Autism/Timing

Post Reply New Topic

Genetics Study links Autism to timing mechanism

I found this study very interesting.. particularly because my mother decided, while she was pregnant with me, that I must be an alien.. for exactly this reason.

So people do have internal chronometers, just like Mr. Data, but ours is broken?

That sounds so familiar!

Familiar as in you too, or familiar as in you've spoken to my mother? lol

(I live in MD now, but am from PA.. so that might not be totally paranoid of me. )

Very interesting, thanks!

It is said that "timing is everything". I've had a lifetime fascination with time, clocks, and such, but was never able to keep time when trying to learn to play a musical instrument or dance, to say nothing of timing in social situations. All too familiar.

Question OP - how did your mother know you had no timing when she was pregnant with you?

With most babies, the mother can tell the circadian rhythm, because they kick at the same time every day. I didn't. I kicked like every 35 hours. So she figured I was supposed to be born on another planet.

Oh I didn't know babies were supposed to kick at the same time every day lol.

Good to know, thanks.

I've always had trouble figuring out when to say something in conversations where several people are involved. I usually wind up either interrupting or missing my chance . It's something I've wondered about. Interesting to find that there may be a genetic component.

[Interesting. My timing is generally bad but I presumed that had something to do with being dyslexic, as they also go hand in hand.

I'm not sure how things like social timing relate to more biological rhythms. I never really thought of knowing when edge into a conversation as having much to do with timing.. I thought it was part of the social cues thing. A large part of the problem a lot of people have here isn't so much with not being able to interpret things at all, but not being able to interpret them in time... Like how when you do that multiple choice what-are-the-eyes-saying test, most people here have said they can figure it out enough to do okay on the test, but the problem is more with being able to do it in real time with another human being, and then react appropriately.
But the aspie strange gait, eye contact issues, and voice tone I think are all very related to the timing thing.
Anybody else kinda pause at strange places while talking? Or have speech that's kinda choppy? (Hmm, those two may actually be the same thing. I think the choppy speech comes from pausing at the wrong places.)
I think the less natural-seeming speech also gives off a vibe of dishonesty, like it's choppy because you're not saying what you're really thinking, and making stuff up.

I have that choppy speech thing. A friend once mentioned that I sounded like William Shatner with lot of....dramatic....pauses.

I've always thought that stimming works by creating a sort of external rhythm (especially rocking) that we use to regulate our internal lack of it when everything gets too chaotic.

lol @ the Shatner thing.

I think you're right about the stimming thing. My main stim was almost never noticed because it's so subtle, I do this thing with my mouth where I like squeeze the air out from between my back teeth.. but it causes vibrations practically in my ear canal, so it's really loud to me, and was always very rhythmic. I did it almost constantly as a child.

I read this and wonder if it starts to complicate the "cure" thing. What if, just what if, the one gene could be altered? If you were someone with severe sleep issues as part of your AS, would you consider it? Or is all of it too inherent to who you are and the gifts that you have as part of AS? Just a question. I'm not a curebie at all, but when you start to see specific genes linked to specific areas, you wonder ...

I've had two babies and I didn't know, either, lol. But maybe it has to do with my first being AS and my second not kicking much, period.