Differences between giftedness and Asperger

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I think that a big problem in this kind of discussions is that AS is largely defined by behavior (and not by the causes of the behavior, that are still polemic and, for all practical effects, unknown - "lack of theory of mind"? "weak central coherence"? "executive dysfunction"?).

Because that, determining if some type of behavior is caused by AS or by other cause is almost impossible.

I'm now getting very confused. It had appeared to me earlier that giftedness and aspergers/autism are for the most part unrelated, at least in that they can be found or not found in the same person, depending on the person.

However, this morning I finally got to look over report cards from kindergarten through fourth grade. Just as some background, I spent Kindergarten and 1st grade at my local public school, after that I was switched into an all-girls private school. I am relatively sure I'm an aspie, both from my own observations and those of a very close friend, who I'm familiar enough with to let my guard down, but I haven't tried to get a Dx yet..

Now, my parents always told me I was 'smart' but that was just some sort of abstract term to me, and at times a source of frustration, as it seems to me that my parents mostly overlooked my social issues, content with me not having any academic ones.

I'm now starting to wonder about my suspicions of being an aspie, after reading my Kindergarten and first grade report cards. I don't notice any notes about social skills in there, but the reports are pretty general. Besides, the tests that I found were in a one on one setting with an adult, where I could go on about subjects that interested me.

I remember from my own memory that I didn't have many friends after preschool, but I hadn't taught myself to act shy yet, so it's fully possible that I flew right under the radar.

Anyways, it would seem that around the age of five, I was smarter than I thought. I found a folder at my house that had some tests I took to get into private school, my sixth grade ERB test, and a Schools and Colleges Admissions Test (SCAT) I took to qualify for camp. (Remind me to ask why they chose such an unfortunate acronym for that test. Scat? Seriously? Animal droppings? Anyways...)

On the tests I took for private school (when I was five) I scored in the 95th percentile and above, except for the section on mazes where I was in the 37th percentile (Yeah, I have no clue what I did wrong there). I got in the low ninetieth percentiles on the SCAT in fourth grade, but the standard was sixth grade.

Now, I'm extremely confused. It would seem that at least back then, I was intelligent but had minimal social issues. Now, my biggest problem is social issues.

Yet another thing for me to sort out in my quest to figure out where I got messed up. (Probably private school, from what I remember)

The article and the quotes from the book (that are in the article) sound like the words of an anxious parent desperately grasping at straws to prove to him/herself that his/her child is not autistic.

It seems fairly obvious to me that there are gifted people who don't have AS, but why put so much effort into cataloging all the possible differences? Is it so important to distinguish gifted NTs from the gifted people who do have AS? The whole tone of the article and book smacks of prejudice. (And many of the differences cited are not particularly accurate, since they insist that only people with the most obvious outward signs can have AS.)

It's easy enough to be both. But most Aspies are not gifted. What they do tend to have are specialist subjects and specific talents; and in those areas they are very, very good--as good as a gifted NT.

But even gifted Aspies have the jagged skill profile combined with the delays in various areas. Those things won't be present for a gifted NT.

Social isolation does not make Asperger's.There are a thousand reasons why you might be socially isolated; giftedness and AS are just two of many.

It is somewhat important to know which is which, because the gifted child with AS will need accommodations just like his non-gifted AS peers; and the non-gifted child with AS should not be put in classes for gifted children because his special interests/talents make him seem gifted, as the work outside those specific areas will be too hard and will frustrate him. Similarly, gifted kids without AS do not need and should not have a diagnosis; treating for something that isn't there will only take up time and effort that needn't have been spent.

G/T classes are generally made for NTs, in the first place, with the assumption that the people who attend them will be very good at pretty much everything. People who are very good at a few things and average at everything else, or even very good at most things and delayed in a few, may simply not fit into those classes very well, depending on their skills and the expectations placed on them.

Categorizing kids isn't nearly as important as evaluating each individual child and trying to figure out the best placement, though. Unusual arrangements can be made for unusual skill sets, like putting a child into a gifted class and pulling him out to a resource room in the case of simultaneous giftedness and impairment in different areas.

But schools have never been, and probably never will be, very good at teaching twice-exceptional kids. By their very nature, these kids have probably the most unique educational requirements of any, so that each one practically needs his own custom-designed curriculum. Schools are just not made to teach individual students like that.

the difference between "giftedness" and "asperger" is a public relations (PR) problem concerning rifts between our DNA.

here is proof.

I didn't know that I was different. I felt it, but I thought everyone felt different. I wrote a poem where I said, "Deep down we are alone," and NTs related to it.

I am gifted but there seem to be limitations. After going through the course work to learn how to make web sites. I want it to stay the way I learned it and get frustrated when programs change. Like if you played a sport and one day you show up to practice and they changed the rules. You wanted to spend your life practicing and developing a skill.

Yet other people seem to eagerly anticipate upgrades and thrive.

Asperger's people can be gifted while not all gifted have Asperger's. The way you can tell is by how the child (since, ideally, autism should be diagnosed in childhood before the child develops a personality) interacts with other kids. Lack of reciprocity can mean many things, including arguing and refusing to get along with peers. A "gifted" child doesn't have problems forming relationships with peers, while an Asperger's child does.

For me the difference was that if you put me in with gifted kids, I still stuck out like a sore thumb. That and the fact that I only once attained "gifted" level on testing. The other two were one somewhat high but not gifted and the other on the edge of the borderline MR range. And those happened in a decreasing over time way. The only other people I know who had very high IQs at some point in childhood and borderline or lower ones in adulthood were autistic. (And yes I've known several.)

I tested as gifted. I don't believe it. Gifted people can drive without having overloads, or communicate without coming across as a rabid angry wolverine even when they don't mean to because they are just trying to understand people.