves being an a**. So I figure he was legitimatly ASD and not an a**. Anyways, how many people here are like that, where they are, like him flapping and grunting one moment, and perfectly normal the next (well normal by not quite NT standards)? And just to clarify this, I do have some stereotypes still stuck in my head, and one of them is that if you are disabled to the point that you flap/grunt/whatever, you are not capable of more normal behavior, and after that night, and being here for a while, I know that is not true. But of course stereotypes can be hard to get rid of. I guess what I am saying is I am confused with the huge contrast of the two side I saw in him.

That would be me LOL. That's definitely something I might do. One moment I'm the biggest tard in the universe, the next moment I'm as NT as...a...NT. Yeah. It happens.

Well, I'm not a flapper or a grunter, but I definitely don't go from meltdown to normal that quickly. Change in the opposite direction, though, can happen fast.

I thought one of the general rules of ASD was that we get overstimulated faster than NTs, and take longer to come back to baseline. Maybe this guy you saw knows some good trick for calming himself down.

Tourettes??

I have often done a SIMILAR thing. I don't even know why. It USUALLY happens at nice places and, especially, after a nice meal. It happened more often when I was a kid, but STILL sometimes happens.

I will act aloof, etc.... Later, I may start cracking jokes, be more personable, etc.... Maybe it is the sugar or something, who knows.

If I were one to flap hands, etc... I could see me as acting like the kids you spoke of.

Eh... I do both. Flapping, rocking, etc. and I can carry on a conversation OK, or OK for somebody who's autistic. Understandably anyways.

Strong stims just usually mean a strong need for input in order to think properly. That can come with any kind of ASD. I guess you basic Aspie type would probably try to suppress stims because of ridicule; I did that, but they stayed constant--just surreptitious. Actually it's a bad sign if I'm not stimming; it usually means I'm totally exhausted and about to shut down.

I figure the guy at the next table probably needed the stims to help him work with the situation. In public, carrying on a conversation, is relatively difficult. Not the end of the world, but it does take energy.